Is it possible to eat to death?

Is it Possible to accommodate so much food that you die? We used to joke about the problems of Americans with overeating, but what's wrong with that? After all, nobody has died from something it ate three big Mac. People were dying rather from the fact that eating three big Mac twice a week for thirty years. But each of us was in a situation when after three servings of salad, chicken, potatoes, bread, snacks, sausages, mionica, fish, more salad... "that's this puddin 'pop" has not climbed. And climbed?

Gizmodo interviewed professional doctors who are seriously concerned about the problems of overeating and regularly face in their practice with bursting stomachs.

Chief physician of John O. Clark, Medical school Stanford University

"to Overfeed themselves to death is extremely difficult, but in theory possible. It seems that stomachs burst often, but in reality this is a rare event – the stomach is much stronger than any other segment of the intestine and is able to expand. He copes with great meals, but if you have too much will stretch your stomach, it will cause vomiting. Therefore, although the cases of rupture of the stomach actually happened, overeating to this extent can sometimes be extremely rare, because the stomach is rapidly expanding and just manages to avoid a critical pressure of food. The stomach of an ordinary person extends about a liter after every meal, but of course it can be expanded further. People who can eat fifty hot dogs, usually have very capable extension of the stomach and, surprisingly, they actually slow down gastric emptying. It's not clear why. May slow gastric emptying to some extent, eliminates hunger, so they can continue to eat. In such situations, despite the massive amount of food that they consume, none of them had never had a rupture of the stomach.

More often there is vomiting from overeating. There is, for example, Boerhave syndrome, in which vomiting and strong movements of the esophagus, you can get an esophageal rupture. During my career I have not seen rupture of the stomach not once, but syndrome Burhave – a couple seen.

There is another option, not quite like a gap – the gap Mallory — Weiss, when the gastroesophageal junction is torn esophagus. It can lead to significant bleeding, although not to such that person died on the spot from bleeding. But if it happened away from medical care, theoretically, this is to die for.

In theory, if you ate too much of something with high content of metal or mineral, which may have taken an overdose, you will have problems. Personally, I such in practice have not seen, but a friend told me that someone ate a huge amount of lobster – three kilos and was in the hospital with poisoning with iodine. But you'd have to really eat a lot of foods with a high content of mercury or iodine or anything else that usually exists in trace amounts".

The Chief doctor Barbara Yung of the University of Illinois:

"For long distances is definitely: you can overfeed themselves to death. The growth of obesity among the population of developed countries is an obvious sign. High mortality rate in the US is associated with obesity directly, or from complications of obesity or related problems – cardiovascular diseases, cancer and so on.

If people are concerned about to die from the holiday feast: you have to understand that the body wants to live, so it'll tell you when you've had enough and when there is no longer anything to eat. Very few will be able to force yourself to continue eating because it's hard.

From overeating might die if the food temperature was too low and you'd just cold, absorbing large quantities of cold. Or if you ate a lot more than the stomach. The food goes into the stomach, passing through the intestine and if the stomach is full, it remains only to move upward, i.e. in the opposite direction. Complications caused by vomiting, can include apnea (when food gets into the respiratory tract) or bleeding associated with rupture of the esophagus. But it's very rare, because the body regulates itself and does not want to overeat".

Merlin Butler, Professor of psychiatry, behavioral science unit and Pediatrics at the Medical center of the University of Kansas:

"to Feed yourself to death is a phenomenon we observe on the example of Prader —
Willie, which is the most common known cause of obesity in humans. The disease is rare – maybe about 400,000 people worldwide suffer from them.

Persons with Prader — Willie pass through two major clinical stages. The first stage is the inability to develop normally: they are born very weak, with reduced activity of the fetus. They are also hypotonic, which leads to a different feeding.

It goes on for a few months to a year, maybe longer, and then they begin to grow appetite. It grows extremely – developed hyperpathia. The body rapidly grows fat. Food is all that gets under a hand, while the person is asleep or he will not burst the stomach. Rupture of the stomach is a common cause of death in Prader — Willie. This is a key feature.

They are Often placed in a controlled environment with a strict diet that they had no access to food and stomachs have become smaller. And then can happen is that they overeat, their stomach will look like wrinkled prunes: they overeat, your stomach bursts.

They know They overeat, because of their restricted diet, but keep eating and don't feel saturation. The brain says, "I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm hungry", but says: "I'm full, I can't eat anymore". Patients with Prader — Willie also unable to vomit. Sometimes even such that children with Prader — Willie could jump out the window, hearing the horn of the ice-cream truck. They may even have what is in the food. It can be very dangerous to life."