Gemma Atkinson, a former Hollyoaks actress, revealed that their six-year-old daughter, Mia, has been diagnosed with epilepsy.
Gemma Atkinson has revealed that her daughter Mia, who is six, has been diagnosed with epilepsy after suffering absence seizures.
The TV presenter and former actress has two children with Strictly Come Dancing pro Gorka Marquez. Mia is their eldest, and has a younger brother called Thiago. Gemma explained on her Just As Well, The Women’s Health Podcast that her daughter was experiencing loss of awareness and zoning out. As a result she is now receiving treatment for epilepsy.
Your brain is affected by epilepsy, which results in seizures. Although it is incurable, a course of treatment is available to manage it. An absence seizure, in which you lose sight of what is happening around you, is one type of seizure.
Gemma stated in the podcast that “my daughter is receiving treatment for epilepsy.” She has “the absence seizures,” she says, “she doesn’t fit or anything; it’s just a stare out and they’ve been doing so much better” a year later.
Gemma continued, “When she learned the diagnosis, I went down a research rabbit hole.” When I was told, “Right, I need to research, research, research, research,” I went down the rabbit hole.
Mia’s doctor suggested trying a ketogenic diet. Epilepsy patients were specifically given the keto diet because it rewires their brains, Gemma said. The doctor advised me that putting her on a ketogenic diet might improve brain function. We’ve experienced improvement, I mean, we’re constantly monitoring, but she’s not for the past six months, to be precise.
Gemma also spoke about when the keto diet first started being used as treatment for epilepsy. She said it began in the 1930s, but that the doctor who found it worked lost all his notes in a fire, setting the research back.
She said that it was initially given to people with epilepsy in the 1920s after it was discovered and that it actually relieved all the symptoms and caused nothing but a decrease in their symptoms. “But then the doctor who made this discovery, with all the research and everything, miraculously burnt down his hospital.”
Gemma met her fiancé and the father of her children, Gorka, when she was on Strictly Come Dancing in 2017. The former actress was partnered with Aljaz Skorjanec and they got to the final, alongside Gorka and his partner Alexandra Burke. Since then, Gemma has appeared on the Strictly Christmas Special to dance with her partner.
The two tied the knot in February 2021, but they have revealed they want to wait until their son’s age before doing so. They told the Express, “We’ve even thought about doing it in a hotel or registry office in Manchester, just the two of us, and then have a big party afterwards.”
Because he’s only two, I believe we should wait until Thiago is a little older, perhaps next year or the year after. He might be a little older, which would be really nice.
Source: Mirror
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