ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 2, 1996 TAG: 9604020034
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 3 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Health Notes
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
Can diet control epileptic seizures in young children?
In some children, yes, says The Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore.
Johns Hopkins for many years has guided parents in the use of the ketogenic diet for children who have not found relief from seizures with more common treatments. The diet is not a high-profile treatment, but a recent national television show on one family's success with it renewed interest in it.
After the program aired, more than 400 people called Johns Hopkins for more information, said a spokeswoman for the Baltimore center. At least one of the families wanting to know more about the diet reads this newspaper and suggested that this column tell parents more about the diet.
So, here goes.
The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, very low-carbohydrate diet that might help children who have more than two seizures per week despite treatment with at least two different anticonvulsant medications.
The diet is recommended, notes literature from Johns Hopkins, when the frequency of seizures, despite medications, interferes with the child's ability to function or when the medications themselves cause substantial adverse reactions.
The diet is not used for adults, and no one knows why it works in children.
What is known is that when you fast, your body produces ketosis, because the body is unable to completely burn fat it uses for energy. If the body has no glucose or other carbohydrates to burn, it will burn ketone bodies, and somehow that controls seizures in some children.
The high-fat diet simulates the biochemical changes of starvation and causes the body to create ketones. And the lack of carbohydrates makes the body use them.
About 70 percent of the children treated this way get some relief from seizures; some great relief, said a children's center spokeswoman. About 30 percent find after a month or so that the diet won't help.
The diet, which is begun in the hospital, is tedious for child and parent and not entered into lightly. For anyone interested, the first step is to learn more about it, and there are two ways to do that.
A free video on the diet can be ordered from The Charlie Foundation at (800) 367-5386. The book, "The Epilepsy Diet Treatment: An Introduction to the Ketogenic Diet," is available by calling (800) 532-8663. Prostate convention
There's a convention for everything else, so why not one for prostate health? Although the prostate gland is a male thing, anyone interested in information about it or the treatment of disease in the gland is invited to the Baltimore Convention Center on April 14.
The health of the prostate gland, which during ejaculation secretes an alkaline fluid that forms part of the semen, will be the subject of talks, exhibits and free tests from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. This first gathering of The Prostate Society will launch Prostate Awareness Week in Maryland, said Andrew Jackson Graham, the retired lawyer who is chairman of the convention.
More than 40,000 men likely will die from prostate cancer this year. But, found early, it is treatable, and that is the message the 4-year-old group is hammering away at, Graham said.
Speakers for the day are coming from the University of Maryland Medical Center, Maryland General Hospital and The National Institutes of Health.
By calling (410) 859-3735, men can reserve a seat at the convention and get a number that can be used to make appointments for free prostate tests that day, Graham said.
Prostate news a little closer to home: Clinical trials of medications to treat prostate conditions are under way at Lewis-Gale Clinic in Salem and at Massey Cancer Center at Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia.
Lewis-Gale is seeking men who have been diagnosed with a noncancerous enlarged prostate or who have symptoms of the condition - frequent and difficult urination - for a study for SmithKline Beecham. For more information, call 772-3676.
The Massey center in Richmond needs men older than 55 without a diagnosis of prostate cancer or other serious illness but who do have significant prostate enlargement for a National Cancer Institute-sponsored Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial. Massey is especially interested in men who have a family history of prostate cancer and blacks because prostate cancer is more common in that ethnic group. To get more information on this, call (804) 371-5090.
For general information about prostate cancer and its treatments, call the National Cancer Institute Cancer Information Service at (800) 422-6237, Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.
Wise health
Our employers and our insurance companies, even our friends, admonish us to make our own health decisions. But sometimes we don't know what is the smartest thing to do. On April 25, Dr. James Holman of Roanoke will give some tips on "Being a Wise Health Care Consumer."
Holman, senior vice president for medical affairs at Carilion Health System and a practicing physician, will speak at 7 p.m. at Roanoke Memorial Hospital's Rehabilitation Center Auditorium on South Jefferson Street. The program is free and will last an hour. You can let the hospital know you're coming by calling 981-7641 or (800) 422-8482.
You can reach Sandra Kelly at 981-3393 or through e-mail at skelly2180@AOL.COM
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