Kimkins Risks for Heart Patients

Honeybee's done her homework, and has a great post up:

Getting At The Heart Of The Matter- Kimkins Cardio Risks

Here's an excerpt. Please go read the whole thing on her blog - it's really an important post:

Below are 17 cases of death in a group of individuals who died suddenly, due to cardiac changes, following a vLCD.

While reviewing the study, it is important to keep in mind the points surrounding the individuals that did die:

The median age was 35 years old, they had been on the diet from 2 to 8 months, had lost a substantial amount of weight (86lbs), that was stated to be at a rapid rate which computed to 4.6 pounds a week. The level of physician monitoring range from very thorough to infrequent and 11 of the17 were not taking any other medications- besides vitamins/supplements for the diet.

It appears that the rate of weight loss in those patients who died suddenly is comparable to the fast weight loss noted by kimkins members and so was the low calorie level in these cases approximately 300 to 400 calories a day. The patients in the study also took a prenatal vitamin daily, potassium in different dosages, and some also took calcium supplements.

The take away point is that, these people who died, were in better nutritional and monitoring situations, than the average kimkins dieter.

Scary, scary stuff. You don't have to 'take Kimkins to extremes' to have this occur - just following the plan as written puts you at risk.

(Kimmer, please call your cardiologist if you have actually been following your own diet!)