Suicide by starvation

(Ronald Weaver) #1

I watched an interesting documentary about some Irish Hunger Strikers in the 80’s who managed to commit suicide by fasting to death.
I wasn’t particularly concerned with the politics and was disappointed that there was so little medical/scientific reports.
No disrespect to the young men who lost their lives for what they believed in, but what an opportunity to study fasting to the extreme…were any studies carried out I wonder ?
I was a bit surprised at how quickly Bobby Sands succumbed to terminal ill health…blind after 45 days ?
Have any nutrition experts anything to say about this ?
I’m sure this forum is apolitical so comments about the science only please…

(Duncan Kerridge) #2

I found some excerpts from his diary, he was 64kg when he started, height of 170cm. Which gives him a regular bmi - so maybe 15-20% body fat. Call it 17.5% which is around 10kg or 20 pounds of fat. That’s not a lot, after 30-40 days he’s probably exhausted all of that and the body is starting to eat it’s own lean body mass. He managed 66 days before he died.

(Ronald Weaver) #3

I think the last weight the documentary referred to was about 53 maybe 54 kg after 40 days. At first he was losing approximately 1 kg a day which as you rightly say would have used up all his body fat stores.
But what happened next ?
On reflection, I’ve been wondering if it has been out of respect for the feelings of hunger strikers families that there seems to have been no published data.
Hmm, politics wins again…?

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #4

In the Christian tradition, people doing long-term fasts never fast beyond forty days. The number forty has religious significance, but it has also been known since forever that forty days is about as long as the body can go without food, and without really serious consequences.

(KCKO, KCFO 🥥) #5

Those strikers would have been under great stress most of their lives, especially just before the strike began. He could have had some pre existing conditions going on, that is why Dr. Fung and other fasting drs. recommend anyone fasting for extended times (7+days) do so only under medical supervision. 5 days is the most I have personally done, I see no reason to do longer fasting without doing so under a dr. care, so I keep mine under 7 days.

#6

Did they drink water? Dehydration can expedite death. This is not uncommon for terminally ill patients in hospice situations, as it is a relatively pleasant way to shed our mortal coil.

(Duncan Kerridge) #7

They did, and had salt. They would never have made it so far without water

(Ronald Weaver) #8

That’s true…and hence the word Quarantine.