A clinic originally designed to treat high blood pressure and kidney disease now serves as one of the most popular weight loss programs in the nation, and it is located just around the corner.
The Rice Diet Program/Heart Disease Reversal Clinic has treated more than 18,000 people from the United States and 25 other countries since its inception in 1939.
"The program was very successful but lost notoriety as other treatments like dialysis were developed, so the focus of this program then turned to the aspect of weight loss," said Dr. Robert Rosati, the clinic's medical director and associate professor of cardiology at Duke.
"People lose more weight on this program than any other [comparable] program and keep the weight off long term," Rosati said.
The strict Rice Diet allows patients to ingest 800 to 1,000 calories per day and contains little or no sodium. Rosati explained that patients begin eating fruits and grains the first few days, then start eating vegetables and slowly integrate protein--mainly chicken or fish.
It costs $4,200 for the first four weeks of treatment and $490 for each additional week; that amount decreases as patient stay lengthens.
Some nutritionists say that without strict adherence to the diet, patients gain the weight back.
"The program is not very realistic as far as what people will do once they leave, especially when we're used to eating red meat and fast food in our diets. But people do lose weight on it and people have been healthier, so why would you not continue to offer this program?" said Franca Alphin, a dietician at Student Health Services and clinical associate in the department of community and family medicine. She added that other diet programs face similar obstacles.
Several patients said they are able to follow the diet once they leave. "When I go home, I follow the diet religiously," said Susan Bass, a patient at the clinic for over four years.
Most patients return to the clinic a few times a year to keep themselves on track. The Rice Diet was originally developed in 1939 by Walter Kempner, former professor emeritus of medicine, as a way to treat patients with kidney failure and hypertension. The rice clinic was formed under the auspices of the Medical Center.
In the past, the program has been located in several facilities, ranging from out-patient services at the Medical Center to boarding houses, where patients live and eat.
Since 1992, it has been housed at a separate facility on Hillsborough Road. Patients come to the clinic for meals, yoga and meditation, lectures and other programs. Rosati said the staff promotes exercises such as walking, and that patients have an affordable gym nearby.
Weight control is just part of the clinic's mission to improve overall health. Four years after Maria Mullally first arrived at the clinic after having a stroke, she has lost almost 200 pounds, and she says she has received additional health benefits.
"When I came here, I was walking with a cane, I was a diabetic on insulin, and I was extremely sick, overweight and unhappy," she said. Mullally admitted she was not an overnight miracle, but said she no longer suffers from diabetes and can walk without a cane.
"This place, and these people have given me my life back," she said.
Bass came to the clinic after a massive coronary heart attack with a cholesterol level of 490. Within four weeks, her level was down to 190. "I had tried everything.... I religiously followed a diet, and I was on cholesterol medication, but nothing significantly lowered my levels until I came to the clinic," she said.
Mullally and Bass said the support system within the clinic also improves patient health. "You form bonds here with the other patients that are like no other bonds you know," Bass said. "Everyone here is going through the same thing.... We're all here to get better."
Jennifer Song contributed to this story.
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