A study (to be published in June 2008) by a team of neurologists at the University College London recently completed the first randomized trial of a controversial high-fat diet that has been used to treat children with epilepsy. The study of 145 children confirmed that a high-fat diet is an effective treatment for epileptic seizures in children, reducing the frequency of seizures by up to 90%.

This work provides solid evidence that " lays to rest the issue of ‘Does it really work or not?’" (1), according to Dr. Shlomo Shinnar, the director of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Management Center at the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. Dr. Shlomo's comment addresses the fact that although high-fat diets have been used to treat epilepsy since the 1920s, it has previously been dismissed by many doctors as a "marginal alternative therapy" (1).