I received a wonderful message today about an article I wrote and compiled about 4 years ago which appeared in Natural News:
"Hi Tony, I wanted to thank you for the dietary suggestions you made for people with epilepsy. My daughter has benefited tremendously from the diet in the natural news.com article you wrote. Do you know where we could get more detailed information regarding the diet to reduce seizures? My daughter has gone from having 2 to 3 per day, to having 1 to 2 per week! This is miraculous for her. Our goal is to get rid of them completely. Thank You." - S. Harris
If you do the math, an average of 2 to 3 seizures per day reduced to 1 to 2 per week is over 90% fewer seizures.
Folks, hearing good news like that is what keeps me and my partner Luella May going!
In case you are interested, the title of the article was:
"Diet and Epilepsy - Natural Help for a Vexing Problem"
It is a fairly lengthy article and an even longer version is found on our website:
http://www.tbyil.com/epilepsy.htm
As the website version notes, much of the material in the article came from one of my very favorite reference books, Phyllis Balch's "Prescription for Nutritional Healing", which contains even more information on natural things to do for epilepsy than my article.
My article she referred to specifically warns AGAINST the ketagenic diet for epilepsy. Despite reports of success and a long history of use - and Meryl Streep's movie to the contrary - there are also reports of problems (including deaths) and several of it's features run counter to what others recommend for a diet that helps with epilepsy. Even the proponents of the diet admit that it is not user friendly, is not suitable for all children and that children who are on the diet should be monitored very carefully by professionals who are aware of its risks and complications.