Rice Diet
Contents
Summary
supplement summary
Top 3 Uses
- Hypertension
- use 2
- use 3
How To Do It
Inclusions
foods to eat
Exclusions
foods to avoid
Important Notes
additional information, e.g. safety concerns
Description
The Rice Diet started as a radical treatment for malignant hypertension before the advent of antihypertensive drugs; the original diet included strict dietary restriction and hospitalization for monitoring. Some contemporary versions have been greatly relaxed, and have been described as fad diets.[1]
Physiological Impact
- Occasional patients developed life threatening electrolyte imbalances, so Kempner insisted that all patients begin by being hospitalized for several weeks of close observation and monitoring of electrolyte levels. [1]
- quickly stop the leaky arterioles
- lower increased intracranial pressure
- reduce heart size
- reverse the ECG changes
- reverse heart failure
- reduce weight
- markedly improve diabetes (when present) in patients with accelerated hypertension[1]
What Was Measured
Twenty-four-hour urine collections, with measurements of volume, electrolytes and protein, were carried out biweekly. The result was that, in addition to the monotony of the diet, the patient's life was completely disrupted. Kempner's only defense of its use was the fact that “it works,” and that the diet was preferable to the alternative of certain death.
For those who were able to tolerate the process, the results were spectacular! Blood pressure usually began to decline within days to a few weeks, and the related symptoms followed. Papilledema, retinal hemorrhages and exudates began to recede, peripheral edema went away, heart size declined.
Success Rate
His third published report [4], in February 1945, reported results from a mixed group of 213 patients, of whom 83 had primary kidney disease (glomerulonephritis, pyelonephritis, and nephrolithiasis) and the remainder, hypertensive vascular disease. The diet was ineffective in 75 of these patients, including 27 who were in critical condition before the diet was begun. But in 138 patients the diet proved beneficial under careful medical supervision. Several other reports from Kempner indicate similar results: about two thirds of the patients were able to reduce the blood pressure by at least 20 mm Hg, sustained over several months.
- It appears that the rice diet reverses ECG changes in about 50% of cases with abnormalities of the QRS-T angle (axis deviation and T-wave changes)
- patients who followed the diet were often able to gradually transition to a less strenuous dietary regime without adding medications, with no return of the elevated blood pressure, suggesting that the basic illness had been modified [9].
