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.

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.

2nd Annual Conference on Nutritional Ketosis and Metabolic Therapeutics 

February 2017, Tampa, FL

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.

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 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.