How Long Can You Stay Without Eating:
Physicians almost unanimously agree that a healthy human being can go without water for 3-8 days and food for up to 8 weeks without harming their health. However, depending on one's health and physical condition, some may live longer, while others may die sooner.
Because the human body stores sugars, fats, and proteins to help it survive in dangerous situations, and in the case of "famine," the body consumes sugars first, then fat, and finally proteins.
The body consumes glucose for the first eight hours, with little change in cell function, and then begins to break down glucose stored as glycogen in the liver and muscles for another four hours, with glucose deficiency symptoms appearing.
After glycogen depletion, the body must obtain glucose from amino acids, as cells begin to crack the subcutaneous fat reserve for fatty acids, which can be converted into glucose. During the first three days, the body becomes weak.
Metabolism, the process in which food is converted to energy, affects the body's ability to survive without food.
Survival without food is also affected by the weather. High heat means faster dryness, and cooler means more nutritional representation to keep the body warm.
Weakness, confusion, chronic diarrhea, discomfort, inability to make decisions, loss of libido, and immune system weakness.
Abstinence causes severe symptoms such as hallucinations, muscle convulsions, and heart rhythm disorders.
The process of re-compensating the body, and cutting off the fasting, should not be done suddenly, as it may cause pathological conditions, including death, due to significant disruptions in the body's salts and fluids, as well as hormone disorders. Those who go 5 days without food must be refueled under medical supervision, with careful monitoring of kidney, liver, and blood components, and accurate salt analysis.
1. What happens when the body is dehydrated for days?
Our bodies are mostly water. Water is required for every cell in the body to function and live, and it is the main component of blood, the liquid of life. Age, weight, and activity all affect how much water we need per day.
One study found that depriving the brain of 2 percent of its daily water intake affects cognitive functions like thinking, concentration, memory, and general stress and fatigue.
In normal conditions, the body has a water balance between inside and outside (drinking) (sweat - urine - digestive juices of food in the stomach and intestines - evaporation with breathing...). The hypothalamus (or "hypothalamus") is the most important brain center in regulating this balance.
When completely dehydrated, the body tries to retain as much water as possible. The kidneys reduce urine and sweat production. However, water loss is unavoidable, and as minutes and hours pass, the blood becomes viscous, dull, and prone to clots, and the body's cells, particularly the brain, become dehydrated.
A lack of blood volume causes a drop in blood circulation, resulting in a lack of blood nutrition for vital organs. Toxins build up in the blood and body, causing further blood circulation problems, and the body enters a vicious cycle of breakdown until the heart stops and death occurs.
2. Who can afford long days without food?
Of course, a young adult is free of chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, and organ failures like kidneys, liver, heart, etc. But death will come after a long or short time. With a natural number of 18-25, the ideal weight is determined by the famous BMI mass coefficient equation. The threshold for starvation is 13 for men and 11 for women.
Perhaps due to their larger fat stock, women are generally better able to endure famine than men. The less effort made during a famine, the better.
3. What happens to the body first?
Glucose sugar is the main source of energy for the brain. Blood glucose levels even influence the brain's hunger and satiety centers.
Until glucose runs out, the body's cells function normally without food for the first eight hours. The body then starts breaking down glycogen in the liver and muscles, which can supply glucose for another 4 hours. Stress, lack of concentration, etc., are all symptoms of glucose deficiency.
After glycogen depletion, the body must obtain glucose from amino acids, and cells must crack the subcutaneous fat reserve to obtain fatty acids for use as fuel, resulting in glycerol that can be converted into glucose.
The first three days are amino acids. This causes a problem because amino acids are the building blocks of our body's protein, which is the basis for muscles, hormones, vitamins, enzymes...etc. When protein is broken down for amino acids, the body weakens.
4. Where is the fat body?
Because amino acids make glucose conversion easier, the body starts with them. However, after a few days, the body's cracking activity turns into fat storage, preserving the remaining protein.
They can be used as a glucose substitute by brain cells, but they are not as good as glucose. The body will begin to lose weight quickly. The fatty stock lives longer. Maybe this is why women can handle starvation better than men. Most fatty stocks are depleted when the body loses more than 18% of its weight.
When the body runs out of fat, it must crack the remaining protein. The body loses biostructures and solved salts like phosphorus, potassium, and sodium. Toxins build up in the body, vital organs fail, and death approaches.
5-Does water help the body resist starvation?
Water, despite its inefficiency, can greatly slow down the body's breakdown in famine. This is why hunger strikers drink at least 1.5 liters of water per day (they also eat salt, to compensate for the loss of melted salt, which is important to maintain blood pressure, kidney work, brain function, etc.).
As stated previously, drinking enough daily helps maintain blood volume and thus regularity of blood nutrition of vital organs like the brain, heart, kidneys, and liver. Water is also required for most biological interactions to work properly. Water also curbs hunger.