Dieting to Disaster

Herbal supplement plus dieting causes rare neurological disorder in Italian woman

MONDAY, June 10, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- An Italian woman following a special diet that contained meal replacements and an herbal supplement lost more than extra pounds -- she also temporarily lost her muscle coordination and had trouble balancing and walking.

While this case is unusual, it highlights the need to be cautious when attempting to lose weight, health experts say.

After a year on the diet, the 30-year-old woman developed a condition known as Wernicke's encephalopathy, doctors report in the current issue of Neurology.

Wernicke's causes involuntary movements of the eyeball, loss of muscle coordination, balance problems and difficulty walking. Untreated, it can be fatal. The condition is most often seen in chronic alcoholics.

The disorder is caused by a lack of thiamine (vitamin B1), which is necessary for metabolizing carbohydrates.

Study author Dr. GianPietro Sechi, an associate professor of neurology at the University of Sassari School of Medicine in Italy, says he was surprised to see this condition in a young, apparently healthy woman.

"It is not something I would have predicted," he says. The rate of Wernicke's is only around 2 percent in the United States, he adds.

Sechi interviewed the woman and found she had been on a weight-loss diet plan from Herbalife International of Europe. She had lost about 55 pounds in 11 months prior to her illness by eating one dietetic meal replacement of about 200 calories and a normal meal containing about 550 calories. She also took a multivitamin, an herbal supplement and a mineral supplement.

He reviewed her caloric intake and her vitamin and mineral intake, and all seemed to be adequate enough to prevent Wernicke's. Sechi also attempted to find out if the woman had been eating foods, like raw fish, that would interfere with the body's ability to absorb thiamine, he reports. She had not.

The doctors prescribed injections of thiamine, and the woman improved almost immediately. Within three days, she no longer had problems with balance or walking.

Sechi says he believes it was a combination of the weight-loss diet and the herbal supplement that caused this woman's illness.

Ruth Kava, director of nutrition for the American Council on Science and Health, agrees that it was probably a combination of the two that made the woman ill, though from what the woman reported it would appear that she had an adequate intake of calories, vitamins and minerals to prevent this deficiency.

The biggest problem with herbal supplements, according to Kava, is that the ingredients often aren't listed on the label, so what you assume is in the product may not be there at all.

"People need to look at these products with great wariness," she says. "The consumer has no idea what they're taking in many cases."

Kava says if you're going to go on a diet that contains less than 1,200 calories a day, you absolutely need a vitamin and mineral supplement because you won't be getting enough nutrients from your food.

What To Do

To learn more about Wernicke's encephalopathy, visit Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to learn about healthy eating.

For information on how dietary supplements can interact with other medications, go to the American Council on Science and Health.

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