Woman Develops Brain Disorder on Slimming Diet
Mon Jun 10, 5:26 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - While attempting to shed excess pounds, a woman developed a rare illness called Wernicke's encephalopathy, a brain disorder marked by vision problems, poor muscle control and mental changes, Italian researchers report.

Wernicke's encephalopathy is caused by a lack of the B vitamin thiamine, which is required for proper carbohydrate metabolism. The condition may be found in alcoholics who don't consume enough thiamine.

"Our case indicates that in susceptible individuals a prolonged, apparently balanced slimming diet may be a potential risk factor for Wernicke's encephalopathy," Dr. GianPietro Sechi and colleagues from the University of Sassari report in the June issue of the journal Neurology.

Sechi and his team describe the case of a 30-year-old woman who sought medical attention after experiencing a wide range of symptoms including lack of muscle coordination, vertigo, nausea and double vision.

After interviewing the woman, Sechi's team learned that she had been following a slimming program for the past 11 months. The program required her to eat a 200-calorie dietetic meal each day, as well as a normal 550-calorie meal of pasta or meat. The woman also took vitamins, including thiamine, an herbal supplement and a mineral supplement. The woman claimed to have lost about 55 pounds on the diet, from her original weight of 160 pounds.

A battery of tests yielded few clues to the cause of her condition, and ultimately Wernicke's encephalopathy was considered, according to the report. The woman was given a daily shot of 100 milligrams of thiamine for several days. By the fourth day, most of her symptoms had disappeared, and she was discharged from the hospital. She continued to take oral thiamine and a multivitamin.

Although the woman's daily nutritional intake was deficient in calories, at 750 calories per day compared to the recommended 2,200 calories for a woman in her age group, she appeared to be taking in enough thiamine, the researchers note.

"In our patient, the only definite risk factor for Wernicke's encephalopathy seems to be the chronic poor nutritional state," the authors write. "However, the possibility that the patient required more thiamine than she received, either because of genetic factors or because of a decreased intestinal absorption of the vitamin, perhaps facilitated by the use of the herbal preparation, cannot be ruled out definitively."

SOURCE: Neurology 2002;58:1697.


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