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The use of the [[Ketogenic Diet]] to treat epilepsy is well established, and continues to evolve. This page is intended to be an introduction that will provide sufficient background for those that are interested to help them pursue the diet further through deeper reading and conversations with their epilepsy healthcare professionals.
=History=
The use of fasting and the Ketogenic diet has a long histotryhistory<ref name="Wheless2008"/>. From early times the use of fasting to treat epilepsy was well known, but it was only in the 1920s that the use of a Ketogenic diet emerged to achieve the benefits in a sustainable manner.
==Pre-modern Fasting==
It has long been known that fasting is a treatment for epilepsy. As long ago as 500 BC the Hippocratic collection noted fasting as the therapeutic treatment for epilepsy. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus says that a boy with the symptoms of epilepsy can only be cured with fasting.