If you’ve heard the buzzwords “keto,” “ketones” or “ketosis,” you may already be familiar with the Ketogenic diet. While it is more popular than ever today for those interested in losing weight and feeling satisfied, the diet was initially developed in response to epilepsy patients struggling to be free of ongoing and debilitating seizures.

Doctors and researchers discovered the power of fasting to reduce seizures long ago. Hippocrates, the legendary Greek physician who lived around 460 to 370 BC, was one of the first to report that fasting could ease epileptic seizures. Other doctors across the globe observed that it required two to three days of fasting to stop seizures, determining that a change in the body’s fuel triggered the shift.