Food, No Water Surviving Without

¶ … Food, No Water

Surviving Without Food Or Water

From a biological standpoint, dehydration in the human body concerns the "excessive loss of water from the body tissues" and as a condition is characterized by "a disturbance in the balance of essential electrolytes, particularly sodium, potassium and chloride" and can lead to "poor skin turgor, flushed or dry skin, a coated tongue, irritability and mental confusion." Similarly, malnutrition or starvation relates to "any disorder concerning nutrition" and may result from "an unbalanced, insufficient or excessive diet or to the impaired absorption, assimilation or use of food" (Glanze, 345 & 721). Likewise, deficiency disease is "a condition resulting from the lack of one or more essential nutrients in the diet" or from "the lack of water use and absorption in the human tissues" (Glanze, 345).

Of course, these disorders and/or conditions are usually due to some type of disease or illness that forces a person to decrease his/her intake of food and water, or in some cases, increase the use of both. But exactly how long can a normal and healthy person survive without drinking water or ingesting any type of food? The answer to this question varies greatly, yet it is clear that a normal human being can only survive without food and water for a certain length of time based on what we know about human biology and how the various body systems operate under normal conditions.

Generally speaking, a human being can survive without water for only a relatively short length of time. Over the past ten years or so, many studies have been conducted on this very subject and some have shown that most people, provided they are in good physical health, can survive without water for no more than one week. After this length of time, the body will become dehydrated which will negatively affect many of the major organs and systems, such as the heart, the digestive tract, the kidneys and a person's ability to think clearly. For example, in 1994, three people were found stranded in a small boat about 100 miles off the coast of Africa for almost two weeks and when finally rescued showed many symptoms of dehydration; in fact, two of the survivors died less than two days later from dehydration (Myers, 167).

However, "although not as critical as going without water, missing even a few meals can cause a host of undesirable complications," such as lethargy, confusion and disorientation, poor judgment, a weakened immune system and the "inability to maintain body temperature which can lead to hypothermia, heat exhaustion and heat stroke." Much like studies done on surviving without water, exactly how long a person can go without food varies tremendously, yet it is dependent on several important factors, such as a person's overall state of health, the amount of muscle on the body which is "broken down by a starving body and used for both fuel and nutrients," the amount of body fat (an overweight person will normally survive longer than a thin or underweight person), a person's metabolism and the temperature of the environment in which a person finds himself; that is, a cold environment expends additional calories to stay warm, as does a hot environment to stay cool ("How Long Can You Live," Internet).