Starvation

Starvation is a severe reduction in vitamin, nutrient, and energy intake, and is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation (in excess of 1-2 months) causes permanent organ damage and, eventually, death.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, more than 25,000 people die of starvation every day, and more than 800 million people are chronically undernourished. On average, a child dies every five seconds from starvation.[1]

Symptoms

Individuals experiencing starvation lose substantial fat and muscle mass as the body breaks down these tissues for energy. Catabolysis is the process (medical condition) of a body breaking down muscles and other tissues in order to keep vital systems -- such as the nervous system and heart muscle -- working. Catabolysis will not begin until there are no usable sources of energy coming into the body. Vitamin deficiency is also a common result of starvation, often resulting in anemia, beriberi, pellagra, and scurvy. These diseases collectively may cause diarrhea, skin rashes, edema, and heart failure. Individuals are often irritable, fatigued, and lethargic as a result.

Effects

File:Starved prisoners, nearly dead from hunger, pose in concentration camp in Ebensee, Austria.jpg

Starved prisoners at Ebensee.

Decreased resting metabolic rate (RMR)
Increased ketogenesis and reliance upon ketone bodies as a metabolic substrate in place of glucose
Drop in sex hormones
Decreased sexual interest
Amenorrhoea (no menses)
Reduced sperm production
Lanugo (growth of insulating hair)
Bone loss
Constipation and gastrointestinal upset
Sleep disorder
Muscle weakness
Hypothermia
Loss of lean body mass
Changes in brain chemistry regulating appetite and food cravings
Stunted growth
Death

Psychological effects of starvation

Through several reports and studies, scientists have discovered that starvation has many psychological effects on a person, in addition to its physiological effects (Brozek 1950 270). The most extensive and informative study on starvation's psychological effects is called The Minnesota Starvation-Rehabilitation Experiment, which was carried out from 1944-1946. The subjects of this experiment were thirty-two healthy conscientious objectors, ages twenty to thirty-three (Brozek 1950 271). Subjects experienced three phases of the experiment: twelve weeks of control period, twenty four weeks of semistarvation, and then twelve weeks of rehabilitation. During the control experiments, subjects were given 3,492 calories, during the period of semistarvation, calories were decreased to 1,570, and during the period of rehabilitation, they were re-increased to normal levels. During the period of semistarvation, subjects were fed foods most likely consumed in European famine areas. (Brozek 1950 271) The results of the starvation experiment were tested in many ways. According to Josef Brozek, author of Psychology of Human Starvation and Nutritional Rehabilitation, studes "ranged from intelligence and personality tests through ratings to purely descriptive material, provided by the experimenters' notes and diaries kept by the subjects" (Brozek 271). According to subjects of the semistarvation experiment, tiredness was the worst effect of the low calorie intake, followed by appetite, muscle soreness, irritability, apathy, sensitivity to noise, and hunger pain (Brozek 1950 271). Standard personality tests revealed that the starving individuals experienced a large rise in the "neurotic triad" -- hypochondriasis, depression, and hysteria. Also, the subjects of the experiment noticed a marked decrease in the drive for activity, and a remarkable decrease in sex drive (Brozek 1950 273).In peer evaluations, other experiment subjects noted great deviations in subjects' personalities during the period of semistarvation. Not coincidentally, all of these psychological changes returned to normal during the rehabilitation phase and when subjects resumed a normal caloric intake. Hence, scientists were able to discover the great psychological effects of starvation. (Brozek 1950 274).

Organizations Working to End Starvation

Many organizations have been highly effective at reducing starvation in different regions. Aide agencies give direct assitance to individuals, while political organizations like The Borgen Project pressure political leaders to inact policies that will reduce famine and provide aid.

Common causes of starvation

Capital punishment

File:Starving-livilla.jpg

The starving Livilla refusing food.
From a drawing by André Castagne

Starvation has also historically been used as a death sentence. From the beginning of civilization through to the Middle Ages people were immured, or starved to death.

In ancient Greco-Roman societies, starvation was sometimes used to dispose of guilty upper class citizens, especially erring female members of patrician families. For instance, in the year 31, Livilla, the niece and daughter-in-law of Tiberius, was discreetly starved to death by her mother for her adulterous relationship with Sejanus and for her complicity in the murder of her own husband, Drusus the Younger.

Another daughter-in-law of Tiberius, named Agrippina the Elder (a granddaughter of Augustus and the mother of Caligula) also died of starvation, in 33 (however, it is not clear if she voluntary starved herself to death or if she was forced to).

A son and a daughter of Agrippina were also executed by starvation for political reasons; Drusus Caesar, her second son, was put in prison in 33 and starved to death on the orders of Tiberius (he managed to stay alive for nine days by chewing the stuffing of his bed); Agrippina's youngest daughter, called Julia Livilla, was exiled on an island in 41 by her uncle, the emperor Claudius, and not much later, her death by starvation was arranged by the empress Messalina.

Execution by starvation was also a possible punishment for Vestal Virgins found guilty of breaking their vows.

Rajmund Kolbe, a Polish friar, offered his life to save another inmate sentenced to death in the Auschwitz concentration camp. He was starved along with another nine inmates. After two weeks of starvation he and three other inmates were still alive and executed with injections of phenol.

Ugolino della Gherardesca, his sons and other members of his family were immured in the Muda, a tower of Pisa, and starved to death in the thirteenth century. Dante, his contemporary, wrote about Gherardesca in his masterpiece The Divine Comedy.

In Sweden in 1317, the king Birger of Sweden had his two brothers locked up in the prison. They died a few weeks later because of starvation; their sentence was a punishment for a coup they staged several years earlier. This was called the Nyköping Banquet.

In Cornwall in 1671, there is a recorded case of a man by the name of John Trehenban from St Columb Major who was condemned to be starved to death in a cage at Castle An Dinas for the murder of two girls.

References

Brozek, Josef. "Psychology of Human Starvation and Nutritional Rehabilitation." The Scientific Monthly 70 (1950): 270-274.

External links