Woman wins £800,000 after detox diet causes brain damage
- added July 22, 2008
- 2 responses
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- LindseyIndigo
- added this
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A 52-year-old mother of two has been awarded £800,000 in damages at the High Court after a nutritional therapist placed her on a radical detox diet that left her brain damaged and epileptic.
Dawn Page, 52, claimed she was told to drink an extra four pints of water each day, and reduce her salt intake, after consulting therapist, Barbara Nash, about losing weight.
Her lawyers said she suffered uncontrolled vomiting within days of being placed on "The Amazing Hydration Diet", but was assured her sickness was simply "part of the detoxification process". She claimed she was later told to increase the amount of water she drank to six pints per day. Less than a week after she started the diet, the former conference organiser, of Faringdon, Oxon, said she suffered an epileptic fit brought on by severe sodium deficiency.
She was treated in intensive care, but doctors were unable to prevent permanent brain damage.
She has been left with damage to her memory, concentration and her ability to speak normally and was forced to quit her job, relying instead on her husband Geoffrey, 54, for help.
Mrs Page weighed 12 stones when she contacted Mrs Nash in late September 2001. She paid £50 for the initial consultation.
Mr Page said the size of the damages reflected the seriousness of his wife's injuries, and warned others of the dangers of embarking on "fad-type" diets.
"She was not obese or even mildly obese, but like a lot of women, Dawn liked to look after her weight and was not having much success with the normal way of doing that," he said.
"She had tried Weight Watchers and calorie control diets, and this was just another potential route for her to lose weight. Her life has been seriously affected, perhaps ruined, by this fad-type way of losing weight.
Dieticians in Britain are regulated by the Health Professions Council (HPC). However nutritional therapists are not required to be. The British Association for Applied Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy (BANT) which has its own code of conduct, said Mrs Nash was not a member. The British Dietetic Association yesterday warned people about the rise in the self-styled and unqualified nutritional therapists.
More evidence, if it were needed, that our obsession with weight loss and the temptation to try ever-more extreme diets is bad for you? Or just a rare case of bad luck for this particular dieter? Can it really be that difficult to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet and take enough exercise to keep you at a health weight and size. Should we all just stop obsessing over our weight and get on with life? My cake-filled, under-exercised face says probably yes to the former, and yes please to the latter, but what do you think?
Dawn Page, 52, claimed she was told to drink an extra four pints of water each day, and reduce her salt intake, after consulting therapist, Barbara Nash, about losing weight.
Her lawyers said she suffered uncontrolled vomiting within days of being placed on "The Amazing Hydration Diet", but was assured her sickness was simply "part of the detoxification process". She claimed she was later told to increase the amount of water she drank to six pints per day. Less than a week after she started the diet, the former conference organiser, of Faringdon, Oxon, said she suffered an epileptic fit brought on by severe sodium deficiency.
She was treated in intensive care, but doctors were unable to prevent permanent brain damage.
She has been left with damage to her memory, concentration and her ability to speak normally and was forced to quit her job, relying instead on her husband Geoffrey, 54, for help.
Mrs Page weighed 12 stones when she contacted Mrs Nash in late September 2001. She paid £50 for the initial consultation.
Mr Page said the size of the damages reflected the seriousness of his wife's injuries, and warned others of the dangers of embarking on "fad-type" diets.
"She was not obese or even mildly obese, but like a lot of women, Dawn liked to look after her weight and was not having much success with the normal way of doing that," he said.
"She had tried Weight Watchers and calorie control diets, and this was just another potential route for her to lose weight. Her life has been seriously affected, perhaps ruined, by this fad-type way of losing weight.
Dieticians in Britain are regulated by the Health Professions Council (HPC). However nutritional therapists are not required to be. The British Association for Applied Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy (BANT) which has its own code of conduct, said Mrs Nash was not a member. The British Dietetic Association yesterday warned people about the rise in the self-styled and unqualified nutritional therapists.
More evidence, if it were needed, that our obsession with weight loss and the temptation to try ever-more extreme diets is bad for you? Or just a rare case of bad luck for this particular dieter? Can it really be that difficult to eat a healthy, well-balanced diet and take enough exercise to keep you at a health weight and size. Should we all just stop obsessing over our weight and get on with life? My cake-filled, under-exercised face says probably yes to the former, and yes please to the latter, but what do you think?
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- LindseyIndigo
- 2 months ago
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I think this woman's reaction was extreme and it was very unfortunate what happened to her. Most diets tell you to drink loads (and 6 pints is not outrageous) and to reduce your salt intake, so I don't think this diet was particularly vicious. In saying that, it is bizarre that no one noticed that something unusual and potentially dangerous was going on given her strong reaction and that is where her therapist failed to do her job.
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- JanaPokana
- 2 months ago
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'Severe sodium deficiency'? This is a tragic story but drinking water, especially these low amounts shouldn't have this effect, what was the rest of the regime? It was not really a Hydration diet. I believe in order to be hydrated you need all your electrolytes and especially your salt levels correct. So you never lower salt intake.
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