Another thing. Talking about life expectancy we should consider insulin, bypass surgeries, knee and hip replacements, all life stile medications and alike – the stuff that keeps so many people alive. Sorry, but I cannot help thinking of these folks as of walking and talking ghosts. These lives are due to the economical status of the society only.

Probably an astute observation.

MRE

I don’t agree. Ketosis is a perfectly normal condition that most people are into and out of throughout the day–even those on higher carb diets. Most tissues can use ketones as fuels; some tissues–heart muscle, for example–prefer them. The idea that prolonged ketosis converts the fat cells into ‘fat magnets’ sounds like something Jane Brody would write.

Best–

MRE

Could you shed some light on this article. does it add up to you?

Atkins Diet Linked to Life Threatening Complication

Thursday, March 16, 2006

LONDON � The popular Atkins diet could be linked to a life-threatening complication which one woman who claimed to be following it developed, according to doctors who published a case report on it Friday in a British medical journal.

The Atkins diet calls for restricting carbohydrates to achieve weight loss, then gradually adding them back in. However, many people who say they’re following the diet actually eat large amounts of protein and fat.

Doctors from New York University wrote in The Lancet journal of a 40-year-old woman who developed a dangerous condition called ketoacidosis, a dangerous buildup of acids called ketones in the blood which can lead to patients falling into a coma.

However some outside experts said the case is rare and does not reflect a major health threat associated with low-carb diets.

“I think this is an isolated case. The idea that serious ketoacidosis could be triggered by a low-carb diet does not happen very often,” said Dr. Paul Clayton, president of the forum on food and nutrition at the Royal Society of Medicine in London.

Atkins Nutritionals referred calls for comment to the Dr. Robert C. Atkins Foundation, a medical research charity run by Atkins’ widow, Veronica. No one at the foundation could immediately be reached for comment.

The patient, who was not identified, was admitted to an intensive care unit for four days after becoming short of breath. Before being hospitalized, she had lost her appetite, felt nauseous and was vomiting four to six times a day, the doctors wrote in the paper.

Tests confirmed ketoacidosis.

Ketones are produced in the liver when insulin levels fall due to starvation or diabetes.

“Our patient had an underlying ketosis caused by the Atkins diet … This problem may become more recognized because this diet is becoming increasingly popular worldwide,” said Professor Klaus-Dieter Lessnau, who led the team from the New York University School of Medicine.

Clayton said that the main problem of high protein diets is in the strain they put on kidneys and the risk of renal failure.

I agree that there should be a better term, so let’s invent one. The medical literature refers to the metabolism under discussion as the ‘starvation response.’ It’s also called the post-absorptive state, but that’s not really accurate either because the post-absorptive state means the period of time ‘after’ digestion has taken place, and, as you point out, these metabolic changes are in place most of the time, not just during the ‘post-absorptive’ state. I’ve seen it referred to as the ‘fasting’ response also, which, though accurate in a sense, isn’t really accurate because one doesn’t fast on a low-carb diet. The whole idea shows that, at least in the minds of the metabolic scientists of the last century or so, the high-carbohydrate diet and its metabolic consequences are considered the ‘normal’ state, whereas the perfectly normal metabolic responses to a low-carbohydrate diet are tagged as somehow being abnormal.

Excellent post, Mike! Very informative. I do have one comment about the use of the term, “starvation.” As you point out, there are two processes involved, both referred to as starvation, gluconeogenesis from dietary and non-essential proteins, and the breakdown of muscle tissue for that purpose. Only the breakdown of muscle tissue is actual starvation. We should use another term to refer to what is, as you point out, a normal and beneficial process. Again, why refer to lowered carbohydrate intake as starvation when what we”re really doing is getting our carbohydrates to a level that will allow more beneficial processes to take over.

See, it’s not just attacks on the left that get me to comment!

In re: Ketosis as a cell cleaner, more study is needed to determine its limits, i.e can it eliminate all the excess protein. Does enough ketosis occur in even lower carb diets to purge the cells of waste protein etc. This appears to tie into your 9/9/05 BLOG

“Build muscle while you de-junk your cells”

as one of the sources of the negative nitrogen balance.

The discussion of Vilhjalmur Stefansson and the Inuit is also of interest. The quote apparently comes from an article in Harpers Monthly Magazine November 1935 also appears on the following website;

http://www.ironguru.com/Home/tabid/637/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/238/Adventures-in-Diet.aspx with comments

This website has some interesting comments on Mr. Stefansson?s observations. However, even if we take his observations that the Inuit are living at a faster rate as true, that does not necessarily mean it is a bad thing. My view point is that low carbing is not so much about life extension as quality of life extension.It is better to live, for example 60 healthy productive years than 70 years with increasing deterioration in particularly the last 10 years to the point that one is practically a vegetable in their last few years. Hopefully we are getting both, a relatively minimal life extension with a great improvement in quality of life.

One final point is that the Inuit are not the only meat eating culture. The Masai of South Africa are also often cited as another example. It would be interesting to see how their lifespan compare to nearby tribes.

http://tinyurl.com/kofps

My opinion is that native people in general seem to age faster… even American Indians who don’t eat all meat. This could be due to hard living or any number of factors, including genetics. I believe that the only massively vegan society on earth is India and I wouldn’t say they are unusually young looking.