Your odds of dying from ketoacidosis

[matawguro]

You're probably saying, "Oh no. Not another thread about that 40 year-old woman who suffered from ketoacidosis while on Atkins." Well, I fugured since a lot of you will probably hear from well-meaning friends as well as Atkins bashers how you could die from ketoacidosis, I'd figure I'd brief you on the odds of that happening to you.

I apologize in advance to those who hate math.

Let's start of with a statistic I got off Livin' La Vida Lo-Carb. According to a survey done by Opinion Dynamics Corp. in 2005, around 45 million Americans were on some low-carb way of eating. Unfortunately I couldn't find a statistic that mentioned how many were doing Atkins so I'll stick with that figure.

Assuming that the 40 year old woman's condition was caused by Atkins, considering she's the only one who's been reported, the odds of a low-carber suffering from ketoacidosis ar 1-in-45,000,000.

To put things in perspective, here are some other odds of dying from the CDC.

Cause of Death, Lifetime Odds

Heart Disease 1-in-5
Cancer 1-in-7
Stroke 1-in-23
Accidental Injury 1-in-36
Motor Vehicle Accident* 1-in-100
Intentional Self-harm (suicide) 1-in-121
Falling Down 1-in-246
Assault by Firearm 1-in-325
Fire or Smoke 1-in-1,116
Natural Forces (heat, cold, storms, quakes, etc.) 1-in-3,357
Electrocution* 1-in-5,000
Drowning 1-in-8,942
Air Travel Accident* 1-in-20,000
Flood* (included also in Natural Forces above) 1-in-30,000
Legal Execution 1-in-58,618
Tornado* (included also in Natural Forces above) 1-in-60,000
Lightning Strike (included also in Natural Forces above) 1-in-83,930
Snake, Bee or other Venomous Bite or Sting* 1-in-100,000
Earthquake (included also in Natural Forces above) 1-in-131,890
Dog Attack 1-in-147,717
Asteroid Impact* 1-in-200,000**
Tsunami* 1-in-500,000
Fireworks Discharge 1-in-615,488

** Perhaps 1-in-500,000

Some other odds...

Being hit by lightning twice in your lifetime 1-in-9,000,000
Succesfully navigating through an asteroid belt in Star Wars 1-in-3720
Wining the jackpot in 6/49 lottery 1-in-13,983,816

Conclusion: That woman should have bought a lottery ticket.