Detox diet's four pints of water a day left wife with brain damage

Dawn Page, 52, was told to drink an extra four pints of water per day and reduce her salt intake in a bid to prevent fluid retention and lose weight.

She began vomiting uncontrollably within days of going on The Amazing Hydration Diet but nutritionist Barbara Nash assured her it was all "part of the detoxification process".

Mrs Nash even urged Mrs Page - who weighed 12 stone - to increase the amount of water she drank to six pints per day and eat fewer salty foods.

But on 2 October 2001 Mrs Page, of Faringdon, Wiltshire, suffered an epileptic fit - less than a week after she started the diet.

She was admitted to intensive care at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Swindon where doctors diagnosed a severe sodium deficiency and were unable to prevent permanent brain injury.

She was left suffering epilepsy and with a "cognitive deficit" which has affected her memory, concentration and the ability to speak normally.

Mrs Page, a conference organiser, was also forced to quit her job, suffers frequent mood swings and has relied on her husband Geoff, 54, for help ever since.

On Friday she secured a payout of £810,000 from Mrs Nash's insurance company after a six-and-a-half-year legal battle. Mrs Nash, who refers to herself as a "nutritional therapist and life coach", denies any fault.

The High Court in London ratified the settlement, which was made without mention of liability.

Mr Page said of his wife today: "Like a lot of women, Dawn liked to look after her weight and was not having much success with the normal ways of doing that.

"She had tried Weight Watchers and calorie-control diets - this was just another potential route for her to lose weight.

"But just days after she started the Hydration Diet, she began to feel unwell and started vomiting. Things went from bad to worse, and within another couple of days she collapsed with the fit.

"Her life has been seriously affected, perhaps ruined, by this fad-type way of losing weight, which I can only say is a dangerous method of weight loss."

Plexus Law, the firm which represented Mrs Nash, said in a statement after the hearing: "On behalf of our client, we wish to make it clear that all allegations of substandard practice made on behalf of Mrs Page in the litigation, have always been, and continue to remain, firmly denied."