"Let your food be your medicine and let your medicine be your food." In an age where medical care is heavily dominated by prescription drugs that kill over 100,000 people every year, perhaps it's time to take some advice from Hippocrates, who understood the medicinal power of food. One of the best-known dietary treatment plans is the ketogenic diet, which has been implemented to treat children and adolescents with intractable epilepsy for nearly a century. Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by recurrent, unprovoked seizures. It is estimated that over two million people in the United States currently suffer from epilepsy, and many of these cases originate in infancy and childhood. For many with epilepsy, antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) are sufficient to control seizures. However, many patients taking antiepileptic drugs experience serious side effects, and for others, the drugs have minimal effect when it comes to controlling seizures. For children who fall into this category, the ketogenic diet may be a valid alternative. The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet that has an anticonvulsant effect in many children and adolescents with epilepsy. Typically, the body breaks down carbohydrates into glucose, which is then used to fuel cellular respiration in our body. When the body lacks sufficient glucose to meet the body's energy needs, fatty acids in the mitochondria of liver cells undergo beta-oxidation, in which they are broken down into acetyl CoA molecules. Through a series of reactions known as ketogenesis, acetyl CoA is converted into ketone bodies, high-energy molecules that have the unique ability to cross the mitochondrial membrane and blood-brain barriers, making them a good source... middle of paper.. Strongly charged sodium ions flow out of the neuron for every two positively charged potassium ions in the cell, thus resulting in a net change in charge within the neuron of -1 for each enzyme pump. As the pump transports ions against their concentration gradient to return the neuron to its resting potential, the pump requires ATP. Without the ATP needed to repolarize the neuron, the membrane potential cannot return to its stabilized state. Increased levels of phosphocreatine and glutamate allow for greater ATP production in the mitochondria of neurons. One of the functions of ATP is to power sodium-potassium pumps that work to stabilize the membrane potential in neurons. By stabilizing this membrane potential, neurons can maintain ion level homeostasis for a longer period of time, thus improving the neurons' resistance to metabolic stress.