A 16-year-old girl from Central China’s Hunan province almost lost her life after attempting a dangerous diet of just vegetables and laxatives to lose weight fast.
In a desperate attempt to fit into a new birthday dress, the Chinese teenager, identified only as Mei, adopted a crash diet that landed her in the hospital. For two weeks, Mei only consumed small portions of vegetables and laxatives and was eventually rushed to the hospital after suddenly losing strength in her arms and legs, and developing shortness of breath. Emergency blood tests showed that Mei’s blood potassium levels had dropped to dangerous levels, resulting in a condition called serious hypokalaemia. If left untreated, the life-threatening condition can cause respiratory failure and sudden cardiac arrest.
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Mei told doctors that she had been on a diet of vegetables and laxatives for two weeks, hoping to lose enough weight to fit in her birthday dress. The 16-year-old’s extreme diet put her in critical condition, on the brink of cardiac arrest, and she needed an emergency 12-hour medical procedure to survive. She made a miraculous recovery and was recently discharged from the hospital, but doctors used her case a cautionary tale for other people looking to lose weight fast without giving too much thought to their health.
“She treated herself quite harshly. All she needs to do is to run 5km a day,” one person commented on Weibo, China’s version of Twitter.
“Laxatives. She was not losing weight, she was trying to kill herself,” someone else wrote.
