UPDATED: 7:04 AM EST February 13, 2004
http://www.thewbalchannel.com/healt...173/detail.html

BALTIMORE -- You've no doubt heard the latest debate over the low-carb Atkins diet.

The medical records of the late Dr. Robert Atkins were released earlier this week. They call into question the state of his health, when he died last year from a fall.

All this adds to the controversy of the increasingly popular diet. WBAL-TV 11 News Donna Hamilton has this special Health Alert.

The low-carb craze is everywhere -- restaurants, grocery stores, even fast-food outlets are counting carbs and pushing protein. Now one group is upping the ante by calling high-fat, high-protein diets -- the Atkins diet in particular -- downright dangerous.


LOW-CARB CONTROVERSY
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Atkins Nutritionals
Tell Us Your Low-Carb Story



Dr. Neal Barnard is the president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. He says people haven't heard the full story.

"Yes, lots pf people are constipated, they have bad breath, their energy goes down, but those are minor complaints. One in 5 have heart problems, another 1 in 5 has kidney problems."

Dr. Barnard says that's what he hears from people who sign up on their Web site which asks people about bad reactions to Atkins.

53-year-old Jody Gorman was brought in from Florida by the physicians committee for this interview. Gorman blames Atkins for his heart problems. He started on the diet in May of 2000; he was on it for two and a half years.

"It worked wonders for me. I lost 10 pounds. I had literally stabilized my weight. I felt great."

Jody ate steak, Caesar salad, mayo, eggs -- no white flour of bread, or pasta, no sugar. He loved it.

"To me, it was perfect up until the end when I developed heart disease."

It was October 2003.

"I had a crushing type of pain in my chest just from walking."

An eventual angiogram showed a 99 percent blockage in one artery. Jody had received a CT heart scan about 6 months before beginning Atkins.

"It showed zero, no blockages no calcium buildup."

"I have a hard time with other physicians holding that up as credible science."

Dr. Stuart Trager is an orthopedic surgeon at Pennsylvania hospital in Philadelphia -- he's also the chairperson of the Atkins Physicians Council.

"I personally lost weight and followed this approach 4 years ago, when I wanted to get in shape and qualify for the Boston Marathon."

Dr. Trager says he was training harder and recovering more quickly on the diet. It made him more interested in the science of the Atkins approach. He takes exception to what he calls anecdotal evidence that the diet hurt someone.

"Where I'm troubled is a group like PCRM, a group of radical vegans trying to exploit their own agenda on heels of an obesity epidemic and taking advantage of individuals, using an anecdote to compare to real science."

Both sides do agree that long-term scientific studies need to be done to truly get to the bottom of this debate. In the meantime, you'll get this:

"Are health problems happening more frequently to people who are on this diet? We suspect that's exactly the case."

And this:

"People need real solutions that work for them in the real world, the benefit of Atkins is it works for real people in the real world."

And unfortunately it doesn't end there. According to government statistics, nearly two-thirds of all adults in this country are overweight.

Donna Hamilton, WBAL-TV 11 News.

I wonder why a healthy 53 yr-old man would need a CT heart scan? Sounds bogus to me. He had problems long before Atkins.
This is a guy detractors "invented" to parade around.

Oh, yes, the notorious Dr. Bernard and the PCRM. How anyone can buy that load of bull is beyond me, but then there are some really gullible people out there. Since I personally know at least 5 other Atkins' devotees (many more actually) and NONE of us have heart or kidney problems, I think Dr. Bernard needs to open up his tightly closed mind and do some REAL research.

'Nuf said.

shortstuff

The PCRM is not a reliable source of information.

Criticisms:
http://www.activistcash.com/organiz...view.cfm/oid/23
"The Physicians Committee...is a fanatical animal rights group that seeks to remove eggs, milk, and meat from the American diet, and to eliminate the use of animals in scientific research. Despite its close ties to violent animal-rights zealots and “above ground” animal activist groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), PCRM has successfully duped the media and much of the general public into believing that it represents the medical community.
While PCRM presents itself as a doctor-supported, unbiased source of health guidance, the group’s own literature shows that 95 percent of its members never graduated from medical school. And the American Medical Association (AMA), which actually represents the medical profession, calls PCRM a “fringe organization” that uses “unethical tactics” and is “interested in perverting medical science.”

see also
http://www.ncahf.org/articles/o-r/pcrm.html
http://www.animalrights.net/articles/2003/000102.html
http://www.animalrights.net/articles/2003/000287.html

just because people are on atkins doesn't mean it gives them license to eat high animal fat foods and foods without nutrition. it is a persons own responsibility to make healthy choices on any diet and atkins can be more nutritious then most. i knew someone who ate nothing but bacon for induction. gee, i wonder why she didn't feel well...
just like any wol it is a persons personal choice.
ps. i hope that i live as long an as healthy life as atkins. when people talk about him passing away from health problems do they forget he was not 30 years old?

I'm surprised anyone is duped by PCRM anymore. I had an email exchange with a reporter from our local paper who printed a load of lies and distortions by them. He claimed to understand what they were, although he printed their drivel like it was a real medical group that distributed it. I'm hoping he thinks twice next time he's got a chance to do a story based on their lies.

SLow news day in bal'more. Sorry hun that is a 6 month old press release from a fanatic over the edge organization with an Agenda all its own to regulate your life.

My favorite response to the sentence "Dr. Atkins was killed by that diet of his" is that, "He was in his early seventies and still playing tennis!"

Ofcourse there will be more hart attacks with atkinsers.

Because they have hart-attack related reasons to start with it!
We can expect many cases of this if more people start eating low-carb.

No problem, the question is if they had more chance on heart problems before then after starting with the diet, or more or less on another type of diet.

You shouldn´t blame the garage if you take your car out while it is being repaired and then claim it´s their fault if it breaks down.