–In the video clip above, Dr. Dominic D’Agostino sheds some light on how the ketogenic diet can be working to help manage epilepsy–
“Our brains have a balance of excitatory neurotranmitters Glutamate and GABA. And we actually make more glutamate on a ketogenic diet but we also make more glutamic acid decarboxylase , which is the enzyme that converts glutamate *which is hyper excitatory and may cause anxiety in some people* to Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) which is a brain stabilizing calming neurotransmitter and, like the gabba-A receptor is a chloride channel, when it opens If you’re in a state of ketosis GABA to glutamate ratio is higher, we know that. And it’s not insignificant, It’s like 2-3 times higher. And that’s probably the anti-seizure/neuroprotective effect of the ketogenic diet is probably heavily associated with an elevation of gabba and a decrease of glutamate”
Ketogenic diets have been used to treat epilepsy for over 100 years. It was the standard of care treatment back in the 1920’s before big pharma came out with drugs to treat epilepsy. These drugs however do not come without their toll of unwanted side effects and not all people or dogs, respond to these drugs. Ketogenic diets are a no harm method of trying to mitigate epilepsy .
“Seizures also can be caused by a general imbalance between excitatory neurotransmitters like glutamate that trigger nerves to fire and inhibitory nerotransmitters like GABA that stop nerves from firing (Powell et al., ) Standard drug treatments for epilepsy act on the ion channels, blocking more ions from entering the neuron and thereby preventing the nerve from firing, or balancing the neurotransmitters” (Powell et al., 2014)
The ketogenic diet targets multiple mechanisms that may be the cause of impaired neuronal firing (Yudkoff et al., 2007) Data shows that the ketone bodies acetoacetate (AcAc) and acetone have anticonvulsant effects. AcAc has been shown to impair the release of glutamate in neurons (Judge et al ., 2010) . Too much glutamate is associated with neurological disorders. It has also been suggested that ketone bodies may increase the synthesis of GABA. The net result would be a decrease in the probability of an unpredictable excitatory event, such as a seizure, occurring in the future (Yudkoff et al., 2007) Additionally, research indicates that ketone bodies may activate potassium (K+) channels (Bough et al., 2007) K+ has a positive charge that leaks out of the neuron, thereby reducing the positive charge inside the cell causing it to be hyper polarized. The result is increased difficulty in depolarizing the neurons and therefore a decreased likelihood of seizure (Bough et al., 2007)
In addition to the general benefits of ketones, a ketogenic diet may have anticonvulsant effects because it lowers blood glucose
It is thought that a neurons capacity to trigger activity is highly dependent on glucose, so a general restriction of glucose may limit a neuron’s ability to reach and maintain the high levels of synaptic* activity necessary for seizures to occur (Bough et al., 2007, Greene et al.,2003)
We’ve seen many dogs in our Ketogenic Dog Group respond very well to using a properly formulated Ketogenic diet to help manage their epilepsy. some examples can be read here
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