Ketoacidosis - A Complication of Atkins' Diet? The Real Story.

[matawguro]

For those who haven't heard, it's been all over the news that a 40-year old woman on Atkins was diagnosed as suffering from ketoacidosis. We already have at least to threads on the topic listed below:

Lastest Atkins News From Uk!!!

So on the news tonite...

Rina Wilshire over at her Weight of the Evidence Blog managed to get ahold of the case details and comments on it.

Note: Emphasis mine.

That troubles me - we have thousands of participants from hundreds of studies to date and not one incident of ketoacidosis. Is it possible this woman's ketoacidosis was a result of her diet? I would say it's not impossible, but very highly improbable given the reams of data from clinical trials to date that have not found ketoacidosis as a complication, even in diabetic patients following a low-carb diet.

The reason it isn't a complication is that dietary ketosis, in and of itself, does not cause ketoacidosis. More likely this woman experienced ketoacidosis as a result of something else and unfortunately her diet placed an obstacle in front of a complete investigation as to its cause.

...

While this particular case study was interesting, it remains an "n of 1" since there are no other reports of this type of complication from any other clinician in the world, and the physician did not, in my opinion, explore all avenues for cause since he believed it could only be her diet - short-sighted and a headline grabber to be sure - good science, no.

Some important points raised:

• The woman was following the 1972 version of Atkins.
• Her blood pH, blood glucose, and sodium was normal
• She'd been vomiting for days
• She had symptoms similar to methanol poisoning and was given treatment for such a condition.
• The possibility of undiagnosed diabetes or cancer ws never explored.

BTW, I have to add that Rina Wilshire's blog is recomended reading for anyone interested in the science behind low-carb lifestyles.

[Laurenfra]

great post Robbie

[big_bad_john]

I'm still busy ranting about capitalism....

[staziaw]

Thanks for posting this! I saw the story on the Huffington Post and nearly had a coronary (completely un-Atkins-related! LOL). I was so hoppin' mad I actually had to post a comment on the article. Grrrr.

At least we all know better!

Big love!

[not2late]

Originally Posted by matawguro

Some important points raised:

• The woman was following the 1972 version of Atkins.
• Her blood pH, blood glucose, and sodium was normal
• She'd been vomiting for days
• She had symptoms similar to methanol poisoning and was given treatment for such a condition.
• The possibility of undiagnosed diabetes or cancer ws never explored.

BTW, I have to add that Rina Wilshire's blog is recomended reading for anyone interested in the science behind low-carb lifestyles.

I bolded the parts that is really interesting...By definition, ketoacidosis means the blood pH is low (not normal), the blood glucose is high (not normal) and the sodium is usually high due to dehydration. And since the woman was "vomitting for days", I would assume she had some degree of dehydration.

http://www.emedicine.com/EMERG/topic135.htm

Here's a link that discusses ketosis and ketoacidosis.
http://www.anaesthesiamcq.com/AcidBaseBook/ab8_2.php

The other interesting thing is that she was treated for methanol poisoning. Methanol poisoning and ketoacidosis are two different things and are treated differently.

Here's a link about methanol toxicity:
http://www.emedicine.com/NEURO/topic217.htm

Something else is most likely "up" with her. But the doctors will most likely write her case up in more detail and hopefully, we'll be able to see the specifics of the case are.