Dietary treatments: the road from Phoenix to Edinburgh

The ketogenic diet is now an established treatment in children for drug resistant epilepsy. Although in use for almost 100 years, it has taken time for us to determine an evidence base to verify its use in these children. However, increasing research both from a clinical and basic science perspective as well as a wide clinical interest has now enabled its use throughout the world. This aside, there remains lack of resources to guarantee its availability to all those who may be suitable. It is also now quite clear that it may have benefit in wider areas of neurology beyond epilepsy, specifically in metabolic disorders where glucose cannot be used as a primary energy source.