In a shocking incident yesterday, BJP MP Bandaru Dattatreya’s 21-year-old son Vaishnav died of an apparent heart attack. The young son of the MP, a third-year student of medicine, complained of chest pain during dinner and collapsed soon thereafter. They rushed him to a hospital in Musheerabad but was declared dead.

Rumours were rife that youngster was following a strict weight loss diet. Media houses reported that his death was caused possibly due to the restrictive diet. But all we know is that a heart attack caused Vaishnav’s death, and no official sources have disclosed the diet angle. But it does raise certain pertinent questions whether dieting can really turn fatal. It turns out that it can if you are following an extremely low-calorie diet.

Reducing caloric intake is one way of losing weight. If the daily requirements are 2000 calories to maintain the current weight, a deficit of 200-500 calories should be created to lose weight over time. That way, the body will use the fat reserves to make up for the deficit.

But in a bid to lose more weight in a short period of time, people go on an extremely low-calorie diet, surviving on as less as 500-800 calories a day. But your body needs a certain amount of calories to perform important functions, without which it can shut down.

A study conducted on cases of 17 individuals who suddenly died of heart attack after following a very low-calorie diet, comprising mostly of protein caused cardiac changes. The obese subjects whose cases were assessed in the study all died of ventricular arrhythmia and had lost a lot of weight in a short time.

Crash dieting, it turns out, is extremely stressful on the heart. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) warn that it can take an extreme toll on the cardiac health. Depriving the body of important nutrients can slow down its metabolism, weaken the immune system and increase the risk of dehydration and arrhythmia.

In a 2018 Oxford study conducted by Dr. Jennifer Rayner and associates found that crash diets can cause a transient deterioration of heart functions. If the person has underlying heart disease, crash dieting can be a death knell.

"These diets have a very low-calorie content of 600 to 800 kcal per day and can be effective for losing weight, reducing blood pressure, and reversing diabetes," she added. "But the effects on the heart have not been studied until now."

The study included 21 obese volunteers who consumed a low-calorie diet of 600-800 calories per day for eight days. MRI tests were performed to see how their health fared. After one week, their total body fat, visceral fat and liver fat had all significantly fallen. An improvement was also seen in cholesterol, blood pressure and sugar levels. However, after one week, the heart fat content had risen by 44 percent. This affected the heart’s ability to pump blood.

There are many real-life cases where weight loss caused by extreme caloric restriction caused death. A bride-to-be from the UK who was on an extremely restrictive 563 calorie died collapsed and died one day. Even liquid proteins used by bodybuilders and fitness experts to combat obesity can be dangerous. A study found that the protein supplement was, in fact, causing cardiac problems and was associated with an increased risk of cardiac death, although the mechanisms were not known.

If you want to follow a weight loss diet, it is best to consult a dietitian or a physician first who may chalk out the right plan for you. Ensure that you don't deprive your body of life-saving calories in a mad rush to lose weight.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 24, 2018 05:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).