In 1993, 11 month old Charlie Abrahams developed difficult to control epilepsy. As a last resort, while Charlie was experiencing multiple daily seizures and multiple daily medications, his parents turned to a Ketogenic Diet for help. The diet worked. Charlie became seizure and drug free within a month. He was on the diet for five years and now eats whatever he wants. He has never had another seizure.

The Charlie Foundation for Ketogenic Therapies was founded in 1994 to provide information about diet therapies for people with epilepsy, other neurological disorders and select cancers. Charlie Abrahams, pictured above, continues to be the inspiration for the foundation, working as a pre-school teacher, and proving that Epilepsy can be cured through Ketogenic Therapy.

Since our inception it has been confirmed both anecdotally and by 13 randomized controlled studies that a medically supervised Ketogenic Metabolic Therapy reduces seizures by at least 50% in half of the children and adults who trial it and 15-25% of children cured of seizures.

A recently produced survey from Eric Kossoff MD at Johns Hopkins demonstrates the dearth of scientific and medical interest in the Ketogenic Diet prior to The Charlie Foundation’s inception in 1994, and the dramatic uptick that has taken place since:

In recent years, less restrictive versions of the Ketogenic Diet have been developed making it accessible to a larger segment of the epilepsy population (estimated at over 60 million people worldwide). Today there are over 200 hospitals worldwide with Ketogenic Diet programs. In the USA, advanced-level epilepsy treatment centers are encouraged to provide Ketogenic Diet therapy.

New applications of the Ketogenic Diet for cancer, autism, ALS, Parkinson’s Disease, type-2 diabetes, and traumatic brain injury have emerged. Scientific data regarding these new uses of diet therapy is accumulating rapidly. Variations of the Ketogenic Diet for these other disorders are being developed. Today, it is the Charlie Foundation’s expanded mission not only to champion Ketogenic Diet therapy for epilepsy, but provide up-to-date information regarding its expanded use and variations. To this end we have re-named ourselves “The Charlie Foundation for Ketogenic Therapies”.

The Charlie Foundation is now in its 30th year of advancing awareness of Ketogenic Therapeutics. You can read more on our blog post.