Press Release Source: Veronica Atkins

Statement by Veronica Atkins on the Illegal Distribution of Personal Medical Information Regarding Her Late Husband Dr. Robert C. Atkins
Monday February 9, 8:20 pm ET

NEW YORK, Feb. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- I have always assumed that my husband's personal medical history is private and of no concern or relevance to the media or general public. Prior to today, I have not seen any reason to share Dr. Atkins' private information with the public. I am sure that any one of you would be offended and perhaps even horrified to have complete strangers intrude into your personal family matters, especially with regard to something as intimate as your medical records or those of your loved one.

It has now become clear to me that if I don't speak out, unscrupulous individuals will continue to twist and pervert the truth in an attempt to destroy the reputation and great work of my late husband. These individuals have gone so far as to obtain my husband's personal and confidential medical information from the New York City Medical Examiner's office for distribution to news organizations in direct and knowing violation of federal law. Obviously such people will have no trouble picking and choosing bits and pieces of fact and supposition to mislead the world.

But here is the truth: my husband's medical records have been reviewed by knowledgeable doctors and his medical condition discussed with cardiac specialists. It is clear that Dr. Atkins developed a condition called cardiomyopathy approximately three years prior to his death. It is also true that when Robert developed cardiomyopathy his coronary arteries showed only minimal and clinically insignificant signs of coronary artery disease, consistent with what would be expected in a 69-year old man. Cardiomyopathy is a serious and progressive condition and was, I have been told, in Robert's case, caused by a viral infection. Though this condition significantly weakened his heart, its cause was clearly related to an infection and not his diet.

All of this was well documented and openly discussed by Robert himself on national television. Additionally, as Dr. Atkins explained on Larry King Live and other public appearances, he did have a witnessed cardiac arrest in April of 2002. All accounts and records related to this event, and the insight of his treating cardiologist, are consistent with conditions arising from his cardiomyopathy, rather than a lack of blood flow. While Robert did have some progression of his coronary artery disease in the last three years of his life including some new blockage of a secondary artery that was remedied during this admission, he did not have a heart attack.

There is no evidence to suggest otherwise and for any physician to suggest so would be irresponsible, unethical and represent nothing more than an attempt to tarnish the reputation of a man who dedicated his life to solving one of medicines greatest challenges -- the obesity epidemic. Let me state emphatically that I have been assured by my husband's physicians that my husband's health problems late in life were completely unrelated to his diet or any diet.

It is also clear that my husband's death resulted from a serious head injury that occurred April 8th, 2003. Hospital records obviously and unequivocally detail the unfortunate clinical course that transpired following arrival of Emergency Medical Services through the entirety of hospitalization, confirming that after losing consciousness en route to the hospital, Robert's condition failed to improve despite emergency neurosurgical treatment for bleeding within his head. In life, Dr. Atkins was adamant about not wanting life support and when his wishes were honored, and ventilator life support was withdrawn on April 17th, he passed away as has been widely reported in the media.

But it has become clear to me that something as simple as the truth will be perverted and manipulated by dishonest individuals who will stop at nothing and will proceed without any regard for medical ethics or the previously private medical history of Dr. Atkins in an attempt not only to discredit my husband's work but to profit from his death. Work, I might add, that has been consistently and repeatedly vindicated by 18 independent scientific studies over these past three years. I now find myself in the uncomfortable position of having to relive his horrific accident and defend my late husband from people who would convince you that stolen and irrelevant bits and pieces of Dr. Atkins' medical history carry more validity than published scientifically controlled and peer reviewed research out of Harvard, Duke University, the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health.

It is for these reasons that I realized that I must put aside my grief and pain and speak out. Make no mistake about it, Dr. Atkins, at the end of life, was struggling with the effects of his cardiomyopathy and did not hide that fact. Despite repeated, often pathetic and now even illegal attempts by his most bizarre and extreme detractors to make the health of this 72 year old man THE central issue in the all important obesity debate raging in this country and around the world, it is not and never will be relevant. It is a sad and distracting sideshow, taking time away from an intelligent debate of the known science. We should all ask, is caring about what someone else eats so important that some doctors are willing to betray their most basic of oaths, to protect a patient's dignity and confidentiality? It is time to forget the myths and urban legends perpetuated by extremists like those who acted unethically in disclosing my husband's records and pay more attention to the real issues and all available peer reviewed science. I will do my utmost to put an end to this nonsense so that responsible physicians can focus on a debate rooted in fact and moderation and objectivity. We will not engage in espionage, tabloid journalism, or try to shout louder than these shameless individuals and I look forward to the day when Dr. Atkins' soul can rest in peace and I can grieve uninterrupted.


Source: Veronica Atkins
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040209/nym255_1.html

Atkins Widow Sees Campaign Against Late Diet Guru

Mon Feb 9,10:52 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The widow of diet guru Robert Atkins, who died last year after a fall, accused "unscrupulous individuals" on Monday of trying to use his history of heart disease to discredit his ideas about healthy eating.

Veronica Atkins issued a statement acknowledging that her husband had been diagnosed with a heart condition known as cardiomyopathy about three years before he died, and that he had had a cardiac arrest in April 2002.

But she said the condition was caused by a viral infection, and rejected any suggestion that he had died of a heart attack. "My husband's health problems late in life were completely unrelated to his diet or any diet," she said.

Dr. Atkins, who championed a low-carbohydrate, high-protein diet, died in April last year at age 72 after slipping on an icy sidewalk and hitting his head.

According to some estimates, about 10 million Americans follow the Atkins diet or some version of it.

His widow said she was speaking out because otherwise "unscrupulous individuals will continue to twist and pervert the truth in an attempt to destroy the reputation and great work of my late husband."

"These individuals have gone so far as to obtain my husband's personal and confidential medical information from the New York City Medical Examiner's office for distribution to news organizations in direct and knowing violation of federal law," she said.

"Obviously such people will have no trouble picking and choosing bits and pieces of fact and supposition to mislead the world."

Veronica Atkins did not say who she believed was responsible for accessing her husband's medical records.

"It has become clear to me that something as simple as the truth will be perverted and manipulated by dishonest individuals who will stop at nothing... to not only discredit my husband's work but profit from his death," she said.

She said her husband had "dedicated his life to solving one of medicine's greatest challenges -- the obesity epidemic"

Last month New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg sparked controversy when, during a lunch with Brooklyn firefighters, he described Atkins as "fat."

Veronica Atkins demanded an apology, and Bloomberg later offered to buy her a steak lunch to make amends.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...ple_atkins_dc_1

Press Release Source: Stuart Trager, M.D.

Statement by Stuart Trager, M.D., Chair, Atkins Physicians Council on February 10, 2004 Report on Dr. Atkins Weight at the Time of his Death


NEW YORK, Feb. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Today's Wall Street Journal ran a story on the health of Dr. Robert Atkins and grossly distorted and inaccurately reported information that Dr. Atkins was obese at the time of his death. In fact, up until the time he became comatose and lay in the hospital for two weeks. Dr. Atkins' average weight was actually 60 pounds less than reported in the Journal. The newspaper article was based on incomplete personal medical records that were illegally delivered to the newspaper in violation of federal law, coming from a known group of Vegan and animal rights extremists.

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Dr. Atkins' weight was consistently and frequently documented in the years and months prior to his fall; as he was suffering from cardiomyopathy, his health was monitored closely. Due to water retention, this robust 6-foot plus man, who competitively played tennis frequently during the week, had a weight that varied between 180 and 195. During his coma, as he deteriorated and his major organs failed, fluid retention and bloating dramatically distorted his body and left him at 258 pounds at the time of his death, a documented weight gain of over 60 pounds. How and why the Journal reported that he was obese, remains the only unanswered question in this pathetic situation.

Any implication that Dr. Atkins was obese or fat prior to his coma, shows a blatant disregard or even worse, lack of understanding of the medical facts surrounding this case, or of the physiology of severe heart failure and the degree of fluid retention that occurred during this hospitalization. None of us would expect the physicians at PCRM to reveal this in light of their past and their current motivation ... but surely as physicians they understood that this was not obesity, I guess it just didn't support the point they cared to convey ... so they chose to ignore it?


Source: Stuart Trager, M.D.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040210/nytu110_1.html

.............

bump.


I hate to see this happening but I think we should all be aware. I sure some of us will feal the backlash from people we interact with..

Good Lord, they are really desperate. I feel so sorry for Veronica Atkins.......what's next - will someone produce a picture of her eating sugar cubes???

*grrrrrrrrrrrrr*

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/02/1...w.ap/index.html

CNN had an article also, but in the seventh paragraph they say that he gained something like 60 pounds of fluid due to his body shutting down.

I've read several different articles and CNN is the only one that I've seen this in so far.

Already happened. 9_9 Luckily I had a few of your links to post in response.

What else would you expect from people like the PCRM? They will do anything to advance their 'cause'. If some militant vegetarians are willing to plant bombs, as they did twice last year in the town where I was living, do you really think they wouldn't try and tarnish the memory and work of someone like Atkins? They must be near hysteria now as they watch the low carb way of eating spread and gain acceptance.

I don't think PCRM are helping their cause very much. This huge media controversy only serves to call more people's attention to the diet.

I may be wrong, but I think many people are trying LC because they hear great things from friends and family who are happy with LC, not so much because they heard something on the news. And of course, once they try it and understand it and get results, many people become converts and aren't going to listen to PCRM anyway. The results speak for themselves.

There is also this report:

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/s...02106789&EDATE=

Today's News
Atkins-Blasting 'Physicians' Committee is a Front Group for PETA

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- The late Dr. Robert Atkins is being
smeared for his alleged obesity at the time of his death, by a phony doctors
organization that has been exposed as a front group for People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals (PETA) and has been censured by the American Medical
Association (AMA). The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM)
has taken in over $1 million from PETA and the animal rights movement. PCRM
and PETA also share office space, board members, and staff.
The AMA has formally censured PCRM in the past, calling its
recommendations "irresponsible" and "potentially dangerous to the health and
welfare of Americans." The AMA has also called PCRM a "fringe organization"
that uses "unethical tactics" and is "interested in perverting medical
science."
PCRM's attacks on diets including meat, fish and dairy foods, and its
constant demands for a vegetarian America are rooted in an animal-rights
philosophy.
The facts on the late Dr. Robert Atkins:

(1) Dr. Stuart Trager MD, chairman of the Atkins Physicians Council, told
the Wall Street Journal that Atkins' heart disease stemmed from
cardiomyopathy, a condition that was thought to result from a viral
infection. Atkins' weight was due to bloating and water-retention
associated with his condition, and the time he spent in a coma after
his head injury.
(2) Trager's own release this morning reads in part: "Due to water
retention ... [Atkins] had a weight that varied between 180 and 195.
During his coma, as he deteriorated and his major organs failed, fluid
retention and bloating dramatically distorted his body and left him at
258 pounds at the time of his death, a documented weight gain of over
60 pounds."

The Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit coalition supported by
restaurants, food companies, and consumers working together to promote
personal responsibility and protect consumer choices.



SOURCE Center for Consumer Freedom
Web Site: http://www.consumerfreedom.com

I am writing a letter to fox news. I just saw their report and I was totally outraged at the way they twisted this. It was a total scandal report.

Please write to them too.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,110962,00.html


Tuesday, February 10, 2004

NEW YORK — Dr. Robert Atkins (search), whose popular diet stresses protein-rich meat and cheese over carbohydrates (search), weighed 258 pounds at his death and had a history of heart disease (search), a newspaper reported Tuesday.

Atkins died last April at age 72 after being injured in a fall on an icy street.

Before his death, he had suffered a heart attack, congestive heart failure and hypertension, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a report by the city medical examiner.

At 258 pounds, the 6-foot-tall Atkins would have qualified as obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's body-mass index calculator.

Diet is one potential factor in heart disease, but infections also can contribute to it.

Stuart Trager, chairman of the Atkins Physicians Council in New York, told the Journal that Atkins' heart disease stemmed from cardiomyopathy, a condition thought to result from a viral infection.

Atkins' weight was due to bloating associated with his condition, and he had been much slimmer during most of his life, Trager said.

The medical examiner's report was given to the Journal by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a group that advocates vegetarianism. The medical examiner's office told the Journal that the report had been sent to the group in error.

There was no immediate response Tuesday to a call seeking additional comment from the medical examiner's office.

The diet guru's widow, Veronica Atkins, was outraged that the report had been made public.

"I have been assured by my husband's physicians that my husband's health problems late in life were completely unrelated to his diet or any diet," she told the Journal.

Last month, Veronica Atkins demanded an apology from Mayor Michael Bloomberg after Bloomberg called her late husband "fat."

In April 2002, Atkins issued a statement saying he was recovering from cardiac arrest related to a heart infection he had suffered from "for a few years." He said it was "in no way related to diet."

The article you are linking this post to isn't the same as the one you have posted. Looks like Foxnews have changed their tune.

Its pretty pathetic what extent people will go to for a story...even if its all LIES...
I only wish I could have personally known Dr. Aktins myself..His poor wife too....to have to endure this B.S.!!!
Our society can't begin to know what its like to think outside of the box. Sad...really.
The world of medicine needs to start observing the evidence rather than doing overtime on the New England Journal of Medinine, at least when it pertains to dieting. I can't believe how such smart people can be so stupid!!
And for the media and their propaganda....they make me want to vomit!

Revised:

---

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,110962,00.html

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

NEW YORK — The debate over Dr. Robert Atkins' (search) popular high-fat, low-carb diet flared posthumously Tuesday when it was learned that Atkins himself was a bloated 258 pounds at his death.


A city medical examiner's report filed after Atkins' 2003 death from a fall showed the 6-foot doctor was at a weight normally considered obese. A physicians group that is highly critical of the diet released details of the report, claiming the Atkins diet led to weight and heart troubles for its 72-year-old creator.

Atkins' allies immediately disputed that.

The Atkins Physicians Council (search) said the carbohydrate-shunning doctor gained more than 60 pounds through fluid retention in the eight days he spent in a coma before dying last April. He had slipped on an icy street and hit his head.

Atkins weighed 195 pounds when he was admitted, the group's chairman said.

"Critically ill patients, when sustained on fluids in the hospital, gain weight," said Dr. Stuart Trager, chairman of the Atkins Physicians Council, a group affiliated with the Atkins diet empire. "He was grossly swollen, so much so that his family and associates barely recognized him."

The medical examiner's report also noted that Atkins had a history of heart trouble, including congestive heart failure and high blood pressure. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the records on Tuesday.

The doctor's heart troubles had been previously known publicly, and the council asserted Tuesday that they were a result of cardiomyopathy, or an enlarged heart, which it said stemmed from a viral infection, not diet.

"We need to set the record straight. This is a man who managed his weight," Trager said. "Isn't it time to let this man rest in peace?"

Atkins was the author of the best-selling "Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution," which advocates meat, eggs and cheese and discourages bread, rice and fruit. His books sold 15 million copies and attracted millions of followers.

Physicians for Responsible Medicine (search), the group that released the report and promotes a vegetarian diet, acknowledged that fluid retention may have been responsible for some of Atkins' weight gain, but probably not all of it. The group maintains that the Atkins diet poses weight and health risks to the millions who follow it.

A healthy 6-foot man weighing 258 pounds would normally qualify as obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (search). At 195 pounds, he would be considered overweight.

The medical examiner's report was not based on an autopsy but on an external exam. Conditions such as congestive heart failure and high blood pressure would not be observed by the medical examiner in such a case, but would be drawn instead from previous doctors' observations and records.

In April 2002, a year before he died, Atkins issued a statement saying he was recovering from cardiac arrest related to a heart infection he had suffered from "for a few years." He said it was "in no way related to diet."

One doctor not connected to the case said extensive weight gain can indeed occur in comatose patients, especially those with heart trouble like Atkins.

"It's certainly possible that in an effort to try to resuscitate him they keep giving more and more fluids, and essentially he keeps them in the body," said Dr. Robert Yanagisawa of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.

For years nutrition experts and doctors have debated the Atkins diet, which allows up to two-thirds of calories from fat, or more than double the usual recommendation. Atkins argued that carbohydrates generate too much insulin, which makes people hungrier and encourages them to put on fat.

When Atkins' book was first published in 1972, the medical mainstream was promoting a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. The American Medical Association labeled the Atkins' diet "potentially dangerous" and Congress summoned him to Capitol Hill to defend the plan.

The Atkins diet recently gained renewed popularity after studies showed that people lost weight without compromising their health. The studies showed that Atkins dieters' cardiovascular risk factors and overall cholesterol readings changed for the better.

Last month, the doctor's widow, Veronica Atkins, demanded an apology from Mayor Michael Bloomberg after he called her late husband "fat." She declined comment on Tuesday's disclosure.

Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner, declined to comment on the report, which she said was erroneously released to a doctor in Nebraska who requested it and apparently gave it to the vegetarian group.

It was later discovered that the doctor was not "the treating physician" and should not have had access to the report. Borakove said her office planned to complain to Nebraska health officials.

The mayor said the report "should not have been released."