Ketogenic Diet and Metabolic Therapies ─ Expanded Roles in Health and Disease

Ketogenic diets have been used to successfully treat epilepsy and stop seizures for nearly a century. When more traditional therapies, such as pharmacology, reach their limitations for treatment, the metabolic approach surpasses, targeting the overall physiology and homeostatic functions of the patient.

Ketogenic Diet and Metabolic Therapies is the first comprehensive scientific resource on the ketogenic diet, covering the latest research including the biomedical mechanisms, established and emerging applications, metabolic alternatives, and implications for health and disease. Experts in clinical and basic research share their research into mechanisms spanning from ion channels to epigenetics, their insights based on decades of experience with the ketogenic diet in epilepsy, and their evidence for emerging applications ranging from autism to Alzheimer's disease to brain cancer. Research in metabolic therapies has spread into laboratories and clinics of every discipline, and is yielding to entirely new classes of drugs and treatment regimens.

The book's editor, Susan A. Masino, brings her unique expertise in clinical and research neurology to the overall scope of this work. To further enhance the scope and quality of this one of a kind book, section editors Eric Kossoff, Jong Rho, Detlev Boison, and Dominic P. D'Agostino lend their oversight on their respective sections.

Susan A. Masino is the Vernon Roosa Professor of Applied Science at Trinity College. Her research is focused on adenosine, an endogenous molecule that promotes homeostasis and links between metabolism and brain activity. In 2008 she proposed that adenosine is a key mechanism underlying ketogenic diet therapy; based on this, her research spans multiple conditions. Dr. Masino is also dedicated to educational, environmental and public policy issues affecting brain health.