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NOPE
Medium reported severity

Man with diabetes reportedly develops dangerously low sodium after ChatGPT zero-salt diet advice

The Times of India reported on 10 November 2025 that a 62-year-old man with diabetes from Hyderabad had sudden weight loss and dangerously low sodium levels after following a diet plan suggested by ChatGPT, which advised him to cut salt intake completely. The article gives no hospital, date or treatment detail, and a government nephrologist is quoted commenting on both cases in general terms. The chat was not shown.

AI system
ChatGPT
OpenAI
Occurred
Event date unknown
Reported
10 November 2025
Event location
India
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Medical Deterioration
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Health
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 2 sources, 1 underlying account
1 claim: 1 reported. 3 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

Reported harm

The man reportedly developed sudden weight loss and dangerously low sodium levels after following the ChatGPT diet plan.

What remains unknown

  • The event date is not given. TOI says the incidents were 'recently reported'; a 2025 start is inferred from the 10 November 2025 article date and is not stated by the source.
  • The ChatGPT conversation was not shown, so the exact advice (the article says "completely reduce salt intake") is second-hand.
  • Other causes of the low sodium (diabetes medication, diet, illness) are not addressed in the article.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The Times of India report states the ChatGPT-suggested diet and the resulting low sodium in one passage without naming the source of the account. The account is unverified.

1 claim: 1 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported A 62-year-old man with diabetes in Hyderabad reportedly suffered sudden weight loss and dangerously low sodium levels after following a diet plan suggested by ChatGPT that advised him to reduce salt intake completely.

Causal attribution. The article states the causal link in the reporter's voice with no clinician or patient attribution for this case (the article adds that the advice 'proved harmful given his pre-existing condition'), and the chat was not shown. The rewrite says "cutting salt completely".

Sources

2 sources inspected, from 1 underlying account. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Event countries: India. Affected-person countries: India. Court countries: Unknown.

The Times of India report is datelined Hyderabad and describes the man as "from the city". The hospital where the low sodium was diagnosed is not stated.

Reviewed for publication 2026-09-29: The Times of India report states the ChatGPT-suggested diet and the resulting low sodium in one passage without naming the source of the account. The account is unverified. The event date is not stated by the source (the Times of India says only that the incidents were recently reported), so the case is published undated.

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

One man is reported harmed.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Man with diabetes reportedly develops dangerously low sodium after ChatGPT zero-salt diet advice. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-hyderabad-diabetic-man-zero-salt-diet-chatgpt-low-sodium

BibTeX

@misc{2025_hyderabad_diabetic_man_zero_salt_diet_chatgpt_low_sodium,
  title = {Man with diabetes reportedly develops dangerously low sodium after ChatGPT zero-salt diet advice},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-hyderabad-diabetic-man-zero-salt-diet-chatgpt-low-sodium}
}

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