Mélissa Gélinas LJI Reporter

Despite many challenges and pitfalls and after several years of involvement and research, Aylmer resident Marie-Christine Goulet, a former respiratory therapist, managed to get rid of her epileptic seizures – a victory that she is very proud to be able to share with many people today.

Epileptic disorders (simple partial seizures) appeared in 2003, when she was 33 years old. “When it happened to me, I was unable to speak at all,” said Marie-Christine. “I didn’t even know they were epileptic seizures,” she adds.

So, for four years, three times a day, she suffered these seizures in silence. “I told myself that it would pass, and I didn’t dare tell anyone about it,” she said. During this period, she gave birth to her second child and continued to go to work where the seizures persisted. In 2007, following a tonic-clonic seizure (sudden loss of consciousness followed by muscle contractions all over the body), she decided to go see her family doctor who, after several tests, detected a brain abnormality.

Two years later, in 2009, an epileptologist specializing in refractory epilepsy at the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) decided to operate on her by removing part of her insula. After five weeks with electrodes connected to her brain, the specialists discovered epileptic foci in the Broca area (the language area). “They told me they couldn’t operate on me there because I would become mute,” she said. “There wasn’t much that could be done.” However, thanks to the appropriate medication, the tonic-clonic seizures were well controlled, but the simple partial seizures continued to persist. After many years of service at the Centre intégré des services sociaux de l’Outaouais (CISSSO), Marie-Christine learned that she had been fired in 2010. “When I heard the news on the phone, I had an epileptic seizure because it had really affected my emotions,” she says. “I had been working there for seven years as a respiratory therapist and I loved my job,” she continued.

Despite the bad news, Marie-Christine kept busy, volunteered and accompanied her partner on official trips. The years went by and in 2020, she received a magazine from her mother entitled: Perdre du poids en mangerant du gras, which would change the course of her life. With nothing left to lose, Marie-Christine decided to start the ketogenic diet on her own.

To receive more help with her efforts, Marie-Christine decided in 2021 to enroll in the Bye-Bye Plateau program where she learned how to integrate fasting into her diet. The ketogenic diet combined with fasting therefore seems to be the solution to put an end to epileptic seizures.

However, in 2023, when she was returning from her trip, Marie-Christine had another seizure, after eating food served on the plane. “At that time, I was really hungry and I had no choice but to eat what was available,” she says. “After this seizure, I told myself that it was not normal, that I was not going to stop myself from going out,” she adds. Following this incident, while continuing to fast, Marie-Christine began adding exogenous ketone bodies (natural forms of ketones that the body can produce itself) to her diet, which allowed her to quickly fall into ketosis. This decision was the solution to the problem and Marie-Christine never had another seizure. “I finally understood that the real source of my seizures came from the carbohydrates I was consuming, since they were disrupting the proper functioning of my neurons,” she explains.

Marie-Christine Goulet (February 25, 2025) (MG) Photo: Courtesy of Marie-Christine Goulet