Renowned scientist Sonam Wangchuk’s indefinite hunger strike at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar entered Day 17 on Tuesday, July 14, with prominent Opposition leaders urging him to end his fast.
Wangchuk, who joined the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) protest against Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over frequent paper leaks, has been without food since June 28.
It has been more than two weeks since Wangchuk has been on strike and yet there have been no signs the government is willing to yield. Pradhan stays.
With such a long hunger strike, Wangchuk’s body has begun undergoing critical and life-threatening changes.
According to CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, Wangchuk has lost nearly 8.5 kg in weight. He has also started losing muscle mass and, according to Dipke, is in immense pain but is also relentless and not ready to quit.
“Day 17 of Sonam Sir’s hunger strike. He has started losing muscle mass and is in immense pain. Like everyone else, I begged him to end his fast. He calmly replied, “Don’t ask me to end my fast. Ask the government why they won’t even have a dialogue,” Dipke said on X.
Several other prominent Opposition leaders, including Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray, Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav and Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal, have also urged Wangchuk to end his hunger strike.
With Wangchuk’s hunger strike entering its third week, and no breakthrough in sight, the situation throws a medicsl question — What happens to the human body during prolonged starvation?
According to a study by the British Medical Journal, for the first few days of starvation the body uses its stores of glycogen in the liver and muscles. This is accompanied by glucagon-induced natriuresis, with substantial weight loss.
Under normal circumstances, a human body breaks down food into glucose, which provides it with energy to function.
After 24 hours without food, the glucose levels in the body are depleted and it begins to convert glycogen in the liver and muscles into glucose.
Since the human body is designed to preserve muscles, the mechanism quickly shifts to using fat stores to create ketones for energy.
After 10 days of starvation, both the glucose and glycogen levels are exhausted and amino acids take over as the substrate for gluconeogenesis. This is the phase when muscle loss, including loss of the heart muscle, begins.
During this phase, the body’s immunity weakens and a person faces severe fatigue, difficulty concentrating, and electrolyte imbalance.
In the next phase, around week 3, most energy comes from ketones produced by the breakdown of fatty acids.
When all the fat stores are used up, there is catastrophic protein catabolism, accompanied by several other complications.
The body undergoes significant loss of muscle mass, a weakened heart muscle, low blood pressure and a higher risk of abnormal heart rhythms.
Low blood pressure and fainting episodes become more common and organ function may also begin to deteriorate in some individuals.
According to the BMJ study, a person on a hunger strike should be closely monitored after losing 10 per cent of their body weight with a BMI of 16.5 or less. The journal also warns of “very serious conditions” when an individual loses 18 per cent of their body weight.
While how long a body can survive may depend on several factors, including age, body fat and prior medical conditions, a hunger strike becomes extremely risky in the third week.