- If an AI tells you to eat something, you probably shouldn’t before asking an actual doctor.
There’s so much who-knows-what in the foods we eat. Frankly, it’s not always a bad idea to cut back on the bad stuff and eat a healthier diet.
That said, when altering your eating habits, you should seek advice from a professional to ensure that your new diet is actually healthy. And as this case shows, AI is not a professional.
A man recently went to a hospital after becoming concerned that his neighbor had poisoned him. However, his behavior was so erratic that the staff decided that he had to be held at the hospital on an involuntary psychiatric basis.
After some treatments, the man became lucid enough that he could tell the doctors what was going on. Worried about consuming excess salt, he had wanted to swap it with something else in his diet.
To find out what he could use, he had consulted ChatGPT. The AI app had told him to start using sodium bromide — a toxic compound that was the cause of many cases of mental illness in the 19th century.
Indeed, further tests showed that the bromide levels in the man’s blood were off the charts. Luckily, he got better with treatment and was released from the hospital.
Here’s hoping he’ll talk to real doctors in the future instead of AI.
Psychotic Breakdown
The man’s bizarre medical story was detailed in a case study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine: Clinical Cases. According to the report, the 60-year-old man showed up at the emergency department of an unidentified hospital.
He had recently noticed a bunch of strange new health issues, including acne, insomnia, trouble controlling his muscles, and excessive thirst. Speaking with the doctors, he suspected that his neighbor was actively poisoning him.
That was a strange accusation to make, especially as the man didn’t really offer any explanation as to how and why his neighbor would be doing such a thing. Something was obviously wrong, though, so the man was asked to stay at the hospital for tests and treatment.
He kept being very thirsty, but refused to drink any water offered to him, as he was reportedly “paranoid” about its contents. Over the next 24 hours, his paranoia only increased and he began experiencing auditory and visual hallucinations.
Finally, he attempted to escape the hospital due to some imaginary threat. At this point, the doctors determined that they couldn’t allow the man to leave the hospital, as he might hurt himself or others.
So, they involuntarily committed him to the hospital’s psychiatric unit. Tough love, but it was necessary.
Looking for Salt Replacements
After the man was given intravenous fluids and electrolytes, he came back to his senses enough to tell the doctors a bit about himself. It turned out that he was excessively preoccupied with his health and diet.
In an attempt to be healthier, he had started eating an extremely restrictive vegan diet. However, his eating habits weren’t very well planned, as doctors found that he lacked several vital nutrients, including folate and vitamins C and B12.
The man also told them that he had read about the negative effects of sodium chloride — that is, table salt. He wanted to replace salt in his diet, but he had found no literature on what he could use instead of salt.
So, he decided to ask ChatGPT. The AI suggested that sodium chloride could, “in certain contexts,” be replaced with sodium bromide, so he had been eating the stuff for three months.
Clear-cut Case of Bromism
Now, your diet is not a context where salt can be replaced with sodium bromide. That’s because the stuff is toxic and ingesting it will lead to a condition known as bromism.
This condition was very common in the 19th century when sodium bromide was used as a cure-all wonder medicine for everything from headaches to indigestion. Now, the stuff does have genuine medical uses, such as treating epilepsy, but it must be used in very small doses.
Excessive sodium bromide intake will cause the compound to build up in the body. This can result in a wonderful blend of symptoms, including skin problems, insomnia, anxiety, paranoia, and hallucinations.
Sound familiar? Those are exactly the symptoms our man was suffering from.
Suspecting bromism, the doctors decided to test his bromide levels. They were probably not ready for the results.
For reference, a normal, healthy person’s blood bromide level ranges from 0.9 to 7.3 milligrams per liter. Our guy had 1,700 mg/L of bromide in his blood.
AI is Not a Doctor
Fortunately, there is a happy ending to the story. Over three weeks, the man’s nutrient levels improved and his “psychotic symptoms” faded away.
He was taken off his medication and released from the hospital. Two weeks, later, he was still stable, and the treatment was declared a success.
Now, the doctors who treated the man want to emphasize that language learning models found online are not reliable sources of accurate health information.
“It is important to consider that ChatGPT and other AI systems can generate scientific inaccuracies, lack the ability to critically discuss results, and ultimately fuel the spread of misinformation,” the doctors warned.
So, if you’re planning to make drastic changes to your diet? Ask a dietitian, not an AI.