A slightly different podcast episode today to give an authentic human experience of what effect a ketogenic diet could have in certain circumstances – we’re talking with Alex Ash, a colleague of one of my best friends in America, who reached out to me a while ago wanting to share his personal experience with the use of a Ketogenic diet for his son’s medical condition.
Lennox-Gastaut syndrome (LGS) is a severe form of childhood epilepsy with multiple types of seizures and as you’ll hear, Alex and his partners experience has not been a straight forward one in the slightest.
For any of you listening with children, with or without a chronic condition, I just want to say from the outset that this episode could be triggering so I would exercise some caution if you do not want to listen.
Alex’s story has a positive ending but I understand this is not the case for a lot of people struggling with epilepsy and many other conditions. As a medical doctor I witness the daily battle many parents and carers have to endure for the sake of their loved ones.
As always, none of the information spoken about on today’s podcast is taken to be medical advice, always speak with your practitioner about changes to medication, dietary or supplement regimen.
And there are a few explanations for how the keto diet may yield an effect offered by Alex that are not technically accurate, but for the purposes of this special podcast I’ve chosen to completely unedit our conversation. If you’re interested in the more nuanced opinion of a practitioner I would listen to the previous podcast with Sue Wood that I’ve linked here for you.
I hope you enjoy listening to Alex tell Jachin’s story, it’s certainly hit home a lot of truths to me.
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I really do hope that you found this episode with Alex sharing his story of his young son as valuable and insightful as I did – very brave of Alex to come on here to talk to you all about his experiences and please do share the episode with anyone that you think might find it helpful.
As always, we would love to get your feedback – please leave any comments and your ratings on the apple podcasts – I try to read every single comment that is posted!
Some links that we wanted to share with you here on the podcast as supplementary information following the podcast that you might find of interest.
I was asked to join the podcast ostensibly to discuss my younger son, Jachin, and our experience treating his severe epilepsy with ketogenic diet.
Our story unfolded in the US where, until November 2019, we were living in Northern California. Jachin began having seizures in April 2018, although we suspect he had been suffering with seizures since being a baby. However, he continued to develop normally in terms of cognition, height and weight percentiles, motor skills, etc.
He was treated for seizures with multiple different medications, all of which greatly exacerbated his seizure disorder, causing new and more severe types to manifest in stepwise correlation to the titration of the drugs. The situation rapidly deteriorated by July 2019 by which time he was having ~100 seizures/day, and his cognitive faculties were disintegrating before our eyes.
After several ambulance trips to the ER, our lives turned upside down, we decided to place him on strict medical keto diet at a ration of 2.5:1. Within 2 weeks, his seizure count reduced to zero, and this has been maintained for the last 12 months. Aside from the seizure count, we have seen this incredible blossoming of our son as his brain has repaired. We have been able to wean him from 4 of his meds, with one more outstanding, and we hope to have weaned him from this last drug by December.
After struggling to find solutions – and be listened to – by conventional neurologists (Jachin was seen by 4 different neurologists at world-renowned Bay Area institutions such as Stanford and UCSF), we decided to move back to the UK. Jachin has been under the supervision of an incredible nutrition expert, Raj Bhachu of Sai Nutrition in NW London.
Our story truly demonstrates the power of food to heal, and underscores the limitations of conventional medical approaches.
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