Dietary treatments for epilepsy other than the ketogenic diet.

The prospect that epilepsy might be controlled, at least partially, by dietary intake is radical but highly appealing. The ketogenic diet (KD) is the best-known and most wellstudied dietary treatment for epilepsy, but it is by no means the only nutritional intervention touted to reduce seizures. As noted by Sieveking (quoted in ref. 1, p. 1366), numerous food substances to cure epilepsy have been tried over the course of human history. However, aside from the KD, no dietary treatment has met widespread acceptance or success. Human consumption of several specific substances can be shown to later incorporate into neuronal membranes and affect their function. Therefore, at least theoretically, dietary approaches to a disorder of neuronal hyperexcitability such as epilepsy could be feasible. However, aside from the KD, the role of diet in epilepsy has received scant attention.