"Self-Help" Treatment Leads to, Um, Self-Death

You have to feel sorry for this chick, but, really, how dumb/desperate do you have to be to subject yourself to this sort of quack "therapy"?

A Quebec woman who died last summer after a reported spa detox treatment was actually a member of a self-improvement group practising risky therapy involving sweating and hyperventilation.

Radio-Canada's Enquête program has learned that Chantal Lavigne, 35, died from hyperthermia, after undergoing a nine-hour session of intense sweating at a home in rural Quebec in July 2011.

The session was part of a seminar called "Dying in Consciousness" led by a self-styled Quebec therapist.

Lavigne and eight other participants were covered in mud, wrapped in plastic and blankets and spent nine hours lying with their heads in boxes while being encouraged to hyperventilate.

Lavigne was eventually taken to hospital unconscious by ambulance, with a body temperature of 40.5 degrees. She died hours later...

"Dying in Consciousness"? Mission accomplished.