Dieters charge Atkins led to heart ills

[Skrat]

Low-carb craze could result in heart disease, doctors warn.

Dang...I was actually losing some weight on this diet...oh, well - gimee a muffin, quick!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3541399/

[nowonder]

Expect to see more of this. Not the heart disease, the stories about the horrors of Atkins. This is diet season, and there is no other big news stories around... And with Atkins being so popular, it will drawl a lot of eyes to the website, which is all the advertisers want.

I was hoping Ephedra would be the wipping boy of the season.

--nw

[jimjam]

:yay: I was hoping Ephedra would be the wipping boy of the season.


Well, you got it right there - Ephedra was officially banned today! Frankly, I'm glad - that "herb" was linked to approximately 60,000 adverse complaints and over 150 deaths - bad news.

[Lisa N]

Pfffft...this is news? That same story was trotted out with PCRM in attendence a few months ago.
There are a lot of questions regarding the situations of both of these people that have been addressed in other threads. For example: Rachel Husky was reported to have been on the Atkins diet for a couple of weeks before her collapse and her symptoms could potentially also be from the abuse of over the counter diuretics or laxatives popular with many teens to speed weight loss and very easy to hide from peers and parents alike and was also reported to have had a history of ED. While I can feel the pain of Rachel's parents and a mom to 2 daughters myself, I have to ask if they're being too quick to place blame where perhaps it didn't belong?
For the gentleman; why was he having a heart scan several months prior to starting a low carb diet and was it of the type that can actually see plaque forming in the arteries? What was he eating during his two years on Atkins? Margarine or transfat containing products?
It seems the media is very quick to point the finger at lack of carbs and high fat without really having all the details first, but hey...it gets people to read your publications and visit your websites (as well as those of your sponsors).

Sheesh..I had a Thallium stress test 18 months into low carbing (high risk due to diabetes and family history). Results? Clear as can be!
The majority of people on low carb find that their triglycerides are markedly lowered and their HDL goes up (to important markers for cardiac risk) and several studies have confirmed those results.

[jimjam]

Lisa - settle down - everyone's body is different and some will react badly. It's just a physiological fact of humanity- nothing to get so worked up about!

[Lisa N]

Lisa - settle down - everyone's body is different and some will react badly. It's just a physiological fact of humanity- nothing to get so worked up about!

I am settled down! :lol: I have no doubt that some people will react badly to low carb, but I'd also be willing to bet that the vast majority of people who do are not following the plan correctly from what I've seen on this board time and time again. Is it design flaw or operator error? If my doctor puts me on medication and I fail to follow directions and take it correctly, is it the fault of the doctor or the pharmaceutical company when I get bad results or get seriously ill?
Given the fact that we have had several studies on low carb at this point involving hundreds of people and not one of them reacted badly (as defined by worsening cardiac profile, getting sicker or dying), yes I do question what was going on with these 2 people that PCRM was able to dredge up after an 18 month campaign on their website looking for such people. It turned up less than 300 responses, the majority of which were complaining of constipation and bad breath; not exactly serious medical issues. I'd also like to note that they made no mention of the positive responses that they received (improved health, not worsened) and I know that there were many from this board alone, including mine.
Let's not even start to get into this statistically; with 1 in 4 Americans reportedly following a low carb plan and we have 2 people with a serious negative reaction that may or may not be directly related to low carb?
Sheesh...even Rachel Husky's own doctors stated that they could not provide conclusive evidence that it was low carb that caused her cardiac dysrhythmia; it was just the most convenient thing to blame it on. They fell into the trap of presenting correlation as causation.
Here in the war zone, we focus on facts, not best guesses. It's a fact that Rachel Husky died from a cardiac dysrhytmia. What caused it gets into best guesses and is somewhat questionable given her history of ED which often involves abuse of OTC laxatives and/or diuretics or diet pills for that matter. I find myself wondering if they did a drug screen for Ephedra.
And with the gentleman reporting that he got cardiac arterial occlusion from low carb, again, correlation does not prove causation and we are missing a great deal of factual information regarding what this gentleman was eating during that two year period and how closely he was actually following the plan.

[unitydkn]

Hey all. my mother has been on this plan for a couple of years ,she has alot to lose but because of a whole bunch of other medical problems she can not lose.But when she had chest pain and went for a bunch of tests her heart was clean, no chance of a heart attack.So that says a lot 'cause most Dr.s say that some one of her size is going to have a HA at any time.remember they were all brianwashed as children just like us,they also went to school to have it bleached forever and it is up to us to dye it back to the natural color...lol
Unity

[owen93]

Well, you got it right there - Ephedra was officially banned today! Frankly, I'm glad - that "herb" was linked to approximately 60,000 adverse complaints and over 150 deaths - bad news.

A drop in the bucket compared to the toxic carnage left in the wake of Tobacco and Alcohol.

The REAL reason Ephedra is banned is that the Gov't is trying to dry up the source chemicals used to make Crystal Methamphetamine otherwise known as speed.

Crystal abuse is epedemic across the entire nation. A few years ago it was a problem in the major citys, but now it has spread to the suburbs of middle America, and crosses the entire social spectrum

Chances are that somone you know is secretly tweeked out on Crystal. Overweight people are easy prey to this addiction.
It starts out as an attempt to control appetite but make no mistake it WILL take over the users life. Completely and totally.

[MaryToU]

The body, overloading on fat and protein, theoretically breaks down fat cells for energy and sheds pounds of water as it struggles to get rid of toxic breakdown products.



WOW! I lost 60 pounds water so far! :idea: Maybe I should see a doctor about that?

[jimjam]

I think we'll be seeing a lot more of this due to professional's dying and getting gravely ill from Ephedra - not to mention steroids.

[jimjam]

PS. Lisa - yes you are worked up - relax! Please!

[rosemarie7]

My father died of a heart attack at the age of 59. My mother follows the traditional low fat, high-carb diet and has had one heart attack and takes a bucket of medication with little change in her health. Does her low fat diet aggravate her condition? Hard to say.

My blood pressure was running on the high/normal side, until I started running. The exercise has not brought my weight down. I am hoping low-carbing will reduce my body fat, which is manly in my gut.

Oh, in regards to epehedra, that gave me chest pain!

-R.M.

[CindySue48]

“Anyone who has even been on this diet can tell you they spend the first few days in the bathroom, urinating,” said Dr. Paul Robinson,

OH NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I pee about every 45-60 minutes....on or off a diet....does this mean I'm going to die??????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!??????????

Oh please!!!!

[jimjam]

LOL! No, Cindy, you won'at die - just keep flushing your toilet so IT doesn't go into "overflow" on you! :daze:

[Marge]

Interesting fact that Dr Atkins and the doctor who developed the South Beach diet are both cardioligist. Now, if I'm not wrong, a cardioligist is a heart doctor. Why would doctors who look after hearts develope something that would kill their patients?

[Marge]

Is it possible that they were eating too little of anything or that there were pre-exsisting conditions. It's always a shame when people die but this WOE helps so many people, me included.

[pd Rydia]

I like how people use a few single case studies like this to blacken the Atkins diet/similar diets, but they ignore all the (much more numerous) case studies where the diets do so much good. Not to mention that a lot of the time they badtalk low carb, they haven't done their research completely (and it shows), or they haven't sufficiently proven causation between the diet and the health problem, or they haven't proven that the person was following the diet correctly to begin with. =|