Did eating keto contribute to Mishti Mukherjee’s death?

October 6 2020 by in Keto, Kidneys, News

Courtesy of Mishti Mukherjee’s Facebook profile

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

Andre Chimene
October 6 2020 11
Dear Laura...Einstein is famous for saying “If you cant explain it to a six year old, you dont understand it yourself”
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.

Reply: #162

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Dr Roshani Sanghani, American Board certified Endocrinologist
October 6 2020 10
Thank you Dr Scher for making a prompt, balanced and appropriate reply to this. I had people forward the same article to me and was explaining it on a 1:1 basis. There was no scientific explanation for how the author made this claim. It's sad to know of Ms Mukherjee's demise and we would be doing a disservice at a societal and scientific level if we don't demand more information before making such statements. Also, even in patients with chronic kidney conditions, "low protein" still means 0.8 gram protein per kg per day, which is actually higher than what most people in India take at baseline. So for those who got alarmed by reading this form of journalism covering Ms Mukherjee's health, always check the facts before jumping to conclusions. We are all aiming for the same thing. To make more informed choices to achieve better health.
I have seen low carb approaches actually help improve kidney health in my practice as a low carb endocrinologist.

Read more →

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7 comments removed
158
Andre Chimene
October 6 2020 11
Dear Laura...Einstein is famous for saying “If you cant explain it to a six year old, you dont understand it yourself”
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.

Reply: #162
159
Honeymay
October 6 2020 3
I just recently read about a few people who had stage 4 kidney disease and then went on a keto diet and cured themselves! Everyone is different! I myself, cured my diverticulitis by going from vegan, ending up in the hospital on IV antibiotics because I had no immunity to going keto, eating meat again and staying off grains in all forms and diverticulitis free! Also lost 33 lbs and feel so much better! https://perfectketo.com/ketosis-kidney/
160
Dr Roshani Sanghani, American Board certified Endocrinologist
October 6 2020 10
Thank you Dr Scher for making a prompt, balanced and appropriate reply to this. I had people forward the same article to me and was explaining it on a 1:1 basis. There was no scientific explanation for how the author made this claim. It's sad to know of Ms Mukherjee's demise and we would be doing a disservice at a societal and scientific level if we don't demand more information before making such statements. Also, even in patients with chronic kidney conditions, "low protein" still means 0.8 gram protein per kg per day, which is actually higher than what most people in India take at baseline. So for those who got alarmed by reading this form of journalism covering Ms Mukherjee's health, always check the facts before jumping to conclusions. We are all aiming for the same thing. To make more informed choices to achieve better health.
I have seen low carb approaches actually help improve kidney health in my practice as a low carb endocrinologist.
161
Ron Rosedale
October 6 2020
In no other "science" is correlation so often conflated with cause..
162
Reply to comment #158 by Andre Chimene
Yooswal Owcum
October 6 2020
"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.

Reply: #163
163
Reply to comment #162 by Yooswal Owcum
Andre Chimene
October 6 2020 2
Again...you make an extraordinary claim...where is your extraordinary evidence?

Here’s one more for you.

“What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence”
Christopher Hitchens
1 comment removed
165
Rebecca
October 6 2020 1
My mum had kidney failure, brought on by multiple myeloma (a blood cancer) and she had a rather restricted diet. But protein was not at all restricted, she could eat the same amount of protein anybody with healthy kidneys is recommended in the government food guide.
166
D HolMes
October 7 2020 1
It was very sad to hear this lady lost her life recently. But Kidney Disease is a silent killer. The whole story was trying to blame it on a low carb way of eating. We don't know her whole story to make any judgement.
I find it a huge annoyance when they say Keto is so dangerous. Lets look at the other side of this discussion.
The high manmade carb diet we have been put on for past 50 years that uses white flours, high white sugar products, manmade dangerous fats like trans fats that have been stripped of nutrition, isn't that more deadly for us all???? Isnt that diet now killing us in high numbers these days with heart disease, Diabetes and other inflammatory diseases. Is that news story being reported, that Sugar killed him or her?
Keto is a diet that uses healthy vegetables that grow above the ground, moderate proteins and healthy fats made by God like Olive Oils, Coconut oil and Butter. Keto Breads are not made on inflammatory wheat products but using nuts instead for flour.
The protein is moderate quantities of Beef, Fish and Chicken, nuts and seeds. Green vegetables and berries are natural foods. It's a very natural Lifestyle. Its a diet that every person can tailor it to their taste.
167
Corinna
October 7 2020
What 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.

Reply: #168
168
Reply to comment #167 by Corinna
Corinna
October 7 2020 1
We need more low carb medical practitioners to share their knowledge and views about this; for instance Dr Eric Berg, Dr Paul Mason, Dr Sten Ekberg.
1 comment removed
170
Triza
October 7 2020 1
Thanks for this article. I was equally shocked to read about the passing of the woman and blaming it on keto diet. There was no scientific evidence in that article that she died of keto diet. Unfortunately there was no reply option. I have been on this diet over 5 years now. I will never go back to eating junk
171
Ken
October 7 2020
Nevermind the fact that keto IS NOT high protein, as stated in the article. Sounds like more hogwash from the plant people.
172
Pauline
October 7 2020
Everyone 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!
173
Holly
October 7 2020 2
Keto can be dehydrating and that can stress out renal function if kidneys are already compromised. That was never mentioned.
174
Ingrid
October 8 2020 1
Keto diet is the best diet for losing weight, control diabetes, high blood pressure and feel good with your self esteem.
175
Antonio Bueno
October 8 2020 1
There's all kinds of keto diet plan. I don't believe it was the keto. Keto is eating healthy on my understanding. The question is what can cause kidney failure and go from there.
1 comment removed
177
Lalodndc
October 8 2020 3
What nobody mentions here is She was from India, they usually eat high veggie food, so if you veggan abruptly change from little protein to higher one then you put lots of stress in your body! 2) Valter Longo is one of the best source in evidence that animal protein excess cause kidney failure! 3) ketosis is not the problem, you can be in ketosis by just fasting or by just low carb, low protein! 4) you need variation rather than make ketogenic diet a lifestyle, you can be in ketosis just 3 days a month and veggan next etc.
1 comment removed
179
ShivaD
October 9 2020 3
I was equally disturbed at how they jumped to keto being to blame. It sounded like her family made that assumption because it goes against their nutritional beliefs. Interesting that I've never seen veganism blamed when people like Prince pass away. The fact they think keto is high protein shows their lack of understanding. I just tune stuff like this out now. RIP to her.
180
Oggygolfer
October 9 2020 1
@Lalodndc...animal protein and fat is the best most nutritionally dense food...you quoted Volter Longo...well Paul Saladino, Shawn Baker, Paul Mason , Ken Berry, Rob Cywes would totally disagree.
181
lalodndc
October 9 2020 1
@oggygolfer, I agree that animal protein is a superfood, the thing mainstream media still not get is the frequency in meat consumption or the paleolitic statistics that we did not evolve to eat animal protein 7 days a week or 365 days or being in ketosis for a lifestyle, please read Taleb and Longo on animal protein frequency. The natural consumption for meat was like a Lion does,it get it in random lumps or lets say once per week in big amounts, which is different than frequent kidney stress, so cavemen did it like that they apent days getting veggies while waiting for prey, also many people don't get that animal proteins don't conserve well, if you were a skimo in north pole you would eat lots of fat from fish and believe it or not they ate lots of fruits in summer.
182
Dr. Tanmoy Das, MD
October 10 2020 1
As per the media reports, the actress was suffering from kidney disease, which resulted in her untimely death. It is possible that her renal disease was pre existing and she was trying out the ketogenic diet as a last resort. The newspaper article contains a bunch of claims without any evidence. The media in this country is known to hype up issues without even understanding what the basic facts are. Though the low carb doctors like me are having a tough time explaining the whole thing to many, it's best to ignore the article and allow the hype to die down.
183
Joseph D
October 11 2020
The media in India do tend to insert their own opinions without corroboration and with a lack of clarity.
184
don
October 18 2020
The 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.
185
cavenewt
October 18 2020
@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.

Did eating keto contribute to Mishti Mukherjee’s death?

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