Model Dies of Heart Failure Caused by Malnutrition
Uruguayan model, Luisel Ramos, died this past August on the catwalk. The cause of death was heart failure due to malnutrition. This month, six months later, her younger sister, Eliana Ramos, has also died of sudden death by malnutrition.
I’ve written previously about the need to treat all women with love regardless of their size, particularly those in the entertainment and fashion industries. The Ramos sisters are just another symptom of something gone badly wrong. Christina Jones of eBeautyDaily writes:
I blame it on all the people that know full well that the whole industry (fashion AND Hollywood) is using hard drugs (crystal meth, cocaine, heroin) and is turning a casual eye to it.
Cocaine is one of the most common causes of heart attacks for people in their 20’s and 30’s. People suffering from eating disorders may also experience an irregular heart beat from lack of nutrients due to changes in the heart muscle that can lead to heart failure and death.
What do you think? Should we care or not? It’s not as if people are forcing these young women (and men) into modeling nor are they sewing their mouths shut and forbidding them to eat. Yet, when I see stories about how these models’ bodies are ravaged, I can’t help but wonder if there’s something we should be doing.
smh.com.au, February 14, 2007
Tags: supermodels, modeling, heart, heart disease, heart failure, luisel ramos, eliana ramos, cardiovascular disease, eating disorders, anorexia, bulimia
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POSTED IN: Hearty News
7 opinions for Model Dies of Heart Failure Caused by Malnutrition
Kristen King
Feb 14, 2007 at 8:35 pm
This is so sad. I was recently reading about new nutritional guidelines for models. I’ll have to dig up the link and blog about it.
kk
Elana
Feb 14, 2007 at 9:29 pm
What are you talking about? Of course you should care. Only an envy spiteful spirit would not care. Unfortunately, even as these girls/women reach for beauty and the dream of being stars, there are evil envious people in these businesses who seek to have them make Faustian pacts that cause them pain and hasten their demise.
Drugs is part of this picture, but the subjective nature of these businesses means that they are also subjected to other abuses, emotional, psychological, and sexual. There are so many gate keepers, and they all want their ‘pound of flesh’.
This is another reason for the drugs - to try to medicate away the pain of letting some vile individual paw you because that was the price of entry - and whether you are more or less beautiful, there will be an excuse and this will be the demand. One has to know when to keep one’s power and walk away, because a person can not only lose one’s mind and spirit in these ‘dream’ businesses, one can lose one’s body.
Those who pay the prices and take the pills thinking their youth will protect them, that is exactly what these evil people envy. To watch it shrivel up and see them die, that gives them pleasure and a sense of power, then dispose of them and bring on the next bunch of hopefuls. The problem is not in the dreams, but in the industry and their immoral life-destroying demands.
Fernanda
Feb 15, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Im From Uruguay, and i cant believe that you say this kind of shit.
She didn’t die because malnutrition, she died because she has a heart disease, like her sister.
both of them were really famous here in Uruguay, and everyone that had met them know that they were really healthy and not anorexic, or bulimic, and they didn’t take drugs.
Please don’t say this kind of thing again without the real information. Is really painfull for the people that love them.
Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD
Feb 15, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Kristen: Come and share the link to your post when you do!
Elana: Thanks for your powerful comment. I really don’t think most people know what actually goes on in the industry and to see this sort of thing going on is absolutely heartbreaking.
Fernanda: I understand that you’re upset but every single news report states that medical examiners concluded the sisters’ malnourished state led to heart failure and sudden death. At the time of her death, Luisel had a body mass index of only 14.5 when anything under 18.5 is considered underweight.
Genevieve
Feb 17, 2007 at 1:05 am
Obviously it’s a leap to say they were both doing drugs. It’s clear that neither sister indulged in drug abuse but it’s a leap to say that Luisel Ramos was just underweight.
I think it’s time to talk about eating disorders and the fact that this disease kills. No one wants to face the fact they indulge in things that can kill them or that in a civilized and modern world, that an industry can promote products or service or advertising that can damage people’s health or kill them.
Look at cigarettes and lead advertising in the 1930’s. Advertisers pushed that look and in case of cigarettes, many famous stars who smoked, DIED. Everyone isn’t going to die from eating disorders (they simply compromise their health in later years) but some do. This is one case and we need to start to ask ourselves, “Are we dying to be fashionable?” Does our worth lie within our looks?
Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD
Feb 19, 2007 at 11:39 am
Genevieve: Agreed. It’s all speculation but there’s no doubt that the Ramos sisters were extremely underweight. For some, it may not cause death but in their case, it did. Comparing eating disorders and cigarettes is very interesting!
www.parentheartwatch.org
Feb 22, 2007 at 5:29 pm
FYI - There are approximately 18 heart syndromes that can cause sudden cardiac arrest in children and youth. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and Long QT Syndrome, just to name the top two leading causes of sudden cardiac arrest in youth. These are also GENETIC syndromes (although long QT can also be acquired from certain drug exposures, like diet pills, depression drugs and ADHD drugs). No doubt the girls nutrition played a part BUT it may not have been the actual catalyst. The fact that two family members be stricken should raise suspicion of something genetic and heart realted. Learn more about sudden cardiac arrest in youth at http://www.sads.org, http://www.parentheartwatch.org. Pray that the family gains a definitive cause of death for both of their children and that they undergo cardiac screening for the rest of the family.
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