Added: 09/30/2006 |
A Warning About Potential Dangers in the Mayo DietThe reader of the following article is about to learn how a man who hated dieting came close to uncovering the flaw in a popular diet. That gentleman never tried the Mayo diet. He did, however, eat grapefruit on most mornings. He also took blood pressure medicine. His reaction to the combination of BP medication and grapefruit could be viewed as a tragedy waiting to happen.
The creators of the Mayo diet have claimed that ingestion of grapefruit supplies the body with an important enzyme. Apparently, ingestion of that enzyme before eating a full meal aids metabolism of the nutrients in that same meal. Now researchers have uncovered a second affect of that enzyme.
Researchers have now found that the enzyme associated with Mayo Clinic diets does more than assist with the metabolism of ingested food. It also acts on ingested medications. That action has the ability to raise the effective concentration of those same medications. That action has managed to return to the front page of the daily papers some mention of the Mayo diet.
Body enzymes, many in the liver, typically catalyze a chemical conversion of ingested medications. If that conversion does not produce a potentially harmful metabolite, then doctors do not worry about the product of such a reaction. If, however, an enzyme manages to alter the blood concentration of a medication, then the doctors have reason to seek the source of that enzyme.
Such a search has shown doctors that an enzyme in grapefruit or grapefruit juice can raise the blood concentration of almost any medication. For patients that depend on certain medications, that fact is important. That fact points-out the potential danger in the Mayo diet.
For that reason, news reports are now warning those who take blood pressure medicines not to eat grapefruit. In other words, such individuals should not consider trying Mayo clinic diets. For the same reason, patients who take insulin for diabetes should stay clear of the Mayo diet.
The release of the newly-discovered information suggests that a death that occurred on August 4, 1977 was just a tragedy waiting to happen. The man who died that day of a heart attack was taking blood pressure medicine. He and his wife also liked to have grapefruit for breakfast. In other words, he might have lowered his blood pressure to a perilously low level, if he had not first succumbed to a heart attack.
That gentleman had never tried the Mayo diet. He had once endured three days on the Atkins diet. He had also chosen to compete with his own doctor, another man trying to loose some weight. He had experienced some success, and had therefore not felt compelled to try the Mayo diet. In fact, he may have had too much success. He had temporarily sworn-off the need for any diet, and he had had ice cream for dessert at lunch on the day that he died.
That ice cream might have robbed scientists of important information. It might have shortened the life of a man who could have demonstrated to the medical community the potential dangers of the Mayo diet.
Article comments:
No comments for this article yet. Post your comment now!
