From keto to gluten-free, low carb skin care

Dawn's daughter is a young teen who has a very severe form of epilepsy called Dravet's Syndrome. Dawn contacted me to let me know that our products were super helpful in her daughter's overall medical treatment. This got my attention, so I asked her to explain more.

First, if you've ever heard of the Keto diet as a treatment plan for neurological disorders, you might already know that a Keto diet was used to as a treatment therapy long before it became a popular diet for weight loss. It's far more than what may appear like a popular fad diet. The keto diet has helped Dawn's daughter as well as thousands of others who suffer from various medical conditions.

How do our skin care products help someone with epilepsy? Read on:

In a nutshell, here's what Dawn told me:

• The ketogenic diet is the only treatment that works to control her daughter's seizures.
• The ketogenic diet is a very high fat, moderate protein, very low carbohydrate diet that results in your body using ketones for energy instead of glucose. Ketosis is a natural anti-epileptic state for the brain. An all-natural treatment for epilepsy! 
• The healthy, clean fats that many of our products contain are the ideal solution for people being treated with ketogenic diets. Not only do MadeOn products work, they are completely keto safe.

The carbohydrate restriction in medical versions of ketogenic therapies is so strict and important that patients also have to consider the carbohydrate content of all body products they use! Some patients on ketogenic diets are able to absorb enough carbohydrate through their skin to affect the level of ketosis - which results in them having seizures. 

There are so many benefits of having just 3 ingredients in a skincare product, and the fact that ours are so high-fat and low carb, make it that much more desirable. 

I was curious to learn more, so Dawn put me in touch with Beth Zupec-Kania, a Registered Dietician and Nutritionist who helps epileptic patients create and manage a ketogenic diet to control their medical conditions. She is a consultant to The Charlie Foundation - www.charliefoundation.org

Here's my interview with Beth of The Charlie Foundation.

1. What brought you to working with the Charlie Foundation and what is your role there? (Do you have personal experience with a medical condition that was helped by a Keto diet?) I started working with the Charlie Foundation over 10 years ago after having dedicated my career to working with Ketogenic Diet Therapies. I saw hundreds of children with epilepsy improve dramatically on this therapy. With the support of the Charlie Foundation, I’ve traveled globally to train hospitals on how to implement ketogenic diets and commissioned a group of doctors to write guidelines for using ketogenic diets in epilepsy. Our mission has expanded beyond epilepsy to provide resources to other neurological disorders, diabetes and pre-diabetes, cognitive and behavior disorders and certain cancers. My personal experience as a woman who developed hot-flashes and found complete relief by following a ketogenic lifestyle has furthered my commitment to our mission.
2. I had no idea that those prone to some of the medical conditions you mention have to actually be careful about the gluten in the ingredients of their skin care products. Can you explain why that is? People with chronic conditions are eager to eliminate anything that could be a trigger to their symptoms whether its allergies, migraines, seizures, a rash or eczema.  Eliminating additives that may cause a problem include common allergens such as gluten. For example, I advise all of my patients to eliminate gluten prior to even starting a ketogenic diet because gluten is a known inflammatory to the gut, skin, and brain. Not only do we eliminate these allergens from food, but we also eliminate them from medications and skin care products too, especially if there is a skin rash.
3.  What is the main cause of many of the medical conditions you list - is it hereditary or is mostly due to the condition of the food we eat? Are some people more prone than others? Can you go into some detail on how our diet affects our overall health? A small number of conditions that I’m referring to are inherited or caused by a genetic defect, but many are “epigenetic” which means that the trait only shows up if the conditions are present to turn on a gene. In simple terms, it’s like turning on a switch to stimulate the gene. For example, we all have a gene for obesity, but it may only develop if you are exposed to certain triggers such as a poor diet combined with lack of exercise.
4. We have a lot of customers who deal with eczema. We provide a partial solution in terms of having something to relieve some of the itchiness and redness, but unless the cause is found and fixed, our customers would likely continue to suffer from this horrible skin issue. If someone were to come to you to get help for their eczema, what would you suggest as 1.) the core reason and 2.) the treatment? Often the cause of eczema is unknown and goes deeper than the skin surface. Similarly, the cause of seizures is unknown, but we know that ketogenic diet therapy can reduce, and, even eliminate seizures completely. Skin is the largest organ in our body and can reveal problems that develop in our digestive tract. If your digestive tract is unhealthy, it can disrupt the creation of healthy skin cells. Elimination diets are intended to identify potential allergens that can cause skin rashes which is a good place to start. You can improve the overall health of the digestive tract by eating a diet composed of whole foods which means foods that are closest to their natural source instead of processed foods. It’s easy to identify a whole food because it’s the sole ingredient. In addition, probiotics from fermented foods such as apple cider vinegar, dill pickles, olives, kimchee, and sauerkraut feed the organisms in our gut which improve gut health. Drinking sufficient fluids, getting adequate Vitamin D and other nutrients are also important. Our gut is an integral part of our immune system and is enhanced by a good diet just as it can be diminished by a poor diet.
5.  What does the Charlie Foundation offer people who visit the website? What is the typical visitor struggling with that the Charlie Foundation is able to help with?  People are looking for solutions to problems related to conditions that aren’t helped by medications or if medications cause side-effects that are worse than the condition. Once you understand the impact that your diet has on your health, you will be empowered to choose your foods carefully. The most visited pages on the Charlie Foundation website are the recipe pages. For people seeking assistance with a ketogenic diet therapy, a list of Ketogenic Specialists who you may hire to consult with, is displayed on our Resource page.