Does the keto diet work long term? It does for this dad, and it saved his epileptic son

Seven years ago, Hong Kong-based Oliver Smith started on the keto diet to see if it could help his epileptic 10-year-old son and avoid him having brain surgery

It cured his own hypertension and hypoglycaemia, and he lost 10kg. He started his son on the diet aged 11 and, now 17, he has been four years without seizures

Reading Time:4 minutes

Oliver Smith, a professional musician, and his son, Liam, at home in Cheung Chau, Hong Kong. Smith took up the keto diet seven years ago and, satisfied it worked, put Liam, then aged 11 on it. Liam’s epileptic seizures have since stopped. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 7:45pm, 18 Jun 2020Updated: 1:50pm, 14 Dec 2020

Finding a treatment for a sick child may be the best motivation for adopting a new diet. It was for Oliver Smith, whose epileptic son Liam’s condition prompted his start on the high-fat, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet more than seven years ago.

He had witnessed Liam’s first seizure. Liam was just 10 weeks old and stopped breathing for a few seconds. By the time he was 10 years old, he was having constant seizures despite taking four medications at maximum dosages.

Epilepsy is a central nervous system (neurological) disorder in which brain activity becomes abnormal, causing seizures or periods of unusual behaviour, sensations, and sometimes loss of awareness. The World Health Organisation estimates around 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy. While many underlying factors can lead to the disease, including genetics, the cause is still unknown in about half of cases.

“The doctors were starting to talk about surgery, trying to find a part of the brain they could cut off to see if that would help,” Smith says. “That’s when I started my journey into finding something else. I just couldn’t picture someone opening my son’s skull and fiddling inside.”

Oliver Smith works as a kinesiologist and hypnotherapist at Kinesiology Asia in Central, is also a qualified nutritionist, and plays music professionally. Photo: Dickson Lee

Realising the limitations of conventional Western medicine, Smith had studied many alternative approaches. A certified clinical hypnotherapist and kinesiologist and a professional musician, he has a degree in physics, and is a practitioner of martial arts, qi gong and reiki. For Liam’s sake, he would add certified nutritionist to his credentials.