A tribute to Jim Abrahams 1944 – 2024
By Claire McDonnell Liu, Nutritionist
Jim Abrahams, the great director and producer of some of the biggest comedy films of all time, such as Airplane and the Naked Gun series, has died at age 80, at his home in Santa Monica, California.
Many in the metabolic health field consider Jim Abrahams a hero due to his pioneering work to uncover and reinstate ketogenic diet nutrition as a therapy for health disorders, including epilepsy.
Whilst at the height of his career Jim’s family were struggling with a private nightmare, as their baby son Charlie began experiencing multiple seizures daily, uncontrolled by medications or other treatments. Despite visiting renowned neurologists and trying all available treatments, Charlie’s prognosis was desperately bleak, a life of “continued seizures and progressive retardation”.
‘Jim spent countless hours in the medical library at UCLA reading, researching and eventually uncovering a forgotten diet therapy previously used to control seizure conditions, the ‘Ketogenic Diet’. Charlie was started on the diet and experienced rapid and phenomenal improvements, becoming seizure and medication-free in under one month.
Charlie Abrahams went on to live a full, seizure-free life. He is now a school teacher and advocate for Ketogenic Diet therapy. Charlie’s story illustrates the powerful potential of ketogenic diet therapy to improve neurological conditions and even suppress disease.
The Charlie Foundation
Charlie’s remarkable epilepsy journey inspired Jim and his wife Nancy to found The Charlie Foundation Ketogenic Diet charity. From its inception, in 1994, and for the next decades, the foundation was a lone beacon of hope in advancing awareness of ketogenic therapeutics. It is now widely recognised as foundational to the much later wave of medical clinicians and researchers supporting metabolic diet therapies. Simply put, the Ketogenic Diet would most likely be lost as a therapy if not for the seminal work of Jim and Nancy’s foundation.
The foundation is still at the forefront thirty years on, in supporting research, raising public and clinician awareness, and delivering training, and resources on nutritional therapies for the treatment of epilepsy, neurological, and cancer conditions.
‘First Do No Harm’ Jim Abrahams Movie
In 1997 Jim Abraham directed and produced ‘First Do No Harm‘, starring Meryl Streep. The movie, based on the Abrahams experiences with ketogenic diet, further highlighted nutritional therapies and the perseverance needed in challenging and ultimately changing healthcare options.
Enduring Legacy
Jim Abrahams’ legacy will continue to have a profound and lasting impact on countless lives worldwide, providing families with access to transformative health therapies. My family are included in this number, and I am deeply grateful for the difference his work made in our lives. While today is a sad day, we will reflect on the enduring legacy of hope he leaves behind.
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