I am really scared now, my neighbor who is 36 yrs old has suffered a mild heart attack and he is on atkins LCing.....what is going on here, it was a clogged artery.............help....need answers....and what about the 2 people that died?

Something is going on here....2 died 1 developed a heart abnormality....and a neighbor suffered a mild heart attack.

How long has your neighbor been on Atkins? The reason I'm asking is that atherosclerosis (clogged cardiac arteries) takes years to develop, not weeks, unless is was the result of a sudden blood clot in which case it wasn't dietary related at all.
You have to remember here that correlation does not prove causation. I plan to low carb for the rest of my life and eventually I'll die. Does this mean that low carb will cause it?
Also relating the 2 deaths and 1 heart attack, I've only heard of one while someone was on Atkins (although I'm sure there have been plenty more) and 1 heart attack. First of all, nothing has been proven conclusively; these are allegations mostly coming from sources that have questionable motives and even they admit that they cannot prove their allegations. Secondly, when you have millions of people following an eating plan, chances are some of them are going to die at any point in time. This would have likely occurred whether they were eating meat and vegetables or a steady diet of Big Macs in many cases; it's a matter of statistics, but again, it doesn't prove that eating low carb caused any of it.

Sorry he is only 34 years old, and it was a clogged artery, I found out more tonight.

This scares me. He was healthy before the diet..maybe eating way too much fat....I don't know...I am off of atkins till I get further proof.

I might try south beach...I think it is less fat.

Just researching now....I don't want to stop losing weight...and go low cal which does not work for me, this is depressing.

Regarding the fat/heart disease hypothesis, you may find this site will provide you with some food for thought: www.thincs.org

The more I read and research, the more I'm convinced that the fat/heart disease hypothesis theory has more holes in it than swiss cheese and the "evidence" behind it is shaky indeed. Add to that the fact that I've been following low carb for going on 3 years now; I had a Thallium stress test last year (after being on low carb for almost 2 years). Result? I may be a little out of shape, but my cardiac arteries are clear as can be.
Ultimately, we have to do what we all think is best for us, but do yourself a favor and actually read some of the articles on the site that I provided a link to. As a diabetic, I should be more frigtened of developing heart disease than the average person because statistically, I'm at much higher risk than the average person and yet on low carb, my cardiac profile has done nothing but improve.
I'm still curious how long that neighbor of yours was on Atkins before this occurred?

Your friend obviously was NOT as healthy as everything thought he was. In fact, I bet if you looked into his past eating habits I bet you would find that he was not a "healthy" eater at all.

Another question you need to ask this friend is exactly what he ate. You should find out if he was one of those people who didn't really research Atkins and thought he could eat all the fat he wanted and very little veggies to go along with it.

I have found so many people who are on the Atkins diet who automatically think that they can consume all the meat and cheese they want. First thing people need to do is BUY THE BOOK AND READ IT! You will understand that you can't eat a side of beef everyday with nothing else and expect to stay healthy. This is not what Dr. Atkins meant when he said low carb. Actually, the last book of Dr. Atkins that I read called it "controlled carb", NOT "low carb".

I am so sorry about your friend, but I would be willing to bet my life that he was not healthy prior to starting this WOE. Hope he gets better.

Out of millions on the diet. Don't jump to conclusions, sexee_babe. Was your neighbor very overweight? Was he physically active? Had he been on the diet very long?

Hundreds of people, some of them very overweight, have passed through research studies on low-carb diets. If the diet were as dangerous as you fear, surely some of those people would have suffered heart attacks during the studies and much made of the news.

He wasn't very over weight, maybe by 40 lbs tops. Maybe he did eat all the meat and cheese he wanted,who knows....he is only 34...I just turned 39 today....yuck...I think I am going to boycott Birthdays from now on....LOL Just stay 39 forever.

I can't afford to stop Atkins, I love what it is doing for my body. But like I was saying I have to cut some fats out....not consume too much cheese and greasy meats such as bacon, I normally nuke my bacon seems to take alot of the grease away. More lean meats for me.

Remember the studies, too -- almost all people show improvements in their cardiac risk factors on this diet -- dramatically lowered triglycerides, lowered "bad" cholesterol, increased "good" cholesterol. However, some people, probably from genetics, will see a significant increase in bad cholesterol. Did your neighbor have a family history of heart disease? Was he under a doctor's care, with attention paid to his serum lipids? More to the point, do you have a family history of heart trouble? Do you know what your cholesterol and triglyceride numbers were and are? If you're worried about the possibilities, get those numbers done. You might also start getting some of the heart-healthy supplements Dr. Atkins recommends, if you aren't already taking them.

why do you assume ATKINS is the culprit?

by the way current medical studies are starting to show that cholesterols levels have nothing to do with heart disease!!

Yes, like the Framingham study which showed that the more saturated fat the subjects ate, the lower their rate of heart attacks and this study from Mayo Clinic:
http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?t=149616 which showed that even in patients with existing heart disease, a diet of up to 50% saturated fat not only did not worsen the heart disease, their cardiac profiles showed improvement. There are also studies from Duke and Harvarad and I believe the University of Cincinatti which all confirm those findings that eating a high saturated fat diet combined with a reduced carb intake gives improvement in cardiac profiles in the vast majority of the subjects studied. Those that saw an increase in total cholesterol or LDL generally still had positive improvement in their cardiac profiles also as their triglycerides dropped remarkably and their LDL shifted from the small, harmful type to the larger (now thought to be beneficial) type.
And for all this fuss about HDL, LDL, total cholesterol, etc...it still remains that nearly half of those that have heart attacks have normal cholesterol readings so it appears that serum cholesterol is not a very good predictor of future cardiac events.

I don't think this is a bad idea at all. I find that I stay away from fatty meat (except for special occasions) because it makes my calories skyrocket, anyway.

This WOE is really flexible. If you truly feel in your gut that the way that you are eating is "bad," then change it--even if it is only for your peace of mind. Eat more fish, cut out cheese and red meats, double your veggies and exercise, exercise, exercise. But don't ditch it because some people have health problems that may or may not be related to the WOE. It seems to me that, if anything, this WOE makes people healthier--and acknowledgement of that fact by the larger medical community doesn't seem to be far off...

Wouldn't be a bad idea to limit bacon anyway, it's full of nitrites.

It does take years to clog arteries. They keep pointing the finger at saturated fat but the real culprit, i'm sure, is the trans fats that they put in all the processed foods. Eating LC is healthy because we are not putting that crap in our bodies.

Well, I'd say chill out there gal

Do you know how many poeple in their 30/40, have heart attacks and strokes everyday??? Sorry I don't know exactly but I can tell you it would probably knock your socks off.


Secondly, yes I agree that the greasey meats ect are not nesscessary on Atkins, I have reached my goal and passed it, with out them.

Cheers Kathy