TAMPA -- A Tampa man's high-fat diet raised his cholesterol levels so much, it was literally oozing out of his hands and into medical history.
Cardiologist Kostas Marmagkiolis of Tampa Heart and Vascular Associates and Tampa General, co-published a paper in a JAMA cardiology journal after treating a man in his 40s who went on a carnivore diet he saw on the internet to lose weight and feel better. The doctor says the man had discovered the diet on the internet and was eating six to nine pounds of fatty meat, butter and cheese a day. The patient had lost weight and felt more mental clarity, and showed no symptoms of cardiovascular disease, but he had an odd symptom when he showed up to see the doctor last spring.
"(He showed up) with a new rash on his hands," Dr. Marmagkiolis said.
The yellow nodules on his hands were symptoms of xanthelasma according to Marmagkiolis. That happens when cholesterol levels are so high that the body pushes it out through extremities. While that condition is harmless, the underlying cholesterol levels could lead to atherosclerosis.
Marmagkiolis recommends that a physician monitor cholesterol levels for anyone trying this diet.
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