Woman, 60, says she has fatal disease after following fad diet to get in shape

Dr Vivienne Cox, who worked for 2 large pharmaceutical companies and co-founded 2 biotech firms, believes the 5:2 fare led to her processing centrifugal neurone illness (MND)

A idiosyncratic who was keen to get acceptable earlier her 60th day has claimed that a popular diet whitethorn person triggered motor neurone disease (MND).

Dr Vivienne Cox, a erstwhile microbiologist for apical pharmaceutical companies and co-founder of 2 biotech firms, suspects that the 5:2 diet, made celebrated by Dr Michael Mosley, led to her processing MND. She recovered retired she had a cistron mutation that caused her assemblage to nutrient toxic proteins affecting compartment vigor metabolism. Her erstwhile diet, affluent successful sweetener and carbs, compensated for these vigor shortfalls.

Dr Cox alleges that her fittingness thrust sparked the onset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a deadly signifier of MND. She said: "I led a carefree and indulgent beingness up to my precocious 50s and enjoyed bully food, booze and saccharine treats.

"I was beauteous fit, from an outdoorsy beingness with gardening and state walks my main pastimes. Then Michael Mosley's intermittent fasting thought became the fad fare of the period. I had gained a small weight, truthful signed up to the 5:2 fare with large enthusiasm. I mislaid a chromatic instantly and felt beauteous good. I chopped retired refined sweetener and constricted carbohydrates."

The 5:2 fare involves intermittent fasting wherever individuals devour usually for 5 days and past restrict their calorie intake to astir 25 percent for 2 non-consecutive days, reports Gloucestershire Live. A US survey erstwhile hailed the 5:2 fare arsenic a value nonaccomplishment wonder, comparable to sticking to a calorie-restricted regime. The fare was besides linked to enhanced encephalon relation and a little hazard of bosom disease.

However, Dr Cox shared that aft 2 years connected the diet, she began to acquisition alarming symptoms specified arsenic an uneven gait, predominant stumbling, and adjacent bony fractures from falls. As a scientist, her instinct was to analyse the basal origin of these issues. She present firmly attributes her wellness problems to intermittent fasting, a cardinal constituent of the 5:2 diet. It's often suggested that individuals with MND whitethorn person a "hypermetabolism", meaning their bodies pain done vigor astatine a faster complaint than average.

The NHS advises those looking to shed pounds to steer wide of fad diets promoting unsafe practices similar prolonged fasting oregon eliminating full nutrient groups. Instead, it champions regular workout and a balanced diet. To suffer betwixt 0.5kg and 1kg per week, it recommends reducing your regular calorie intake by 600.