Dr. Kossoff received his medical degree from SUNY at Buffalo School of Medicine in New York. He went on to complete a residency in pediatrics at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia. He completed a second residency in child neurology and a fellowship in pediatric epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

He is a professor of neurology and pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Children's Center and focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of childhood seizures and epilepsy, particularly treatments other than medications, such as diet, neurostimulation, and surgery. Specific interests include the ketogenic diet, the modified Atkins diet for children and adults, infantile spasms, hemispherectomy, the interaction of migraine headaches with epilepsy, and Sturge-Weber syndrome.

Dr. Kossoff is also very involved in teaching and is the director of the Pediatric Neurology Residency Program. He is a coauthor of Treatment of Pediatric Neurologic Disorders and the 5th (and upcoming 6th) editions of Ketogenic Diets. He has been the editor of "Keto News" on epilepsy.com since 2007 and is considered one of the world experts on dietary treatment for epilepsy.

How do you practically treat epilepsy with a keto diet? How did the low-carb high-fat way of eating become so mainstream among neurologists? And what can you do to prevent potential side effects?

Listen to this presentation by the neurologist Dr. Eric H. Kossoff from the recent Low Carb Breckenridge conference to hear the answers to these questions. 

Ketogenic diets have been used to treat seizures for 100 years. Dr. Eric Kossoff talks about the history of keto diets as well as the current status. We discuss how these concepts apply to kids and adults, and what else it can tell us about the safety and utility of ketosis.

Dr. Eric Kossoff is one of the world's leading experts on ketogenic dietary therapy for neurological disorders. His research and clinical practice focus on the diagnosis and treatment of childhood seizures and epilepsy, and in 2003 he developed the Modified Atkins Diet for both kids and adults. Listen to the video to learn more about Dr. Kossoff's important work.

Filmed at the Emerging Science of Carbohydrate Restriction and Nutritional Ketosis, Scientific Sessions at The Ohio State University

An impressive body of scientific evidence over the last 15 years documents long term benefits of carbohydrate-restricted, especially ketogenic, diets. We now understand molecular mechanisms and why they work. Popular books and articles now challenge the advice ‘carbohydrates are good and fats are bad.’ Circa mid-19th century urinary ketones were identified in diabetics sealing their toxic label for the next 150 years. Despite work four decades ago showing ketones were highly functional metabolites, they are still misidentified as toxic byproducts of fat metabolism. The vilification of fat by regulatory and popular dogma perpetuates this myth. But the nutrition-metabolic landscape is improving dramatically.

A growing number of researchers have contributed to what is now a critical mass of science that provides compelling clinical evidence that ketogenic diets uniquely benefit weight loss, pre-diabetes, and type-2 diabetes. In the last five years, basic scientists have discovered that b-hydroxybutyrate (BHB), the primary circulating ketone, is a potent signaling molecule that decreases inflammation and oxidative stress. BHB has been suggested to be a longevity metabolite, with strong support from recently published mouse studies showing decreased midlife mortality and extended longevity and healthspan. Although type-2 diabetes is often described as a chronic progressive disease, emerging evidence indicates that sustained nutritional ketosis can reverses the disease. There is growing interest in studying potential therapeutic effects of ketosis on cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. There are even reasons certain athletes may benefit from nutritional ketosis and ketone supplements ─ debunking the long-standing dogma that high carbohydrate intake is required to perform optimally.

Dr. Eric Kossoff is a Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. He received his medical degree from SUNY at Buffalo School of Medicine in New York, followed by a residency in pediatrics at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, Virginia. He completed a fellowship in child neurology and then pediatric epilepsy and clinical neurophysiology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He has been at Johns Hopkins since 1998. His research and clinical practice focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of childhood seizures and epilepsy, particularly treatments other than medications such as diet, neurostimulation and surgery. Currently the Medical Director of the Ketogenic Diet Center at Johns Hopkins, he is a world expert on the ketogenic diet and created the modified Atkins diet for children and adults in 2003. He is dedicated to bringing the use of diet therapies for neurologic disorders to the entire world and is the head of a Task Force within the International League Against Epilepsy to help achieve this goal. He is a coauthor of Ketogenic Diets: Treatments for Epilepsy and Other Disorders. Dr. Kossoff is also published in the fields of Sturge-Weber syndrome, the interaction between migraine and epilepsy in children, infantile spasms, Doose syndrome, and benign rolandic epilepsy. Dr. Kossoff is also very involved in teaching and mentorship and is the Director of the Pediatric Neurology Residency Program at Johns Hopkins.

Stefanie Prast-Nielsen, PhD, Karolinska Institute, Solna, Sweden, discusses the history of the ketogenic diet, and comments on a study investigating the gut microbiota and serum inflammation profile using machine learning algorithms and omics integration analysis. The findings of the study indicate that children with drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE) who had an anti-seizure response to the ketogenic diet had a different gut microbiota composition to those who did not have an anti-seizure response. Specifically, Dr Prast-Nielsen comments on the abundance of Bifidobacteria and its correlation to tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha) levels present in the serum. This interview took place at the 14th European Epilepsy Congress (EEC) 2022 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Members of the Regional Epilepsy Service, within the department of neuropsychiatry, have developed a novel treatment intervention for adults with epilepsy that cannot be controlled with anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs). The modified ketogenic diet (MKD) service is the only NHS service in the UK offering this treatment for adults with poorly controlled epilepsy.

Between 30-40% of people with epilepsy will not respond to AEDs. The alternative options are limited to brain surgery or neurostimulation. Using the MKD offers a non-surgical treatment to minimise the risks associated with poorly controlled epilepsy including unexpected death in epilepsy, serious injuries and repeated hospital admissions.

The service offers an innovative, alternative treatment for refractory epilepsy that people are not able to access elsewhere in the UK. Service users undergo rigorous assessment and monitoring of their physical and mental health throughout the diet.

The assistant professor of neurology at the University of Wisconsin provided insight on the additional oversight required when caring for adult epilepsy patients who remain on the ketogenic diet.

Elevated levels of ketone bodies, such as beta-hydroxybutyrate, can have beneficial effects on several brain-related diseases. Research suggests that ketone bodies can increase blood flow in the brain by 30 to 40 percent, which may have profound effects for patients with brain injury or vascular dementia. By studying ischemic wounds, which are analogous to an aged brain or clogged arteries, researchers observed increased blood flow when ketone levels were elevated. Nutritional ketosis may also reduce neural inflammation which may be a predictor of seizure in epilepsy. In this clip, Dr. Dominic D'Agostino describes the positive effects that ketones can have on the brain.