How ketogenic diets help prevent seizures

A ketogenic diet—one that is high in fat and extremely low in carbohydrates—has been known for decades to reduce seizures in some epilepsy patients. But how the highly restrictive diet achieves these effects has not previously been understood. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have now shown in mice that the diet causes physical changes in brain cells, affecting how they send information to one another, dampening the strength of the signals between them. The paper is published in Cell Reports.