Starvation
Starvation is a critical condition that occurs when the body does not receive sufficient calories, leading to severe health consequences. It can arise from a variety of causes, including famine, drought, and medical conditions such as anorexia nervosa and celiac disease. The human body can survive for weeks without food, but symptoms of starvation can begin to manifest within twenty-five to thirty days, heavily influenced by hydration levels. Starvation is a pressing global issue, with the World Health Organization highlighting it as one of the major health threats facing humanity today, exacerbated by factors like international conflict and climate change.
Historically, significant famines, such as the Great Irish Famine and the Great Chinese Famine, have resulted in millions of deaths due to food scarcity. In the modern context, both developing and industrialized nations experience hunger, with millions suffering from food insecurity. The physiological effects of starvation include the breakdown of body tissues for energy, leading to conditions like marasmus and kwashiorkor. These conditions, alongside psychological symptoms such as apathy and withdrawal, demonstrate the extensive impact of starvation on individuals. Treatment for starvation requires careful attention to avoid complications such as refeeding syndrome, emphasizing the need for a thoughtful approach when addressing this complex issue.
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Starvation
Starvation is a state that the body enters when it is not getting enough calories. It is caused when the body expends more energy than it takes in. The human body can survive three weeks without food, but severe starvation signs can begin to set in within twenty-five to thirty days. Various factors—such as body weight, genetics, and other health considerations—can affect how long it takes a body to begin to starve. The biggest factor that effects starvation is how hydrated a body is. The more hydrated a body is, the less likely it is to go into starvation mode. Starvation can also be caused by medical conditions. Some of these conditions include anorexia nervosa (which is an eating disorder), coma, depression disorders, and celiac disease. Hunger can lead to starvation, which the World Health Organization (WHO) describes as one of the largest health threats in the modern world. A 2023 report from the United Nations stated that though hunger declined in recent decades, it was on the rise again due to international conflicts, the COVID-19 pandemic, and climate change. The study reported that between 700 and 800 million people in the world suffered from hunger in 2022.
Brief History
Biologically, starvation is caused when people do not receive enough calories, but there are many broader causes of starvation. Famine, or scarcity of food, and drought, or water scarcity, are two causes of starvation.
Famines have occurred throughout history. A famine in the region of Bengal, now part of India, in 1770 led to the death of 10 million people, or a third of the population. At the time, the region was ruled by the East India Company, which forced the farmers there to grow indigo and opium because those crops produced higher profits. They discouraged the growing of rice, which the people needed to survive. These events led to the deadly famine.
One of the most well-known famines in history, known as the Great Irish Famine, happened in Ireland between 1845 and 1853. In the past, many Irish people relied on potatoes as a staple of their diet. When a potato blight caused crops to fail for several years, many citizens did not have enough to eat. The famine eventually caused the death of 1.5 million people.
The Great Chinese Famine, which occurred between 1958 and 1962, was one of the deadliest on record. When the Chinese government outlawed owning private land, people were forced to farm the land for the government. New government policies also forced people to plant seeds too close together, which led to many crops failing. Some environmental issues during this time, including a flood in 1959 and a severe drought in 1960, also contributed to poor crop yields that led to the famine. Eventually, the famine caused 43 million deaths.
Although there have been many improvements in transportation and telecommunications infrastructure over the years that can address some of the causes of hunger, large-scale famines still occur in the twenty-first century in developing countries around the world. Sometimes, famine is caused by war or other conflict, such as the Israel-Hamas War that broke out in 2023 and resulted in widespread starvation among residents in the Gaza Strip. Likewise, fighting in Sudan in the early 2020s caused what was deemed the largest hunger crisis in the world by early 2024, when some 18 million people faced severe food insecurity, especially in the Darfur region. In addition, hunger and starvation is an issue that affects poor people even in industrialized nations like the United States.
Overview
When humans eat, their bodies digest food and break it down into glycogen, which are molecules that house energy. From this process, comes glucose, which the body uses as energy. Glucose can fuel a human body for about six hours. After all the glucose in the body is used up, the body enters ketosis, which occurs when there are elevated levels of ketone in the body. Ketones are produced when all the glycogen is gone. The ketones are then used for energy. When the body is starved, it is entirely fueled by ketones. After the ketones have been used up, the body begins breaking down protein for energy. The body breaks down the muscles for protein, turns that protein into glycogen in the liver, and then begins fueling the body with glycogen and glucose again. This keeps the brain intact, but the muscles start to deteriorate. The immune system is also compromised by starvation due to a lack of vitamins and minerals. This makes a body in starvation mode very susceptible to diseases.
A person in starvation mode will most likely suffer from one of two diseases, marasmus or kwashiorkor, which are both forms of undernourishment. Marasmus occurs most often in babies and children. It leads to dehydration and weight loss. Some symptoms of marasmus are chronic diarrhea and shrinking of the stomach. Kwashiorkor develops in people whose bodies are getting their energy from proteins. Sometimes a diet of all carbohydrates can lead to this disorder too. Symptoms of kwashiorkor are edema, puffy or swollen skin from fluid retention, bulging abdomen, and a lack of weight gain. There are also symptoms of starvation that are not physical. Some of those include apathy, withdrawal, and listlessness.
When a person dies after suffering from starvation, he or she usually dies from a heart attack or cardiac arrhythmia, which is a malfunction of the heart's electrical system. A person can die of starvation in as little as three weeks or as many as seventy days.
Starvation can be treated, but it needs to be done slowly because people can suffer from refeeding syndrome. This syndrome is characterized by sudden shifts in electrolytes in the body. Symptoms of refeeding syndrome are high blood pressure, seizures, and an inability to breathe. These symptoms often occur in the first four days in the refeeding process. People who are being reintroduced to food after a period of starvation should be carefully monitored.
Starvation can also be caused by medical conditions. One of the most well-known medical conditions that leads to starvation is anorexia nervosa. This eating disorder is characterized by distorted body image that leads people to severely restrict their caloric intake. People of all genders, ages, races, and ethnicities can suffer from anorexia. Other medical conditions that can lead to starvation include comas and celiac disease.
World aid organizations know that to address famine and starvation, society must address the factors that lead to hunger. Such factors include poverty and economic inequality, environmental issues and climate change, food security, and violent conflicts.
Bibliography
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