BACKGROUND We conducted a systematic review to examine the efficacy of the Atkins, South Beach, Weight Watchers (WW), and Zone diets, with a particular focus on sustained weight loss at ≥12 months. METHODS AND RESULTS We systematically searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library of Clinical Trials to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) published in English with follow-up ≥4 we...

On August 6, 2005, newspapers and other media outlets reported that Daryl Atkins had been determined by a Virginia jury not to be retarded and therefore was mentally competent to receive the death penalty. A judge immediately scheduled his execution for December. Atkins, of course, is the convicted murderer whose case three years earlier had led the U.S. Supreme Court, in a landmark ruling, to ...

According to four of the most popular diet books of recent years The Zone (1995), whose primary author is Barry Sears, Ph.D., Protein Power (1997), by medical doctors Michael R. Eades and Mary Dan Eades, Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution (1997), by Robert C. Atkins, M.D., and Sugar Busters! Cut Sugar to Trim Fat (1998), by H. Leighton Steward and associates diets high in carbohydrate (CHO) are re...

Ten adults were treated with ketogenic diet monotherapy for epilepsy. Four patients were naïve to antiseizure drugs (ASDs), and six previously tried and stopped ASDs. Of four treatment-naïve participants, two (50%) were free from disabling seizures on Modified Atkins Diet (MAD) monotherapy for > 1 year. Two (50%) stopped. Four of six patients (67%) who had previously tried ASDs became seizure-f...

PURPOSE To examine the process for transitioning adolescents on dietary management for intractable epilepsy to adult neurologic care. METHODS Ten patients, ages 6-16 years when the ketogenic or modified Atkins diet was initiated, were identified; age at transition was 18-43 years. All patients were seen at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland. RESULTS Seven remain on diets (4 Ketogen...

The modified Atkins diet (MAD) is a dietary treatment for epilepsy which does not restrict fluids or calories. This theoretically makes the MAD safer than the ketogenic diet for children with Sturge-Weber syndrome (SWS). Five children aged 4-18 years with SWS and at least monthly intractable seizures were started prospectively on the MAD for 6 months. All children had urinary ketosis and seizur...

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the tolerability and efficacy of the modified Atkins diet given to children and adolescents with antiepileptic drug (AED) treatment resistant epilepsy. 15 children with medically intractable epilepsy were enrolled in the study. Inclusion criteria were at least one seizure a week and a trial of at least two AEDs without obtaining seizure freedom docum...