Thread: "....first, do no harm"

I watched part of a movie with this title this past weekend. I caught about the last 30 minutes of it. It starred Meryl Streep and Fred Ward. The "guide" info intrigued me and I had 30 minutes to kill before my show was coming on, so I watched it.

"When the treatment her son is receiving doesn't work, a mother decides to try a controversial new diet to treat her epileptic son."

I knew as soon as I read that it was probably some form of low carb and it was! When I started watching, the boy was in the hospital and she was trying to sneak him out of there. She gets caught and a nurse warns her that the hospital could take her to court regarding the boy's care. So, she researches other treatments than what they are doing (they wanted to do brain surgery on him) and finds a new treatment being done at Johns Hopkins.

So, she and the nurse (who volunteers to go) and a family friend who's a doctor, take the little boy to JH and he begins his treatment by fasting for 2 days, then he starts eating a "ketogenic" diet. And it is very strict. Soon, he shows improvement and his seizures stopped.

When the credits rolled, they showed several people in the movie that were actual patients of the program at JH. Seems this "ketogenic diet" has helped hundreds of people recover from epilepsy. Some stay on the diet, and some return to "normal" diets.

WOW! This was based on a true story!

If low carb eating can basically "cure" GERD, acid reflux disease, PCOS, and diabetes....or at least lessen the symptoms, AND it can help control or eliminate epileptic seizures, maybe ALOT of diseases modern man is suffering from can be traced back to processed foods and empty carbs in the form of "white stuff" as Oprah calls it.

Has anyone else seen this movie or heard about the "Ketogenic Diet" to treat epilepsy? I found this facinating.

Back in 2003, one of the first websites I found on LC eating was by a nurse practioner who helps families with epileptic children understand about the ketogenic diet and offers guidance on how to help them manage their children's diets. It was one of the things that convinced me LC eating was safe, after reading so much negative press about it for years. If such a low carb diet is healthy for growing children, I felt confident it is healthy for adults, too.

wonderful!

I'm doing this to cure my RA which I was recently (Tuesday to be precise) diagnosed. I refuse to take all those horrendous drugs which don't cure but add to the condition!
Ann