My father, who has since passed away, was an epileptic (I believe idiopathic epilepsy). I never witnessed any of his grand mal seizures, but he did have two – three in his lifetime — they had stopped for him after being prescribed Dilantin. He would often ‘space out’ while in a conversation or sitting down in the kitchen, and would start to rub his hand in circles on whatever was around (be it a table, his leg, etc.). On two occasions, over one year apart, my father wanted my brother and I to help him eat healthier after he saw my 120 lb weight loss. He decided both times to eat only raw nuts, fruit, dried fruit, and vegetables. Within 3 days this ‘spacing out’ had completely stopped along with his normal habit of talking in his sleep. His eczema and keratosis pilaris started to disappear within a week, his arthritis improved, his stuttering had lessened, and he did overall did look much healthier.

On both occasions the diet only lasted about 2 weeks before he was tempted to go back to his old way of eating, and thus returned the suspected petit mal seizures, stuttering, and eczema. I did not suspect the possibility of petit mal seizures until I had been reading a book on dietary intolerance, allergy,  and hypersensitivities, and read that in some cases seizures can be induced by food allergy or hypersensitivity. After some research into epilepsy, I realized my father had the exact symptoms of petit mal or absence seizures. An example: one day I had my father’s car and was driving back home – he was waiting to cross the road with the lawn tractor to get to the gas station nearby. I parked the car next to him and opened the window to tell him I was back home. He didn’t seem to realize I had parked his own car right next to him, even though I was only about 3 feet away; so I started to yell, and he still didn’t notice I was there. Suddenly he lost all obliviousness and crossed the road after about 10 seconds waiting. I’m very certain he did have absence seizures, but they went undiagnosed or unnoticed because he was so old (67), and it seems to be more uncommon for adults to have absence seizures. This wasn’t isolated to his older age, but went on since I can remember.

So far what I’ve gathered about epilepsy and diet:

Idiopathic epilepsy, or epilepsy without a known cause, such as a tumor, or what might develop after head trauma, seems to be the most responsive to ketogenic diets when compared to other types of epilepsy. Fasting was found to be a ‘cure’ for epilepsy, and the ketogenic diet has proven to be as effective, especially for those who do not respond to other treatment. Ketogenic diets are believed to reduce epileptic fit frequency because one of the ketone bodies, acetone, has been proven to be an anticonvulsant in animal studies. I believe there is a misunderstanding. Ketogenic diets  are masked elimination diets. Most major allergens are cut out – wheat, oats, almost all grains, sugar, dairy, refined foods and additives, etc. It seems to be common that many people who develop dietary hypersensitivities can reintroduce the food after 6-12 months without it and not have any problems, so long as it is not eaten with great frequency or every day. The same goes for ketogenic diets — it can be that within 12-24 months carbohydrates are slowly re-introduced with success in some. Carbohydrates are not introduced alone, because these ‘carbohydrates’ are also possible allergens, and if not allergens, foods that could cause a psuedo allergy or hypersensitivity reaction, which are not necessarily testable or provable.

There also seems to be a higher frequency of secondary conditions in those with epilepsy, including eczema, migraines, stuttering, and others. The connection between stuttering and epilepsy is interesting to me, especially the connection to diet. I never had expected that my father’s lifelong stuttering would be affected by removing some foods, and never even thought the possibility existed that they were somehow connected. I have food allergies myself. I am allergic to dairy (also lactose intolerant), tomatoes, cacao, strawberries, chicken, and turkey flesh; and on top of that, I have many other sensitivities that are not provable through testing. Apples give me severe nausea, for instance, but only when raw. When cooked, apples or apple juice are something I tolerate very well. Considering that my father also had cystic acne when he was young, and my cystic acne was cured with the complete removal of dairy alone, and psoriasis/eczema seem to be connected largely to a dairy allergy or intolerance in many people, it seems to be very possible that my father also had food allergies that were not very clear or tested for, and his epilepsy/stuttering/eczema were in fact of dietetic origin. If not caused by food, it at the very least had something to do with worsening his condition.

To anybody who is epileptic and has experimented with diet: I would  be happy to listen to what you have to say or think over this.