Diet originator commits suicide

Press, 25 February 1985, Page 6

Diet originator commits suicide

By of “

ROBERT McFADDEN,

“The New York Times”

(through NZPA) New York Nathan Pritikin, the nutritionist and author who advocated a strict regimen of exercise and salt-free, lowcholesterol dieting to reverse the symptoms of heart disease and other ailments, committed suicide on Friday at an Albany, New York, medical centre, aged 69. In the last decade Mr Pritikin became internationally known for his programme. He advanced it with evangelistic fervour in best-selling books, at patient centres and, more recently, with sales of salt-free, lowfat foods throughout the country. Thousands of patients treated at his centres said they had been helped to healthier, happier lives by his programme of exercise and a diet of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, with no red meat.

Medical studies confirmed that his methods helped ease the harsher symptoms of high blood pressure and atherosclerosis, or clogging of arteries, that prompt many Americans to undergo coronary bypass operations. “There is no necessity to have diseases if we change our established habits,” Mr Pritikin once said in an interview. But while acknowledging short-term benefits, many medical experts have questioned whether Mr Pritikin’s therapy can reverse the underlying pathologies of advanced heart disease and not just the symptoms. Long-term studies have yet to confirm whether patients live longer under the Pritikin regimen. Mr Pritikin. who said that by using his programme he had recovered from heart disease diagnosed in 1957, had suffered from leukaemia, a cancer of the blood, for 27 years. His leukaemia had been in remission until a few months ago, said a

spokesman at the Pritikin Longevity Centre, in Santa Monica, California. As the leukaemia had advanced, “a chain reaction of side effects — anaemia, kidney failure, impending liver failure” set in,, said Eugenia Killoran, the centre’s public information director. “He chose to peacefully end his life,” Miss Killoran said. The medical centre said that he had died there and that he had been a patient under an assumed name for 10 days. The Albany County Coroner, Dr John Marra, who listed the death as a suicide, said that Mr Pritikin had asked to be left alone for a time on Friday and had cut his arms with a razor and bled to death. Nathan Pritikin was born in Chicago on August 29, 1916. In the early years of the Depression he dropped his freshman year and became a successful inventor. Developing ideas for General

Electric, Corning Glass, Bendix, Honeywell, and other corporations, Mr Pritikin came eventually to hold more than two dozen patents, which made him wealthy. When, in 1957 at the age of 42, Ae learned that he I

was suffering from heart disease, he put himself on the regimen that he later came to recommend to millions of people. In time, he gave lectures, toured the country, and crusaded for his programme. When his heart disease was diagnosed, he said, physicians were not aware of the relationship between nutrition and disease. “It took two years of research to convince myself my diet was at fault,” he said. In 1976 Mr Pritikin founded the first of his longevity centres, in Santa Barbara. He later moved it to Santa Monica and established others in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, and Surfside, Florida. For fees of SUS6OOO or more patients would be taken into the centres for 26 days of intensive medical study and care, nutrition education, exercise, and a strict diet. Over the years many patients gave testimonials,

some of them telling of remarkable transformations in which they resumed normal lives. Heart specialists have criticised the Pritikin diet as being more stringent than necessary. The American Heart Association does not recommend the diet to the public because of the difficulty of maintaining it. Some critics have called the diet all but useless, and have pointed to Mr Pritikin’s use of public relations rather than scientific channels to advance his ideas. Some said it hurt his cause that he was not a doctor. One of his several books, “The Pritikin Program for Diet and Exercise,” was published in 1979. The latest was “The Pritikin Promise,” which appeared in 1983. Mr Pritikin had also conducted clinical studies to show the relation between diet, exercise, and health. He is survived by his wife, Hene, and five adult children.