This study was primarily intended to assess safety and tolerability of the diets for ALS patients: patients given the high-carbohydrate/high-calorie diet experienced fewer adverse events (23 vs 42), and significantly fewer serious adverse events (0 vs 9) including deaths from respiratory failure than the control group.
Patients given the high-carbohydrate/high-calorie diet also gained slightly more weight than the other groups (an average of 0·39kg [about 0·86lbs] gained per month, compared to an average gain of 0·11kg [0·24lbs] per month in the control group, and an average weight loss of 0·46kg [1·01lbs] in the high-fat high-calorie diet group).
According to Dr Wills, “There is good epidemiological evidence that, in ALS, survival is determined by nutritional status. This pilot study demonstrates the safety of a novel, simple, low-cost treatment for a devastating disease where currently, very few treatment options are available. The adverse outcomes that we feared might result from weight gain, such as diabetes or heart disease, were not observed in our study period of five months.”*