Month: October 2016

We’ve gotten into such a good groove lately with the Keto Diet that I have to remind myself just how much of a balancing act it is for Drake to stay in ketosis. Every day that passes has thankfully, so far, been another ataxia-free day and another day of his brain growing and flourishing. The daily routine of eating keto meals and taking various vitamins has enabled Drake to be our awesome, fun-loving, lego-building, bike-riding, TaeKwonDo-kicking crazy-cool kid. It is also a reminder of how much of a balancing act it is for him to stay on the knife-edge of ketosis.

It is a fine line he has to walk. On one hand he has to eat enough fat to obtain and stay in steady ketosis. But if he eats too much fat he is in danger of ketoacidosis; which if left unchecked and becomes severe, requires hospitalization and can be life threatening. Then, on the other hand if Drake eats too many carbs and sugar, or crazily eats too much protein (which the body can turn into glucose) or too many calories, which can interfere with ketosis, he can get low-blood-sugar (Hypoglycemia) and become shaky and weak or get knocked out of ketosis altogether. Continue reading “It’s a Fine Line”

The Charlie Foundation had its yearly symposium in Banff, Canada a few weeks ago and it reminded me just how much everyone on the Ketogenic diet owes this foundation for making this fringe form of treatment for epilepsy visible and available again. We want to personally thank The Charlie Foundation for opening the floodgates and raising awareness of the Ketogenic Diet as a treatment for not just epilepsy, but also for Glut1 DS and other metabolic and genetic disorders

Like Charlie Abrahams, my son Drake will be on the diet long term. He won’t be able to wean off of it after two or three years like the majority of epilepsy kids. This is it. Self denial will have to be a permanent facet of his personality. But we feel lucky that we are doing this “special diet” in 2016, twenty-two years after this Dateline Special.

This Dateline Special from 1994, of the Abrahams family, is the first time many people had heard of the Ketogenic diet. For the first time in four decades the Ketogenic diet had publicity! Continue reading “History of the Ketogenic Diet”