A 16-year-old girl from China’s Hunan Province narrowly escaped death after embarking on a dangerously restrictive diet involving only vegetables and laxatives in a bid to lose weight rapidly.
The teenager, identified only as Mei, was reportedly trying to slim down quickly to fit into a new dress for her birthday. In a desperate attempt to alter her appearance, she consumed nothing but small portions of vegetables and laxatives for a full two weeks.
Her crash diet took a critical toll on her health. Mei was rushed to hospital after she began experiencing sudden weakness in her arms and legs, coupled with shortness of breath. Emergency blood tests revealed that her potassium levels had plummeted to dangerously low levels, leading to a condition known as severe hypokalaemia.
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If left untreated, hypokalaemia can cause respiratory failure, arrhythmias, and even sudden cardiac arrest.
According to reports, Mei’s condition was so serious that she required an emergency 12-hour medical procedure to stabilise her condition. Doctors stated she had been on the verge of cardiac arrest. Thankfully, she made a full recovery and has since been discharged from hospital.
Medical staff used Mei’s experience to highlight the dangers of extreme dieting, warning others against prioritising rapid weight loss over basic health and nutrition.
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Her story also sparked widespread discussion on Chinese social media platform Weibo, where users reacted with a mixture of concern and disbelief.
“She treated herself quite harshly. All she needs to do is to run 5km a day,” one user wrote.
Another was more critical, commenting: ”Laxatives. She was not losing weight, she was trying to kill herself.”
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Health experts continue to caution against unsupervised weight loss methods, particularly among teenagers, whose bodies are still developing and especially vulnerable to nutritional imbalances.
