Healthy Dieting

Causes Of Death From Dieting - facts on starvation dieting

September 24th, 2007 Subscribe To Our Feed

When you start a diet, you imagine looking great and feeling better. Dying is the last thing on your mind. Yet when you examine the facts on starvation dieting you can see that they make grim reading indeed.

Unfortunately, dieting mistakes can cost you your life. This article looks at the most common causes of death from dieting.

Death From Dieting Cause #1: Electrolyte Imbalance

Electrolytes are minerals such as sodium, potassium, calcium, etc. that control the body’s functions. They are provided through a normal diet. However, when dieters try to severely restrict—if not eliminate entirely—entire food groups from their diet, electrolytes may be thrown out of balance. Without the needed electrolytes in the proper balance, the heart can no longer pump blood properly. The patient slips into a cardiac arrhythmia and dies. Electrolyte imbalances have been traced to the so-called “water” diets and to some of the low carbohydrate diets.

Death From Dieting Cause #2: Medications

In the 1990s, Phentermine and fenfluramine (Phen-Fen) hit the market place and women everywhere rejoiced. The glad cries turned into dismayed cries, however, when researchers learned that Phen-Fen was a leading cause of primary pulmonary hypertension, a markedly increased blood pressure in the pulmonary artery. Primary Pulmonary Hypertension is often disabling and sometimes fatal. Other drugs that have proved fatal to over-zealous dieters include laxatives, diuretics, and vomit-inducing medications such as ipecac (while the other drugs work their damage over time, ipecac can actually be fatal to a first time user).

Death From Dieting Cause #3: Eating Disorders

The facts on starvation dieting will inevitable lead us to see that eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, a condition where the patient refuses all or most food, and bulimia, a condition where the patient accepts or even binges on food and then purges it from her/his system.

Death can come from starvation/malnutrition, electrolyte imbalances, and increased strain on the heart. Additionally, people with bulimia may die when they accidentally rupture their esophagus with prolonged vomiting. As many as 12 to 18 percent of people with eating disorders ultimately die from complications related to their condition.

Death From Dieting Cause #4: Sudden Death Syndrome

No one knows the exact mechanism between sudden death syndrome and dieting. Researchers have noted that the people who suffer from sudden death syndrome while dieting are often the ones trying to lose the weight fast. Also, more women than men succumb to this mysterious syndrome. The only clinical clue seems to be that the heart is smaller than might be expected, although the arteries remain unblocked. Researchers believe the best way to avoid this syndrome is to lose weight at a slow, steady pace.

Death From Dieting Cause #5: Weight Loss Surgery

Bariatric weight loss surgery works by reducing the size of the patient’s stomach so that he or she feels full after eating less food. Then, a part of the small intestine is bypassed to reduce the absorption of what food does get through the stomach. Weight loss surgery is usually used only on morbidly obese patients with co-existing health problems (like diabetes) whose attempts at losing weight in other ways have failed. The open (as opposed to laparoscopic) surgery has a 0.5% mortality rate, meaning that for every 200 patients who undergo the procedure, one dies. However, most surgeons are quick to point out that these mortality rates would hold true for obese patients undergoing any similar surgical procedure. Patients may also opt for the less invasive laparoscopic procedure which has a more acceptable mortality rate of 1 in 1000.