Glycemic index treatment using Japanese foods in a girl with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome.

Abstract

We introduced a low glycemic index treatment using Japanese ethnic foods to a 13-year-old girl with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome caused by tuberous sclerosis complex. She had previously refused the modified Atkins diet within 2 weeks of diet treatment because of its restrictiveness. The low glycemic index treatment was implemented by limiting the daily carbohydrate intake to 50 g of foods with a glycemic index of less than 50 relative to that of glucose, which included udon, soba, and unpolished Japonica rice with natto. One month after the initiation of the diet therapy, the clusters of tonic seizures for 30 to 60 minutes during sleep were reduced from two or three times per week to once or twice per month, and the frequent myoclonic seizures in the awake state disappeared. She has been on the diet therapy for more than 1 year, and the efficacy of the diet has been sustained. Low glycemic index treatment should be considered for patients with medication-resistant epilepsy who cannot tolerate restrictive diet therapies. Japanese ethnic foods can be used for this diet therapy.

• Authors: Tomohiro Kumada, Ikuko Hiejima, Fumihito Nozaki, Anri Hayashi, Tatsuya Fujii
• Journal: Pediatric neurology (Pediatr Neurol) Vol. 48 Issue 5 Pg. 390-2 (May 2013) ISSN: 1873-5150 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 23583057 (Publication Type: Case Reports, Journal Article)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• Dietary Carbohydrates

Topics

• Adolescent
• Diet, Carbohydrate-Restricted
• Dietary Carbohydrates
• Electroencephalography
• Female
• Food
• Glycemic Index
• Humans
• Intellectual Disability (diet therapy)
• Japan
• Lennox Gastaut Syndrome
• Oryza
• Seizures (diet therapy, epidemiology)
• Spasms, Infantile (diet therapy)
• Tuberous Sclerosis (complications)
• Unconsciousness (etiology)