- On Tuesday, February 10, 2004 the fall of the Atkins
Empire began with the publication of a medical report on Atkins' body by
the Office of Chief Medical Examiner, the City of New York. This report
was obtained legally and without deception by Richard Flemming, MD, a cardiologist
from Omaha, Nebraska. The report was then sent to Neal Barnard, MD, of
the Physicians' Committee for Responsible Medicine. This organization
gave the report to the Wall Street Journal and they made these findings
public with an added note from the Journal that with a weight of 258 pounds
and a height of 6 feet he would be properly classified as "obese."
That week I appeared on several national TV and radio shows, and was quoted
in newspapers worldwide, including the New York Times ñ taking the
position that his medical report was fair game because he was an icon in
the diet industry, and the lessons learned from his poor health would save
lives.
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- Atkins Medical
Report
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- Since I am a friend of Dr. Barnard and a diametrically
opposed opponent of the Atkins philosophy, it was natural for me to take
the position that these findings are important and should be public. They
are important because the health and appearance of this diet guru reflect
the merit of his advice. The man was grossly overweight for all of the
10 years that I knew him and I had met with him personally on several occasions.
He looked very unhealthy to me every time we met ñ and his medical
reports and the history that has been released by his organization confirm
this. At the very least he suffered from severe heart damage known as cardiomyopathy.
The Atkins organization says this was due to a virus ñ this is
possible, but is an extremely rare cause for this condition. The most
common reason for this severe loss of heart muscle is coronary artery disease
due to a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet. In April of 2002 he suffered
a cardiac arrest and almost died. Information from the Atkins web site
tells us that he had coronary artery disease and suggests he recently had
an angioplasty. His history also includes congestive heart failure and
hypertension. The medical examiner's report says he had a heart attack
also ñ but I have no other history to confirm this. He is reported
to have died from head injuries from a fall on the ice.
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- The Atkins organization denies he was grossly overweight
and claims he weighed between 180 and 195 pounds. They say his medical
records indicate he weighed 195 pounds just before he entered the hospital
at the time of his death. They claim the additional weight, totaling 258
pounds reported by the medical examiner, was from fluid accumulation during
his 9 days of hospitalization prior to his death. That would mean 60 to
80 pounds of fluid, equal to 8 to 10 gallons of water, would have been
added to his body. Any medical doctor who allowed this much fluid accumulation
in a patient in 9 days should have his medical practices reviewed.
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- Michael Fumento of Scripps Howard News Service obtained
the records that reported on Atkins' weight of 195 pounds. He wrote, "The
ërecords' were merely part of a page from an echocardiogram report,
not admittance documents as one might expect. Conspicuously, the blood
pressure numbers were covered."Ö "The echocardiogram report
did show Atkins' weight at 195, but the head of the echocardiography laboratory
told me they don't even have a scale. ëSometimes we get the weight
from ER, and sometimes we don't and don't put anything down,' he said.
ëDo you ever just estimate?' I asked. ëYup,' he replied."
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- See complete Fumento
Article
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- At the present time the media coverage of this story
is largely in defense of Atkins. Some of the press has labeled the release
of the report of his poor health as a "Vegan Agenda," and Mrs.
Atkins, on Dateline (TV show), Friday, February 20, 2004, said those speaking
against her husband are the "vegetarian Taliban" and "they're
nasty."
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- No harm is intended for the Atkins family, but all this
controversy is an opportunity to save countless lives of people who fail
to understand the truth about human nutrition, and especially those who
have been mislead by Dr. Atkins and his organization. If people keep talking
about the science behind low and high carbohydrate diets, then the evidence
will eventually come out. My hope is that the fight escalates. For those
of you who think maligning a dead man is in bad taste ñ think again
ñ Atkins' image is alive and well on TV, radio, newspapers, fast
food restaurant menus, and supermarket shelves ñ making $100 million
a year for Atkins Nutritionals Inc., selling people worldwide a program
that results in short term weight loss (at best), is nearly impossible
to follow, and eventually causes extremely poor health ñ the diet's
founder, Dr. Atkins, is one important piece of the proof. When the Atkins
business stops promoting him, I will stop criticizing him.
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- © 2004 John McDougall All Rights Reserved
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- http://www.nealhendrickson.com/mcdougall/040200puatkins.htm
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