When United States magician David Blaine starved himself for 44 days last year inside a perspex box suspended over London, many condemned the stunt as pointless. Not so, say doctors specialising in malnutrition.
The medics who treated Blaine after his fast ended last October said on Tuesday that they had been able to gain valuable insights into how to treat hunger strikers and others who have starved themselves.
Blaine’s emaciated frame had been a goldmine of information as to how the human body copes with extreme hunger, said Jeremy Powell-Tuck, professor of clinical nutrition at Queen Mary’s School of Medicine in London.
The illusionist was seriously low on peptides, or protein building blocks, as well as blood phosphates, and was suffering from a vitamin deficiency and weight loss, Powell-Tuck told a conference in London.
However, Blaine recovered well, showing how a short-term re-feeding programme can help a starved person return to normal eating patterns.
Vitamins were a key part of this process, Powell-Tuck told the Nutrition and Obesity Conference at the Royal College of Physicians.
”Unfortunately there are still some doctors who are carrying out the re-feeding process, particularly in the context of intravenous feeding, without any use of vitamin supplements,” he said.
”This is totally irresponsible. Vitamins should be a part of any hospitalised re-feeding process.”
It is very rare to be able to study a patient who was under-nourished through self-imposed starvation, Powell-Tuck added.
”Normally, protesters will not allow physicians to take blood and urine samples,” he said.
”So we’ve been very lucky that David was so willing to assist in our research. All of the fasting tests were done with a great deal of goodwill from David.”
Blaine spent his fast in a small perspex box suspended above London’s River Thames, taking only water for 44 days.
He endured not only extreme hunger but also ridicule from some Britons, who shouted abuse, drove golf balls at the box from nearby Tower Bridge, and in one case used a remote-control model helicopter to dangle a cheeseburger in front of the starving entertainer. — Sapa-AFP