Influencer, 24, di£s after complications from extreme eating

A Chinese mukbang influencer has di£d after suffering a cardiac arrest linked to “low potassium levels”. Chen Ziyi – better known by her online moniker ‘Ganfan Yingying’ – tragically di£d on August 17. Her d£ath has prompted doctors to warn of the health issues that can come with laxative use. Chen, 24, had over 1,000,000 […]

A Chinese mukbang influencer has di£d after suffering a cardiac arrest linked to “low potassium levels”.

Chen Ziyi – better known by her online moniker ‘Ganfan Yingying’ – tragically di£d on August 17.

Her d£ath has prompted doctors to warn of the health issues that can come with laxative use.

Chen, 24, had over 1,000,000 followers online. She was known for her mukbangs – a genre of content which involves eating large quantities of food on camera.

In a final video, shared three days before her death, Chen said she had “not been posting as much” because she was in hospital due to low potassium levels, according to Global Times.

The clip was reportedly filmed from Chen’s hospital bed and saw the influencer revealing she had previously been hospitalised for the same reason.

She admitted she had been intentionally making herself vomit after eating on camera, which is believed to have led to her condition.

Chen said her blood potassium had dropped to 2.3 millimoles per litre, a fatally low level she reportedly attributed to her career as a mukbang influencer.

Normal adult potassium levels typically fall between 3.5 to 5.2 millimoles per litre, with anything dropping below 3 millimoles per litre classified as severe hypokalemia – the medical terminology for dangerously low potassium concentrations in the blood.

Potassium, an electrolyte, plays a vital role in cardiac electrical function, extreme instances of hypokalemia can trigger cardiac arrest, as documented by the National Library of Medicine (NLM).

Hypokalemia is “often caused by an excessive loss of potassium in your digestive tract due to vomiting, diarrhea or laxative use,” according to Cleveland Clinic.

In her final video, Yingying reportedly said she attributed her condition, at least in part, to her longtime habit of vomiting the food she consumes for her social media content.

Elsewhere in the video that became her final message, the influencer told her fans to take care of their health, stating that while “earning money is important, health should always come first,” several outlets reported