Bangalore-headquartered British Biologicals has introduced Ketokid, a cost-effective therapy that holds abundant hope for epileptic patients. The company is the manufacturer of ketogenic diet, which is effective in reducing seizure frequency in children.
Six-year-old Aditya Nadkarni of Mumbai was diagnosed with paediatric epilepsy within months of his birth. The boy’s parents admitted the child to Mumbai’s Hinduja Hospital and he was operated upon, but the disease raised its ugly head within months, affecting the child. His worried parents rushed back to the hospital for a course of ketogenic diet. By age three, the boy was like any other of his age — full of energy and free of all drugs albeit with some speech difficulties.
The Hinduja Hospital team headed by Dr Vrajesh Udani, who treated Aditya, says the ketogenic diet is effective in reducing seizure frequency in children. The programme, started in 1997, has seen the diet being administered to more than 130 children with good results. Some 60 per cent of the patients treated with the ketogenic diet were able to achieve 50 per cent or more reduction in seizure frequency. Of these, half had their fits reduced by more than 90 per cent.
VS Reddy, Founder and Managing Director, British Biologicals says, “Ketokid helps epileptic patients lead a normal lifestyle. In fact, to this end, we offer free services of nutritionists and dieticians to all doctors and hospitals treating children through ketogenic diet.”
Leading paediatric neurosurgeon Dr Vykunta Raju KN, an assistant professor at Bangalore’s Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health, says, “Ketogenic diet, which is recently brought out by British Biologicals as Ketokid, is useful in treating patients with refractory epilepsy. This diet helps in controlling seizures and allows many children to become both seizure-free and drug-free.”
This view is endorsed by another leading paediatric neurosurgeon Dr Mahesh Kamate. He says: “Ketogenic diet is a safe and effective option in managing and treating epilepsy among infants and children. Even in ICU care, the ketogenic diet can be used to control refractory seizures. The diet is highly cost effective when compared with other anti-epileptic drugs.”
Ketokid works in the following ways: Ketogenic diet mimics starvation by producing ketosis; Then, ketosis is maintained through high fat, adequate protein and low carbohydrate diet; The degree of ketosis could be modified by adjusting the amount of fat; For instance, a 5:1 (fat:non-fat) diet will result in greater ketosis than a 2:1 diet.
Ketogenic diet for treatment of epilepsy was revived by Dr H Keith from the Mayo Clinic and Dr Freeman from the John Hopkins Hospital. Since then, several centres all over the world have started using it and the British Biologicals is the first and the only Indian company to manufacture Ketokid based on ketogenic formula for the Indian market.
EH News Bureau
- Advertisement -
