Man eats only cheese, hamburgers and lumps of butter for eight months: this is the result

Cardiologists at Tampa General Hospital in Florida described the extraordinary case in a paper published this week in JAMA Cardiology, a scientific journal. The photos accompanying the article in particular were almost shocking. “As if his hands would burst open at any moment,” he said.

It is not clear why the man switched to those bad eating habits. His identity is also unknown. But he did say that he had not felt this good in years and that he had even lost a few pounds since switching to the extremely fatty diet.

According to JAMA Cardiology, the patient went to the doctor because he was concerned about the painless but very noticeable “yellowish nodules” that were starting to develop in various places on his body. Especially on his hands and elbows. A kind of blisters with a yellow liquid inside. It started with his eyes, but eventually his palms also turned yellow. And even more disturbing, occasionally a yellow liquid would literally ooze out.

Extremely high cholesterol

A blood test was all that was needed for the doctors to find out what his problem was. The man said he had been eating only cheese, hamburgers and steak and butter for eight months. His blood cholesterol level was higher than 1,000 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dl), well above normal. For context, healthy blood cholesterol levels should be below 200 mg/dL, while high cholesterol levels start at more than 240 mg/dL. In other words, the man was a ticking time bomb. He could have a heart attack at any time.

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Xanthelasma is the name of his problem. These are deposits of cholesterol that accumulate under the skin. Normally, excess cholesterol and other fats in our blood are cleared away by white blood cells called macrophages. But when this process is disrupted, these macrophages turn into “foam cells” containing cholesterol. Those cells can burst.

Healthy diet

But no matter how gross they look, xanthelasmas themselves are harmless and can be removed through surgery or other cosmetic procedures. The cause must be addressed. The doctors put the man in his forties on a healthier diet than the one he was currently following. And he may also have to take cholesterol-lowering drugs for the rest of his life.