Is the ketogenic diet effective for adults with refractory epilepsy?

  The child was born: She was born in January 1993, she was sick once when she was more than 2 years old, she had a cold and fever of nearly 40 degrees, the fever did not go down for 3 days, she used all kinds of methods, but finally got well, and there were no other symptoms afterwards. She was in good health until she was 7 years old, and she rarely got a cold, and even if she did, she got better with some medicine.  When she was 8 years old, one night at 10:00 pm, she fell asleep and suddenly her arms and legs were moving around, so she was quickly taken to the hospital, where she was given mannitol and other medications. The next morning, she had another episode in the hospital and rolled her eyes upward. The doctor didn’t say what the disease was, because we had never seen this before and didn’t know it was a powerful disease, so we didn’t go for a review after she got better.  The child was diagnosed with epilepsy and the tortuous road to medical treatment: It was only when we noticed that she sometimes dropped her chopsticks when eating and sometimes froze up that we took her for a checkup. At that time, she underwent various tests, such as MRI, cerebral angiography, brain parasite monitoring, etc. She was diagnosed with cerebral hypoplasia at Tiantan Hospital. After that, she went to many hospitals to receive treatment, and used sodium valproate, Dextran, Kep, and phenobarbital, but she never had complete control. In 2009, she went to a teacher training school, and because of her vanity and embarrassment to take medication, she had a grand mal seizure at the end of 2009 and was hospitalized for 10 days. The results were not good.  I decided to seek surgical treatment and found Prof. Wang Kaiyan for pre-surgical evaluation. I was advised by Prof. Kaiyan Wang to try the ketogenic diet.  The beginning of ketogenic diet: May 13, 2014 started with modified ketogenic diet, 2:1, four meals a day. May 19, 2014 morning from home test urine occult blood and protein and glucose and ketone bodies are normal, May 20 and 21 two days of urine ketones are three plus abnormal, but after asking Dr. Wang Mann is fine, 22 urine ketones three plus. May 26. On the 26th of May, he took RICOTENE three times a day, one tablet each time, and Tylenol for mild fever and headache.  On June 17, she was dizzy at 20:15 pm, she wanted to sit down but her legs were not dominated, she was weak, she was conscious, the rest was normal, it lasted for about half a minute, on June 22, at breakfast, her left hand was unconscious, the cookie fell on the floor for about a minute, the patient reported herself. On the morning of July 2, while brushing her teeth, she suddenly became weak in her limbs and was unconscious, and after a minute she slowed down and was held to prevent her from falling. on August 19, while brushing her teeth, her brother scared her and sat down on the floor by herself in fear, conscious without other symptoms.  On the night of October 5, she joked with her brother and fell down accidentally, and fell on her head. On October 13, during lunch, I was dizzy, my body slumped down, and my feet overturned other chairs.  January 15, 2015 at 4:45 pm suddenly fainted, a little headache, two arms are fine, both legs weak on the ground, there is a minute, she said conscious but can not support. After 20 minutes felt a little dizzy, had a fever and cold for a week before.  On the evening of March 18, she felt dizzy and weak in her limbs while brushing her teeth, and sat on the floor with weakness in both legs.  In the morning of May 13, she became dizzy, had noise in both ears, and could not hear others clearly, for about a minute. At 20:00 of the same night, she felt dizzy and her head fell forward to the ground for one minute.  It is very important to review after ketogenesis: EEG in the afternoon of August 31, 2015 at Deji Hospital, ultrasound and blood count and blood glucose and blood ketones and lipids on September 1, with slightly low white blood cells and a small amount of fluid in the pelvis, (probably for menstrual reasons). On December 2, I changed from 2:1 ketogenic diet to 3:1, four meals a day, the first three meals are according to the recipe, the fourth meal is a box of milk and four cookies at 21:00 pm.  Summary after 1 year of ketogenic diet treatment: From May 13, 2014 to August 19, 2015, more than a year of time, no major seizures, a total of more than a dozen minor seizures, but several times is the head awake, the heart understands, shouting she knows, just can not control themselves, this may be a small progress since the ketogenic bar. The reason for the minor seizures may be due to the flu or vacation, but other than the seizures during this period, the rest of the time the mental state is still normal.  No seizures after 15 months of ketogenic: No seizures since August 19, 2015, and her mental state is good. The child is now taking the following medications: one capsule of valproate in the morning and one capsule in the evening, 3 capsules of Toltea in the morning and one capsule of Oxcarbazepine in the evening, which is a combination of 3 medications, plus ketogenic food therapy. Now her situation is very normal, urine ketone has been stable at 4+, does not look like a patient at all, slow reflection, eyes dazed these symptoms are basically gone, simple meals can be done, usually at home to play the piano (already the piano grade 10), learn to study, dry housework, ready to go to work after the New Year. I hope that the majority of epilepsy patients and their families will have firm confidence and believe that we will overcome the disease.