Could sugar substitute stop seizures?

A sweet compound called 2DG could be a key ingredient in stopping and preventing seizures.
The compound, which doctors have used in medical scanning and cancer imaging for many years, may one day be used to treat patients with epilepsy. In a study at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, researchers used 2DG to prevent epileptic seizures in lab rats.

Nearly 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy. For more than 20 million people with the neurological disease, existing surgeries and treatments are not effective in preventing seizures. 2DG may provide some help for these patients.

"What we hope is that by using 2DG, we can prevent one seizure from setting up the events in the brain that would cause subsequent seizures," study author Avtar Roopra, Ph.D., of University of Wisconsin in Madison, told Ivanhoe.

SUGAR SWAP

One way 2DG can prevent seizures is by serving as a sugar replacement. According to Dr. Roopra, sugar's link to seizures has a deep history.

"For 2,000 years or more, starving people was a treatment for epilepsy. And nobody really knew how it worked," said Dr. Roopra. "Since the time of Hippocrates in 450 B.C., it was known if you starve people with epilepsy, the seizure intensity and frequency goes down."

In the early 1900s, doctors recommended ketogenic diets -- which are high in fat and protein and low in carbohydrates, Dr. Roopra said. And they seemed to help epilepsy patients avoid seizures.
"When you take the sugar away from the diet, genes in the brain that normally promote epilepsy shut down," said Dr. Roopra. "By shutting down genes in the brain that promote epilepsy, we can actually stop epilepsy from progressing."

The only problem with a ketogenic diet is it can be very difficult for patients to avoid sugar. This is particularly problematic for children, who may sneak away to eat sweet and starchy foods, ruining the effects of the sugar-free diet.

This is where Dr. Roopra hopes 2DG can come in.

"We think 2DG might be an effective sugar substitute in humans," Dr. Roopra said. "That would be great news because patients could eat normal food and have the same beneficial effects."