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A woman in her 20s who followed an extreme diet — starving herself for six days and bingeing on the seventh — developed acute pancreatitis, according to a report.
The South China Morning Post reported June 12 that a woman in her 20s living in Hangzhou, in eastern China's Zhejiang Province, was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis after managing her diet in an attempt to lose weight.
The woman, identified only as A, stood 155 centimeters tall and weighed 55 kilograms. To shed weight, she ate almost nothing for six days a week and allowed herself to eat freely on the seventh.
On her six fasting days, she restricted herself to blanched vegetables, chicken breast and low-sugar fruit, keeping her daily intake under 800 kilocalories. On the designated "cheat day," she ate freely — hotpot, fried chicken, milk tea and other foods she craved.
Within a month, she had lost 7.5 kilograms, bringing her weight down to 47.5 kilograms. Encouraged by the results, she continued the six-day fast, one-day binge regimen.
On one cheat day, she ate a whole chicken and two packs of ramyun. That night, she was struck by severe pain in her abdomen, lower back and upper back. After vomiting through the night, she rushed to a hospital and was diagnosed with acute pancreatitis.
Experts said the number of acute pancreatitis cases is rising due to extreme dieting and binge eating. Many people believe eating only one meal a day will help them lose weight, but such methods can damage the pancreas, they warned.
When the body remains in a fasted state for an extended period, the pancreas enters a kind of low-activity standby mode. If a person then consumes large amounts of high-fat, high-calorie food, the digestive system is forced to rapidly secrete large quantities of digestive enzymes, overloading the organ and placing severe strain on the pancreas itself.
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