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Doctors warn of slimming fad dangers
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CITY doctors are warning slimmers that a “traditional” weight-loss method popular with young women is extremely harmful.
On Wednesday, a 17-year-old Shanghai girl who took excessive quantities of brown sugar and Epsom salt — magnesium sulfate — in order to lose weight had to be rushed to hospital.
She had suffered severe diarrhea, become extremely dehydrated and had fallen unconscious, said a spokesman for Shanghai Tianlun Hospital.
The teenager has since returned home, the hospital told Shanghai Daily yesterday.
Xu Shaozhi, a doctor at the hospital, said the brown sugar and Epsom salt folk remedy doesn’t work and is dangerous.
“People who take brown sugar and Epsom salt say they lose weight. But they’re not losing fat, they’re losing water and electrolyte,” Xu said.
The doctor said taking more than 3.5 grams of magnesium sulfate can cause severe diarrhea, dehydration and put the person in a coma.
“It can cause great harm to the gastrointestinal system,” warned the doctor.
Local hospitals, including Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai No. 1 People’s Hospital and Zhongshan Hospital, have all reported admitting young women who became ill after using dangerous weight-loss treatments.
Shanghai Daily found that Epsom salt was being sold in some 1,000 online stores on Taobao.com — though it has many health, beauty, household and gardening uses.
One local store has sold 216 batches this month.
Many web users certainly view it as an effective slimming aid.
“Ten grams of Epsom salt and 20 grams of brown sugar a meal made me lose about 7.5 kilograms in weight,” web user E6979173, who claimed to be a 26-year-old man, posted on ask.39.net.
This is almost three times the danger level outlined by Xu.
While some web users said the sugar burned fat and the Epsom salt expelled toxins, others were more dismissive.
“Magnesium sulfate is just a laxative,” posted web user Yanye on www.boohee.com.
Many online stores say magnesium sulfate can help treat gallstones. But Chen Xin, a doctor at Tianlun Hospital, said this was incorrect.
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