Did eating keto contribute to Mishti Mukherjee’s death?

Times of India reported that the untimely death of 27-year-old Bollywood actress Mishti Mukherjee was due to kidney failure brought on by a keto diet.
While her death at such a young age is tragic, it’s troubling to read that it was “due to the keto diet” with no further explanation or medical details. Did she have underlying kidney disease before beginning a keto diet? Did she have other medical conditions? These questions are not discussed in the article and leave everyone guessing about the details leading to her death.
Regarding keto diets, the article states:
This diet may put a lot of stress on your kidneys and may lead to kidney stones. Even though keto is a high-fat diet (and not high-protein diet), the moderate increase in protein also needs to be carefully monitored, especially in those who are already suffering from chronic kidney disease or any other kind of kidney ailment.
The article also remarks,
“It is not suggested to continue for more than 45 days in one go as the body starves for other nutrients as well as high protein puts pressure on the kidney without other related precautions…
As we explain in our evidence-based guide to low-carb diets and kidney health, there is no evidence that low-carb diets harm the kidneys of healthy people or patients with mild preexisting kidney disease. However, anyone with advanced kidney disease does need to be very careful, as low-protein diets are generally recommended for that condition.
Also, there is no evidence to support the article’s claims that keto diets starve our bodies of nutrients or put pressure on our kidneys. That is blatant misinformation.
Anyone wishing to educate themselves further on the safe and effective use of a diet with limited carbohydrates is invited to take our free continuing education course. Although it is designed for healthcare practitioners, it is open to anyone interested in accurate, science-based information on low-carb and ketogenic diets.
We’re saddened to hear of Ms. Mukherjee’s passing. We will continue to look for credible evidence to see if a keto diet may have had any role in harming her health. If any additional information arises, we will share it with our readers. For now, know that evidence strongly suggests that eating keto does not harm kidney health unless advanced kidney disease is already established.
Thanks for reading,
Bret Scher MD FACC
24 comments
Top comments
- 7 comments removed
- Ron RosedaleIn no other "science" is correlation so often conflated with cause..
- Yooswal Owcum"Dr" I love how you quote genuses the follow it with a false claim about health disproven over 40 years ago. Your sugar versus fat levels have nothing to do with the mineralsyou need to survive. any dr would know this.
- 1 comment removed
- CorinnaWhat went wrong? One that follows keto diet has to understand the right way of doing it and not following blindly.
Basically Keto Diet is all about having natural food, ditch carbs, sugar & professed food. - 1 comment removed
- KenNevermind the fact that keto IS NOT high protein, as stated in the article. Sounds like more hogwash from the plant people.
- PaulineEveryone who follows a keto diet will die, do people realise that? It’s how a human life ends. So does that mean that everyone who follows a keto diet and dies, therefore obviously dies because of their keto way of life? Maybe the opposite should be reported, that people who eat high carb and especially processed refined carbs and die of diabetes or heart disease therefore died of their high carb lifestyle? Which is far more likely to be the underlying cause, but would never be recognised in te wider world, or reported as such!
- 1 comment removed
- 1 comment removed
- Joseph DThe media in India do tend to insert their own opinions without corroboration and with a lack of clarity.
- donThe fact that the news stories seem to be more abt "keto" than her life indicates that this is all agenda driven. Also did this actress even know anything abt keto, maybe she wasn't doing it properly. Just because someone says they are keto doesn't mean anything. Especially in india where it is a very low protein high carb diet society. To her maybe just eating more meat with your rice and curry constituted "keto", yes that sound silly but there are alot of low information 20 yo out there.
- cavenewt@Corinna: "Keto Diet is all about having natural food, ditch carbs, sugar & professed food."
I agree with your sentiment, but what you said is not right.
Can you explain the mode of action of how ketosis would be anything other than beneficial to humans?
Carl Sagan said”Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”...
you have made an extraordinary claim...so where is your extraordinary evidence?
While you are at it...can you debunk this
”your health is determined by one equation. The proportion of fat versus sugar you burn in your lifetime. The more fat you burn, the healthier you will be. The more sugar you burn, the less healthy you will be”
Dr Ron Rosedale
I look forward to your next response.
I have seen low carb approaches actually help improve kidney health in my practice as a low carb endocrinologist.