Atkins was '18st with bad heart'

Barry Wigmore13 April 2012

Dr Robert Atkins - whose diet is followed by three million Britons - had a serious heart disease and was a clinically obese 181/2stone when he died, a report revealed yesterday.

The 72-year-old died last April after hitting his head when he slipped on an icy New York street.

Yesterday, the respected Wall Street Journal revealed that a confidential report on his death by the New York Medical Examiner had been leaked to them by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which opposes the Atkins diet.

It showed, said the Journal, that before his death the 6ft tall diet guru had suffered a heart attack, congestive heart failure and hypertension.

Last night, his furious widow Veronica hit out at the group of vegetarian doctors who leaked the report.

Mrs Atkins said: ' I have been assured by my husband's physicians that my husband's health problems late in life were completely unrelated to his diet or any diet.

'It is deplorable that unscrupulous individuals should try to use his history of heart disease to discredit his ideas about healthy eating.'

The Atkins diet limits intake of foods such as pasta, potatoes and rice

In April 2002 - a year before his death - Dr Atkins issued a statein favour of meat, fish, eggs and cheese. Critics say the diet's artery-clogging fats are a recipe for long-term disaster.

Medical Examiner's office, said the report had been given to the New York-based Physicians Committee 'in error'.

She said it was sent to a doctor her office believed had been treating Dr Atkins.

He had not been the doctor's physician - but passed on the report to the vegetarian group.

Miss Borakove said a full post-mortem was not performed because of family objections. Instead, the report was based on an external examination of the body and hospital records.

The cause of death was recorded as 'blunt impact injury of the head'.

Some of Dr Atkins's heart problems were confirmed by Stuart Trager, the chairman of his wealthy New York company, the Atkins Physicians Council.

He said he had suffered from cardiomyopathy, a heart disease caused by a virus that had nothing to do with diet.

A hand- written comment in the Medical Examiner's report referred to 'MI' - medical shorthand for myocardial infarction, the technical term for a heart attack.

But Mr Trager denied that Dr Atkins had suffered a heart attack.

He said medical comments on examiner's reports were often written by less- experienced doctors who may not know a patient's detailed history. man who frequently played competitive tennis.

The statement attacked the Journal, saying it had 'grossly distorted and inaccurately reported' the facts.

It added: ' The newspaper article was based on incomplete personal medical records that were illegally delivered to the newspaper in violation of the law.'

An outraged Mrs Atkins also condemned the newspaper.

She said she was speaking out because otherwise ' unscrupulous individuals will continue to twist and pervert the truth in an attempt to destroy the reputation and great work of my late husband'.

She added: 'These individuals have gone so far as to obtain my husband's personal and confidential medical information from the New York City Medical Examiner's office for distribution to news organisations in direct and knowing violation of the law.

' Obviously such people will have no trouble picking and choosing bits and pieces of fact and supposition to mislead the world.'

Last month, Mrs Atkins demanded an apology from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg after he criticised her late husband for being fat. The Mayor has not yet apologised.

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