http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1211/21112012-New-ketogenic-treatment-for-epilepsy-Walker
“Epilepsy affects 50 million people worldwide and
one third are not adequately controlled by current treatments.” Recently in London, researchers have
discovered that new drugs have the potential to control seizures in children
and adults that are highly resistant to other antiepileptic drugs. They are hoping this discovery will be a
replacement to the ketogenic diet, which is usually prescribed to children
with severe drug resistant but tends to have bad side effects because the diet
“mimics starvation”. Although the diet is
effective in treating drug resistant epileptic patients, it causes side effects
including hypoglycaemia, retarded growth and bone fractures.
They have
determined medium chain fatty acids are effective in controlling epilepsy. They are hoping to create a pill that would
resemble the ketogenic diet, but be a
beneficial replacement to it without causing the serious side effects.
This is an interesting approach to treating
epilepsy. I am curious to see if they
will be able to make this drug work effectively without causing bad side effects. It is evident more tests need to be
conducted. What are your thoughts about this?
I need to read more about the ketogenic diet. How can they create a pill that mimics the ketogenic diet when the ketogenic doet mimics starvation? A pill that mimics starvation? That sounds very strange. I wonder if that would keep them hungry all the time regardless of how much they eat, which could lead to obesity.
ReplyDeleteMatthew - The ketogenic diet forces the body to burn fats instead of carbohydrates. The key to the diet is to intake adequate protein. It seems to me that although it mimics starvation you would not feel hungry since you are still intaking an adequate amount of food. Also, a side effect of the ketogenic diet is decreased weight gain (not often weight loss). It seems to make since that if your not losing weight then there is a good chance that you wont be hungry. The ketogenic is kind of a last resort treatment and I think that is what this new treatment will be as well, but without all the negative side effects such as high cholesterol, kidney stones, and growth slowing.
ReplyDeleteI think this is an interesting area of research that needs a lot more studies to be conducted. The idea of this pill mimicking the ketogenic diet is very interesting however I see another aspect of this article that caught my eye. For one, these fatty acids they have identified are claimed to have outperformed the old drug in controlling seizures with the benefit of fewer side effects. This sounds like a decent claim except no where does the article mention specific facts derived from studies or experiments that demonstrate the improved performance of this new drug. The professor mentioned in the article also mentions that their study is using simple amoeba to “initially screen and identify improved treatments”. I am curious as to how reliable using an amoeba is when we are studying the effects of these drugs to use on humans. Animals are typically used in research on epilepsy and regardless if you believe it is ethical or not, there are benefits of using animals that are similar to humans when studying epilepsy. I am unsure how effective using a simple amoeba is because of how simple of a life form it is. What does everyone else think?
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty exiting news to me because I have epilepsy, and my seizures have only recently been controlled. I had to try out several drugs before I found the right combination and dosage that worked. This took a couple of years, as I'm sure it does with a lot of epileptics, so you can imagine how frustrating that process is. I've looked into the ketogenic diet and do believe it is effective, but just like any other diet, it is probably hard for many people to follow. If this new drug really does mimic the ketogenic diet without the bad side effects, then I think it will be a huge breakthrough. Kierstan-I see what you mean about using an amoeba when studying the effects. Epilepsy is so complex and an amoeba is so simple. But it is just the initial screening, so with further tests and clinical trials I think it could be a good start. This pill seems promising, but I wonder if the foods that are eaten in conjunction with it will effect how well it works. Do you guys think the level of fat/carb intake will relate to the effectiveness?
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting study but i would like to see some actual testing on these drugs. It is a great idea to make these components that are essential in combating epilepsy into pill form because following a ketogenic diet could become costly. Not only costly by way of money, but also costly on the patients health since the diet calls for a lot of fats, medium amounts of proteins, and very low carbs.
ReplyDelete