Intressant läsning grubben!
There is ample evidence to support the first postulate of the model; that obesity increases survival time during starvation uncomplicated by disease. For example, obesity in both mice and humans can prolong survival time several-fold (Table 3). The remarkable obese subject studied by STUART and FLEMING (1973) had an initial body weight of 207 kg, but after successfully starving for 382 days (no energy intake) he achieved a final weight of 81.6 kg and entered the Guinness Book of Records as the subject undergoing the longest 'total' fast. In 1966, THOMSON and his colleagues (Table 2) reported two other obese subjects who fasted 200-300 days, and several other authors have reported fasts in obese subjects which lasted between 100-200 days. In contrast, the reported survival time in lean subjects is less than 80 days. Nine of the 10 Northern Ireland festers (members of the Independent Republican Army), who died of starvation between May and August 1981, survived between 57-73 days (these results have been compiled from various newspaper reports). The remaining subject died after only 45 days of starvation but he had a prior gunshot wound, emphasising the important interaction between injury and starvation.
Various famine studies have also repeatedly noted that women withstand semi-starvation better than men (KEYS et al., 1950), and this can again be explained by the larger initial percent body fat in women.
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