News & Events

These posts cover any ketogenic diet-related news or events.

KetoCal Supports Rare Disease Day 2015!

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KetoCal is a medical food used by individuals with intractable epilepsy who are on a ketogenic diet. Within the category of intractable epilepsy, there are many different seizure disorders, many of which are rare diseases. KetoCal is also used by individuals with rare metabolic disorders that are managed with a ketogenic diet, including GLUT1 Deficiency Syndrome and Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Deficiency (PDHD). Many individuals in our KetoCal community are living with rare disease, so we wanted to take this opportunity to show our support for Rare Disease Day 2015! rdd-logo

Below is a list of just some of the rare diseases within the ketogenic diet community. Please note that this list contains only the rare diseases that we are aware of from talking with caregivers and healthcare providers of individuals living with these diseases; If we are missing one that is important to you, please let us know. If you get a chance, please take a moment to click on the links to learn more about these rare conditions.

Rare Disease Day 2015 is on February 28th. To learn more about Rare Disease Day, and how to get involved, visit http://www.rarediseaseday.org/.

Rare Disease: Numbers: Learn more:
GLUT1 Deficiency Syndrome About 500 cases have been diagnosed worldwide http://www.g1dfoundation.org/
Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Deficiency (PDHD) Several hundred cases reported https://www.rarediseases.org/rare-disease-information/rare-diseases/byID/413/viewFullReport
Myoclonic-Astatic Epilepsy (Doose Syndrome) Estimated 1 in 10,000 http://doosesyndrome.org/
Tuberous Sclerosis Complex Estimated 1 in 10,000 http://www.tsalliance.org/pages.aspx?content=2
Rett Syndrome Estimated 1 in 10,000 females (very rare in males) https://www.rettsyndrome.org
Severe Myoclonic Epilepsy of Infancy (Dravet Syndrome) Estimated 1 in 30,000 http://www.dravetfoundation.org/
Infantile Spasms (West Syndrome) Estimated 2-3.5 in 10,000 http://www.infantilespasmsinfo.org/index.php
Lennox-Gaustaut Syndrome Estimated  1 in 50,000-100,000 http://www.lgsfoundation.org/
Angelman Syndrome Estimated 1 in 15,000 http://www.angelman.org/
Landau Kleffner Syndrome Unknown http://www.epilepsy.com/learn/types-epilepsy-syndromes/landau-kleffner-syndrome
Alternating Hemiplegia of Childhood Estimated 1 in 1,000,000 http://ahckids.org/ or http://cureahc.org/
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2015 Epilepsy and Ketogenic Diet-Related Event Calendar

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2015 CalendarFor today’s blog post, we created a calendar of epilepsy and ketogenic diet-related events taking place throughout 2015. This includes various conferences, fundraisers and patient group awareness days. These are only the events that we are aware of, so we hope that you can help us add on to this calendar. If we are missing your group’s event, please let us know so that we can include it. Please add a comment below this post or send us an email at myketocal@nutricia.com.

January

February

March

April

  • Keto University (for dietitians)
    April 27th– 29th
    San Diego, CA

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

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Keto Highlights of 2014

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2014 Highlights

As we finish the final days of 2014, today’s KetoConnect blog post looks back at the highlights of 2014 for the ketogenic diet community.

International Conference:

The highlight event of 2014 was undoubtedly the International Symposium on Dietary Therapies for Epilepsy & other Neurological Disorders, which was hosted by Matthew’s Friends in Liverpool, England. Around 270 healthcare professionals, scientists, and parents attended the first International Symposium on Dietary Therapies for Epilepsy & Other Neurological Disorders, which was held in 2008 in Phoenix, AZ. This year’s symposium had nearly double the attendance with roughly 500 attendees from 27 different countries.

Global Growth:

The use of the ketogenic diet continued to expand geographically in 2014. As mentioned in the paragraph above, this year’s International Symposium had attendees from 27 different countries! In the August 2014 issue of Keto News, Dr. Eric Kossoff discussed the global growth of the ketogenic diet, which is now offered in at least 60 countries!

More Research:

Research interest in the ketogenic diet has increased tremendously in recent years and the trend continued into 2014. There were more scientific articles on the ketogenic diet published in 2014 than ever before. The graph below shows the steadily increasing number of publications on the ketogenic diet, with a whopping 172 articles published in 2014 (along with 13 articles e-published ahead of print in 2015)! As Dr. Eric Kossoff discussed in his recent Keto News article, there has never been more research interest in the ketogenic diet. It is a very exciting time for our community!

Source: Pubmed.gov

Source: Pubmed.gov

Increased Online Interest:

In addition to the trend for increasing research interest, there is also a trend for increasing online interest in the ketogenic diet. Google Trends allows you to compare online interest in certain topics over time based on how many people search the Web for that topic. As you can see from this graph comparing online search trends over the last 10 years (below), there were many people searching for the ketogenic diet online in 2014!

Source: Google Trends

Source: Google Trends

Loss of Dr. John Friedman:

The ketogenic diet community mourned the loss of Dr. John Freeman in 2014. Dr. Freeman was an internationally renowned neurologist from Johns Hopkins University who revived the use of the ketogenic diet for epilepsy. Dr. Freeman’s contributions live on in the many patients that he helped.

New Keto Ambassador Program:

Nutricia North America launched a new “Keto Ambassador” program in 2014, connecting expert ketogenic dietitians with less experienced dietitians for support and guidance. In 2015, the Keto Ambassadors will host the first ever “Keto University” for dietitians!

 

For more 2014 highlights from our friends across the pond in the UK, check out the 2014 project summary from Matthew’s Friends.

Happy New Year, everyone! We’ll see you in 2015.

-Mallory

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