Medical View
In the first 3 days, the body is still using energy from glucose. After that, the liver starts processing body fat, in a process called ketosis. After 3 weeks the body enters a "starvation mode". At this point the body "mines" the muscles and vital organs for energy, and loss of bone marrow becomes life-threatening. There are examples of hunger strikers dying after 52 to 74 days of strike.
Read more about this topic: Hunger Strike
Famous quotes containing the words medical and/or view:
“The greatest analgesic, soporific, stimulant, tranquilizer, narcotic, and to some extent even antibioticin short, the closest thing to a genuine panaceaknown to medical science is work.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)
“The contented and economically comfortable have a very discriminating view of government. Nobody is ever indignant about bailing out failed banks and failed savings and loans associations.... But when taxes must be paid for the lower middle class and poor, the government assumes an aspect of wickedness.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)