Eating Non-Food Items (Pica; Eating Stunts; Etc.)

[ogopogo3]

A debunking of the ground glass as poison legend:

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/poison/glass.htm

 

[Beakmoo]

Paper cups are still very bad for you however....

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Chinese women Soiled herself

Chinese woman eats dirt

A 78-year-old Chinese woman has reportedly eaten approximately 10 tons of soil over the past 70 years.

Hao Fenglan, from Zhangwu county, northern China, began eating mud and dirt at the age of eight.

She says she feels physical discomfort if she does not eat dirt at least once a day, reports the South China Morning Post.

The diet has done her little apparent harm and she is in good health.


Story filed: 09:45 Tuesday 14th October 2003

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_828567.html?menu=news.quirkies

 

[littleblackduck]

You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die

There is always somebody who overdoes it.

Actually, the eating of dirt is quite a common medical phenomenon. Apart from small children, pregnant women are usually the biggest market for mud pies.

The medical establishment thinks that dirt-eating is often a response to chronic mineral deficiencies.

Perhapas as many as 10,000,000 to 15,000,000 Americans eat a type of clay--many of them African American women whose ancestors presumably brought the custom with them from West Africa as slaves. The clay is often sold in health food stores.

But 10 tons of soil, ordinary muck, would seem to be over-doing it. Mind you, there are large areas of soil in China which lack vital minerals, notably iodine, so maybe the lady just lives in a particularly deprived region, although one can't rule out the power of neurosis or habit.

 

[littleblackduck]

This is one for the Weekly World News

If the Weekly World News (which inherited the weirdness formerly associated with the National Enquirer tabloid along with its old black and white printing presses in the 1970's) does not pick up this story, I will be tempted to send it to them myself.

Some potential titles: CHINESE AUTHORITIES ALARMED AS HUMAN BULLDOZER EATS FAMILY FARM; THE CHINESE ARE EATING THEIR WAY THROUGH THE EARTH TO GET TO U.S.A.; CONSTANT DIET OF MUCK IS GOOD FOR YOU

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

littleblackduck:

Mind you, there are large areas of soil in China which lack vital minerals, notably iodine, so maybe the lady just lives in a particularly deprived region, although one can't rule out the power of neurosis or habit.

I believe the loess deposits in China (fine wind blown sediment from glacial periods) has a lot of minerals and it might be that she is making up for some deficit that way.

Interestingly there is another story in the latest FT (177: 12) about a Chinese man who swallowed 3 tons of pebbles over 9 years).

10 tons in 70 years doesn't sound too much at that rate.

Emps

 

[rynner2]

One thread has eaten another.

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Fork off and don't come back

Fork eater avoids prison time

Repeat offender Arild Andersen, 48, avoided a prison sentence despite a serious narcotics conviction. Andersen's compulsive swallowing of forks when in prison has resulted in so many stomach operations that a court feared another trip behind bars would kill him, newspaper VG reports.

"I hope this can help turn my life around," Andersen told the newspaper after a Haugesund court ruled that he could serve his sentence by doing 420 hours of community service instead of jail time.

Andersen has swallowed, and had operations to remove, over 30 forks in his many stays behind bars, and physicians now assess a repeat performance could be fatal.

"After I was sentenced as a 20-year-old I was badly assaulted while at Ullersmo prison and developed a psychotic compulsion. If I see a fork when I'm locked up I short circuit, it's almost like I go into a trance. I just have to swallow the fork, and don't think about the consequences," Andersen said.

The judge in the case wanted Andersen to face the usual punishment for being caught with over 300 grams of amphetamines but the lay judges held with arguments that a prison term could be fatal.

During a longer sentence in the 1970s Andersen managed to swallow 11 forks in nine months, resulting in 11 operations, and his abdomen is now a mass of scar tissue.

"I think I swallow them to get a kind of pain high - it hurts so much that I can't think of the traumatic experiences I associate with being locked up," Andersen said. "I have a dream of starting a boarding house for dogs, it would be fantastic to live a normal life.

http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article.jhtml?articleID=693305

Norwegian article with pictures:

http://aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,406908,00.html

Emps

 

[SoundDust]

couldn't they put him in prison and not let him use r come near forks?:hmph:

 

[Spookyangel]

He'd probably swallow the spoons then.

 

[SoundDust]

I'm sure they're less painful than forks

make him eat with his fingers, he is in there to be punished after all:monster:

 

[Spookyangel]

Less painful maybe, but I still wouldn't fancy trying to swallow one!
Let's hope they don't give him a paring knife to cut his fruit with. :cross eye

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Glass Is Half Eaten For Indian Man

Dashrath Realized Taste For Glass In Failed Suicide Attempt

POSTED: 11:21 AM EST February 3, 2004
UPDATED: 1:21 PM EST February 3, 2004


An Indian man in the northern city of Kanpur says glass and empty liquor bottles are a regular part of his diet.



Dashrath, 40, claims he first consumed crushed glass with alcohol in a suicide bid during a fit of depression.

A fisherman by profession, Dashrath says he not only survived the suicide attempt, but realized that he had a taste for glass.

"I have been eating glass for the past fifteen years and I have not had any problems," he said, adding he also eats led bullets.

But he has some trouble eating thick soda bottles.

Dashrath's mother, who sometimes serves her son glass bulbs and bottles with his dinner platter, says her son is appears healthy.

"My son eats glass regularly especially when he is drunk. He has never had any problems after eating glass and we have never had to take him to see doctor", she said.

For nearby residents, "glass man," as he is popularly known, is nothing less than a tourist spectacle.

Visitors to the city regularly stop by Dashrath's fish stall, where he makes a show of bargaining fish prices and chewing glass.

http://www.local6.com/news/2814195/detail.html

There is also video and a slideshow of images if you want to watch a man eat glass.

Emps

 

[Vitrius]

Re: You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die

There is always somebody who overdoes it.

Actually, the eating of dirt is quite a common medical phenomenon. Apart from small children, pregnant women are usually the biggest market for mud pies.

The medical establishment thinks that dirt-eating is often a response to chronic mineral deficiencies.

Perhapas as many as 10,000,000 to 15,000,000 Americans eat a type of clay--many of them African American women whose ancestors presumably brought the custom with them from West Africa as slaves. The clay is often sold in health food stores.

But 10 tons of soil, ordinary muck, would seem to be over-doing it. Mind you, there are large areas of soil in China which lack vital minerals, notably iodine, so maybe the lady just lives in a particularly deprived region, although one can't rule out the power of neurosis or habit.

Yep, can be a problem though. What's good nutritional policy in some parts of Africa goes down hill in the industrial American South. Replace your zinc with chromium IV and your iron with plastics residue, and eating dirt doesn't look so healthy any more. But that's what your mamma told ya, right?

 

[Anonymous]

Man Dies of Pica Disorder

BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- French doctors were taken aback when they discovered the reason for a patient's sore, swollen belly: He had swallowed around 350 coins -- $650 worth -- along with assorted necklaces and needles.

The 62-year-old man came to the emergency room of Cholet General Hospital in western France in 2002. He had a history of major psychiatric illness, was suffering from stomach pain, and could not eat or move his bowels.

His family warned doctors that he sometimes swallowed coins, and a few had been removed from his stomach in past hospital visits.

Still, doctors were awed when they took an X-ray. They discovered an enormous opaque mass in his stomach that turned out to weigh 12 pounds -- as much as some bowling balls. It was so heavy it had forced his stomach down between his hips.

Five days after his arrival, doctors cut him open and removed his badly damaged stomach with its contents. He died 12 days later from complications.

One of his doctors, intensive care specialist Dr. Bruno Francois, said the patient had swallowed the coins -- both French currency and later euros -- over about a decade. His family tried to keep coins and jewelry away from him.

"When he was invited and came in some homes, he liked to steal coins and eat them," Francois said.

The case history of the French patient, whose name was withheld, was reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

The patient's rare condition is called pica, a compulsion to eat things not normally consumed as food. Its name comes from the Latin word for magpie, a bird thought to eat just about anything.

Pica can take the form of eating dirt, ashes, chalk, hair, soap, toothbrushes, burned matches and many other things. Francois once treated a patient who ate forks. Most such objects are small enough to pass on their own, but some must be removed by doctors.

The condition is perhaps best known in children and pregnant women but is also sometimes linked to psychiatric illness.

A few details of the Frenchman's case were presented January 1 along with the X-ray -- but no explanation of the stomach mass -- as a challenge to New England Journal of Medicine readers in a fixture called "A Medical Mystery."

Dr. Lindsey Baden, an editor at the journal, reported that 666 readers in 73 countries -- mostly doctors or doctors-in-training -- contacted the journal to try to solve the mystery. Almost 90 percent settled on diagnoses consistent with pica, but only 8 percent correctly identified coins.

"This case serves as a reminder of important factors that should be considered in the care of patients who are mentally impaired," Baden wrote.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/02/18/coin.eater.ap/index.html

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Bizarre diet nails man in steel city

Indo-Asian News Service
BHUBANESWAR, 21 February


It was probably the final nail in his stomach that killed a man in Orissa, who had been on a constant diet of one or two iron nails a day over several weeks.

Ninety-nine nails later, he died of a haemorrhage Friday.

Akhaya Mohanty, 40, had been staying at the steel city of Rourkela, 514 km from Bhubaneswar, with his relatives.

He would have one or two iron nails, measuring about two to three inches, every day, said police officials.

He was taken to a hospital after he complained of pain in his abdomen Monday. Though doctors removed the nails after a surgery, they could not save him.

Police are yet to determine what prompted Mohanty to eat nails every day, a senior district police official said.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/919_581260,001800010001.htm

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Pica Chew

I did some digging on Pica:

The word "Pica" (PIE-Kah) originates from the Latin word for "magpie". A magpie is a species of bird well known for feeding on whatever it finds or comes across. Pica is the craving or eating of items that are not food. There are many reasons why people eat dirt or other non food items. This practice has been described as "abnormal" and is a very misunderstood problem. To be diagnosed with Pica, a person must exhibit or show signs for at least one month. There is no specific medical test that can confirm Pica. Quite often, Pica is only seen and recognized when it results in complications that leads someone to obtain medical attention. There is no specific prevention of Pica. Individuals are encouraged to eat appropriate nutritional meals and follow healthy guidelines needed for optimum health.

Pica or geophagy, the eating of soil is widespread among many animals on every continent. Among wild animals, eating dirt seems to be a weapon in the ancient competition between plants and animals. Geophagy is an animal weapon in the struggle between plant reproduction strategy and the animal desire for food.

http://www.eating-disorder.org/pica.html

http://www.drspock.com/faq/0,1511,10626,00.html

http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic1798.htm

Pica can occur during pregnancy. In some cases, specific nutritional deficiencies, such as iron deficiency anemia and zinc deficiency, may trigger the unusual cravings. Pica may also occur in adults who crave a certain texture in their mouth.

http://www.swmedicalcenter.com/13956.cfm

There is no single test that confirms pica. However, since pica is associated with abnormal nutritient levels, and in some cases malnutrition, several tests may be performed. Serum levels of iron and zinc should be taken.

Hemoglobin should also be checked to test for anemia. Lead levels should always be checked in children, who may have eaten paint or objects covered in lead paint dust. The presence of infection may be detected, if contaminated soil or animal waste is being ingested.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/001538.htm

Z Gastroenterol 1998 Aug;36(8):635-40

[Pica in Germany--amylophagia as the etiology of iron deficiency anemia].

[Article in German]

Menge H, Lang A, Cuntze H

Klinikum Remscheid GmbH, Medizinische Klinik II.

Pica (pica = magpie) is Pica has been described as a world wide phenomenon, but there are more frequent occurrences of selected substances among selected groups--especially young children and black pregnant and nonpregnant women in the southern part of the USA. In Central Europe and Germany this syndrome has not been described in the modern literature. For this reason, we report a case of pica for starch associated with severe iron deficiency anemia in Germany. Iron deficiency anemia and--less often-potassium and zinc deficiency are the main complications of an excessive starch or clay ingestion, followed by gastrointestinal obstructions due to gastroliths or impaction. Additionally, naphtalene poisoning (in pica for toilet air-freshener blocks), phosphorus poisoning (in matches pica), mercury poisoning (in paper pica), and lead poisoning (in dried paint pica) have been described.

http://www.ithyroid.com/pica.htm

http://www.cc.utah.edu/~cla6202/Neuro.htm

Pica generally affects small children, pregnant women, and people whose cultural environment is most compatible with the eating of non-food items.

http://www.rarediseases.org/search/rdbdetail_abstract.html?disname=Pica

Pica for Foam Rubber in Patients With Sickle Cell Disease

from Southern Medical Journal
Posted 05/01/2003
Samuel R. Hackworth, PhD, Laura L. Williams, MD

Abstract and Introduction
Abstract
We report three cases of pica for foam rubber among sickle cell disease patients. All three were African-American males, and at the times of initial presentation for the pica, two of them were 11 years of age and one was 15 years of age. In all cases, the pica reportedly had been occurring for at least several years. The foam rubber was most often obtained from furniture and mattresses, as well as from ironing-board pads, stereo speakers, and padded hair rollers. Reports from other researchers also suggest that this is not an uncommon type of pica. We discuss this problem from biologic, psychologic, and social perspectives.
Introduction
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV),[1] pica is defined as the "persistent eating of nonnutritive substances for a period of at least one month." Additional diagnostic criteria are that the ingestion of the substance is inappropriate to developmental level, is not part of a culturally sanctioned practice, and not merely symptomatic of another mental disorder (eg, pervasive developmental disorder, mental retardation, thought disorder).
Several researchers across the United States, including the present authors, have recently noted a high prevalence of pica in children with sickle cell syndromes.[2-4] More specifically, these reports have each noted pica for a particular substance-foam rubber. A review of the published literature indicated additional reference to childhood pica for foam rubber,[5] pica for paint chips among children with sickle cell disease,[6] and a general report of ingestion of foam rubber.[7] No published reports were found describing pica for foam rubber among children with sickle cell disease, however.
We present three cases of pica for foam rubber that came to our attention between June 1995 and August 1997. Each case fully meets DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for pica. All three are African-American males, and at times of initial contact for the pica, two of them were 11 years of age and one was 15 years old. In all cases, the pica reportedly had been occurring for at least several years. To our knowledge, the patients did not know one another.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section 1 of 3

Samuel R. Hackworth, PhD, Laura L. Williams, MD, Section of Pediatric Psychology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and the Arkansas Children's Hospital, Little Rock, and the St. Vincent Family Clinic, Jacksonville, AR
Dr. Hackworth is now chief executive officer of AskaChildPsychologist.com and also in private practice in Austin, TX.

South Med J 96(1): 81-83, 2003. © 2003 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/452618

Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2001 Nov;155(11):1243-7.

Characterization of pica prevalence among patients with sickle cell disease.

Ivascu NS, Sarnaik S, McCrae J, Whitten-Shurney W, Thomas R, Bond S.

Sickle Cell Center, Children's Hospital of Michigan, 3901 Beaubien, Detroit, MI 48201, USA.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the prevalence of pica and its characteristics among children with sickle cell disease. DESIGN: Retrospective, observational study. SETTING: An urban, ambulatory care, interdisciplinary center. PATIENTS: The medical records of all 480 patients who visited the center from March 1, 1998, to June 30, 1999, were reviewed. Patients were excluded for history of stroke, long-term transfusions, pregnancy, acute illness, or age younger than 3 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Sex, age, weight, height, Tanner stage, complete blood cell count, sickle cell genotype, pica history, and levels of iron, zinc, lead, and fetal hemoglobin (Hb). RESULTS: Of 395 study patients, 134 (33.9%) reported pica. Ingested items included paper, foam, and powders. There was a significantly higher prevalence of pica among patients homozygous for Hb S (Hb SS, sickle cell anemia) compared with the combined group of double heterozygous patients with Hb SC, Hb SD, and Hb Sbeta thallasemia (Sbeta(+)or Sbeta(0)) (35.6% vs 25.5%; P =.03). Within genotype, mean Hb levels were significantly lower and reticulocyte counts were significantly higher in the patients with pica. Overall, the mean age of patients with pica was significantly lower; however, the prevalence was 23.3% (27/116) among those aged 10.0 to 14.9 years and 14.8% (8/54) among those aged 15.0 to 19.0 years. Within age groups, patients with pica weighed significantly less. CONCLUSIONS: Pica appeared to have an unusually high prevalence in patients with sickle cell disease and a correlation with lower Hb levels. It is unclear whether pica is a specific marker of disease severity, because our review did not show a relationship to increased number and duration of hospitalizations. The association between pica and low body weight suggests a nutritional effect on its prevalence.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11695934&dopt=Abstract

----------------
And also present in animals:
http://www.naturalcanine.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=TNC&Category_Code=PAERCWE

===================

So it really covers a wide range of things:

1. Nutrional - esp. where levels of iron (or other minerals, etc.) are too low like in pregnant women, etc.

2. Children who will put anything in their mouths.

3. People with eating disorders - filling up on things like paper.

4. People with psychological problems- pos. associating the substance with some comforting memory or punishing themselves.

5. Geophagy - it came up in the other thread:

http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=10299&highlight=pica

and appears to be cultural with some links to 1.

Emps

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

I found this article which clearly shows how some Pica sufferers rally need constant supervison:

Thursday, February 5, 2004

Fircrest gets safety warnings

State's institution for retarded could lose its federal funding

By ANGELA GALLOWAY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER CAPITOL CORRESPONDENT

Inspectors have warned the state's Fircrest institution for the mentally retarded at least six times since May that it fails to meet federal standards for protecting client safety and is at risk of losing federal funding.

And the state inspection agency -- working for the federal government -- has effectively blocked new admissions to the Fircrest facilities in question.

Inspectors found incidents that put clients at "immediate jeopardy" of harm due to deficient care in five inspections from May through January, according to documents obtained by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. For example, according to the state inspection documents:


A client with a disorder that compels him to eat non-edible objects was inappropriately left unsupervised and he ingested 80 nickels. Another client with that disorder nearly ate a latex glove. Inspectors also found that staffers engaged in inappropriate and retaliatory practices to dissuade one client from eating cigarettes.

SNIP

Here's a summary of their of findings, according to state records:

May 2003: Failure failed to establish proper safeguards to ensure proper supervision of clients with life-threatening pica eating disorders. People with pica disorders eat inedible objects, such as pens and buttons.

In one incident, a client who was left alone found a bowl of coins and ingested 80 nickels, requiring a hospital procedure to remove them from his stomach. Another client found a latex glove and tried to eat it, despite instructions that his living area be free of such hazards.

June 2003: Failure to properly instruct staff to protect the clients who had histories of eating such things as cigarette butts, string, paper, feces, gloves and leaves. One client also suffered a swallowing disorder that put him at risk of choking if he eats anything -- so severe it required him to be fed through a tube.

Also, staff had inappropriately withheld cigarettes from a client each time he tried to steal or eat a cigarette butt. Inspectors said withholding addictive substances as part of a behavior strategy was punitive and retaliatory, and such techniques "must never be used for disciplinary purposes."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/159413_fircrest05.html

I was looking in the JAMA and found this:

L. G. Keith, C. D. Rosenberg, and E. Brown
Pica, pagophagia, and anemia
JAMA, Apr 1969; 208: 535b.

Pagophagia is the eating of ice and a sign of iron deficiency:

http://www.fasthealth.com/dictionary/p/pagophagia.php

and I also found this:

Vincent van Gogh and the thujone connection

W. N. Arnold

Department of Biochemistry, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City 66103.

During his last two years Vincent van Gogh experienced fits with hallucinations that have been attributed to a congenital psychosis. But the artist admitted to episodes of heavy drinking that were amply confirmed by colleagues and there is good evidence to indicate that addiction to absinthe exacerbated his illness. Absinthe was distilled from an alcoholic steep of herbs. Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium) was the most significant constituent because it contributed thujone. This terpene can cause excitation, convulsions that mimic epilepsy, and even permanent brain damage. Statements in van Gogh's letters and from his friends indicate that he had an affinity for substances with a chemical connection to thujone; the documented examples are camphor and pinene. Perhaps he developed an abnormal craving for terpenes, a sort of pica, that would explain his attempts to eat paints and so on, which were previously regarded as unrelated absurdities.

W. N. Arnold
Vincent van Gogh and the thujone connection
JAMA, Nov 1988; 260: 3042 - 3044.

Which is further discussed here:

The Illness of Vincent van Gogh
Blumer
Am. J. Psychiatry 2002;159:519-526.

Abstrct:

Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) had an eccentric personality and unstable moods, suffered from recurrent psychotic episodes during the last 2 years of his extraordinary life, and committed suicide at the age of 37. Despite limited evidence, well over 150 physicians have ventured a perplexing variety of diagnoses of his illness. Henri Gastaut, in a study of the artist’s life and medical history published in 1956, identified van Gogh’s major illness during the last 2 years of his life as temporal lobe epilepsy precipitated by the use of absinthe in the presence of an early limbic lesion. In essence, Gastaut confirmed the diagnosis originally made by the French physicians who had treated van Gogh. However, van Gogh had earlier suffered two distinct episodes of reactive depression, and there are clearly bipolar aspects to his history. Both episodes of depression were followed by sustained periods of increasingly high energy and enthusiasm, first as an evangelist and then as an artist. The highlights of van Gogh’s life and letters are reviewed and discussed in an effort toward better understanding of the complexity of his illness

Full text available here:

http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/159/4/519

and:

Absinthe: what's your poison?
Strang et al.
BMJ 1999;319:1590-1592.

Full text:
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/319/7225/1590

---------------
On a non-psychiatric note I'm also finishing off a book on the Ik and they seemed to have been in near starvation for years and filled up on stones and elaves so they didn't feel hungry all the time - I believe that also happened during the recent famines in North Korea (when some horrific stories emerged).

Emps

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Eating habits rule out marriage

A Pakistani man says he's had marriage proposals turned down because of his eating habits.

Allah Wasayo says he eats carpets, lights, teacups, glass and grass.

He claims relatives turned down the proposals because they feared he would eat his wife.

The fifty-five-year-old from Pingrio can also eat large amounts of food. At a recent buffet at a five-star hotel in Karachi, he asked for his plate to be re-filled 15 times.

It is reported after having a "hearty" meal at the hotel he then went on to eat lights and broken pieces of teacups at another venue.

Mr Wasayo says his lips had never been cut by the sharp-edged things he has eaten and claims that he's never had stomach-ache or faced digestion problems.

The former labourer told newspaper Dawn: "All eatables taste the same to me. I eat carpets, cups, saucers, pieces of glass, pulao, chicken karahi and grass with the same fervour.

"My stomach has also been X-rayed but nothing wrong or abnormal was detected. And despite the fact that I eat so much, I don't have a paunch."

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1046333.html?menu=news.quirkies

 

[Anonymous]

I remember watching Penn and Teller talking about swallowing things. They had a series where they went round the world looking at magicians and other artists in far flung locations.

One of the programs was in egypt in a small cafe and the was a guy there swallowing broken glass. He started with small pieces and gradually the pieces got bigger and bigger.
At this point Penn started talking about his early sideshow life when he learnt to fire breath and eat objects etc. Apparently its not as dangerous as we tend to think. Its all about the size of the object swallowed. He pointed out that the egyptian fellow had started out normal and increased the size of the glass to showboat to the cameras and he would have no end of problems in the morning as it passed through and out of his system.
Penn was amazed at the extra risk the guy was taking to play to the local cafe crowd and their cameras. He could have made a fortune in vegas taking the same risk.

Anyway I cant help thinking its seems more dangerous to the
un-initiated so to speak. Sounds as though the carnival circuit had cottoned on to its relative little danger but high wow factor along time ago. Erm if that makes sense!

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Don't try this at (my) home

I suspect it is one of those things that everyone reckons is imposible without actuall trying it (a bit like firewalking).

I found this review by Doris Lessing:

http://www.picadillo.co.uk/tahir/html/sorcerer_b.pdf

about this book (which I'm sure I bought my dad as a present once - I must check):

[edit: Indeed I did and it looks to be a nifty book - I've already found out how to do the stopping your pulse trick!!]

The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Tahir Shah
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0753807289/

which describes a lot of the tricks of the fakirs including:

How to Eat Glass

Miracle workers prove their powers by performing superhuman feats. What better way to do this than to eat glass? A shard of glass from a crushed (transparent) light-bulb is placed on the tongue, chewed up and swallowed.

The secret of eating glass is banana. Before the magician begins, he eats an ordinary banana. When the ground-up glass is swallowed, it embeds itself in the banana, and passes harmlessly through the digestive trac

See also:

Kinison learned how to eat glass in a similar fashion.

Kinison was fascinated by a particular street performer, and slept at the spot where he performed for nights until he persuaded the man to teach him. They went to a restaurant and ate fried chicken and light bulbs for hours as Kinison learned how to masticate the shards of glass into tiny grains that would not lacerate his digestive track.

http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/issues/2003-07-31/news2.html

Become Your Own Freak!


Jim Rose, ringmaster of the eponymous Jim Rose Circus, reveals the “safe” ways to increase the odds of hurting yourself. And not just emotionally.*

Snort nails!
You have two nasal passages-one that goes into your brain and one that goes back into your face. Which leads to a hollow spot? You’re in luck-they both do. “Tickle [the latter] passage with a nail-making sure to file off the barbs-until you get past the sneeze reflex,” he says. After a few days, try spoons, spikes or a life-size replica of Gavin MacLeod.

Swallow razor blades!
Take a blade, put it in your mouth, swallow and-tah-dah!-it’s gone. The trick? You don’t really swallow. Instead, you place a razor-with the blade pointed to the side-right above your gag reflex. “If you cut the inside of your mouth, don’t worry,” reassures Rose. “It’ll coagulate quickly, so it won’t bleed for long.”

Eat glass!
Start by eating bananas to coat your stomach. Then add glass. “Chew the glass softly on your back molars, and don’t swallow it until it has the consistency of sand,” he says. Follow with a banana chaser. Then ask yourself why you even bothered to go to college.

Deep-throat swords!
Before swallowing Excalibur, practice on a wire hanger. Unravel it, bend it in half and “tickle the gag reflex seven times a day for three years until it no longer responds.” Once you’ve mastered this, switch to a fencing sword, which has a ball on the end for added protection. Sure, that takes commitment, but you might as well do something with your life.

http://www.stuffmagazine.com/articles/html/article_404.html

It even became a bit of a fad at USC once people found out how easy it was:
http://www.badfads.com/pages/events/glasseating.html

See also:
http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/467/2019717.html

Does it need saying that people shouldn't try this ever and if they do they should trian with someone who already knows what they are doing?

An odd aside:

The "I can eat glass" project:
http://www.geocities.com/nodotus/hbglass.html

 

[amester]

When I was a kid, I ate styrofoam cups :eek!!!!: but I survived to adulthood anyway.

 

[Anonymous]

I just thought I´d mention that in one of the episodes of the prison series Oz, they kill a fellow inmate by putting ground up glass in his food. They show him suddenly bleeding from everywhere. I guess in real life, he should just have gotten a banana split as a dessert, and he would have been fine

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

I just thought I´d mention that in one of the episodes of the prison series Oz, they kill a fellow inmate by putting ground up glass in his food. They show him suddenly bleeding from everywhere. I guess in real life, he should just have gotten a banana split as a dessert, and he would have been fine

Well if you don't chew it down properly then it is going to do some major internal damage (which is why it isn't a trick o be tried lightly) - somehow when a punch of burly inmates are holding ashiv to your throat you get much of a chance to do the trick right - although it would be quite effective if you could and they'd probably never mess with you again

 

[Mal_Adjusted]

Indian woman on diet of rusty nails, glass and stone

Ananova:

09:00 Thursday 16th September 2004

Indian woman on diet of rusty nails, glass and stone
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1104841.html?menu=news.quirkies

A woman in eastern India is said to live on rusty nails and screws.

Pampa Ghosh began her strange diet three months ago and now eats nuts and bolts, glass and stone.

Ghosh, from Siliguri in West Bengal, told Asian News International; "For the
past three months, I have been eating pieces of glass, bolts and stones.

"I really like it. Doctors have told me to quit, but I like it too much to stop
now."

Her mother Bharati said she was shocked when she found out what her daughter was
eating.

She said: "I thought I will not be able to save my daughter's life as she is
eating things such as nuts and bolts and glass. That is when I took her to the doctor."

-----

sounds like a variation on the old joke about "screws nuts and bolts!"

mal f

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Change for the Worse

Tuesday, September 21, 2004; Page HE02


An abdominal X-ray showed a mysterious white bulge in the stomach of a man who appeared at a hospital in France with a swollen belly. After doctors rushed him to surgery, they found the source of the problem: 0 worth of change (inset photo). The stash -- French, British and euro coins -- weighed closed to 12 pounds.

The man had a condition called pica (from the Latin for magpie, a bird known for eating practically anything). People with pica have been known to eat ashes, hair, laundry detergent, chalk, soil, lime, charcoal, dust, paint chips, burnt matches, ice and soap. Metal objects, like coins, are sometimes favored.

In the United States, adult pica persists among some African American women, pregnant women, and women in the South. Some studies estimate the prevalence at 9 to 25 percent among women of childbearing age.

Some specialists think pica may be linked to mineral deficiencies. Others believe it is a cultural practice. It can also be a feature of mental illness. The French patient, a man in his early sixties with a history of mental illness, died of complications 12 days after the operation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37063-2004Sep20.html

 

[Mighty_Emperor]

Lead astray!

Oct 19 2004

By James Cartledge, Evening Mail


A girl of four is brushing up on her diet after risking her life by scoffing PAINT from railings outside her city home.

Destiny Wheeler ate so much lead paint that traces of the potentially deadly metal were found in her liver and kidneys.

Now tests have revealed the tot has a condition called Pica, which leaves sufferers with unusual cravings.

And Destiny's relatives have been forced to move from their Northfield flat to keep the four-year-old away from the paint.

Her mother Lisa said: "Destiny was eating strange things like toilet paper and paint.

"To her, Pica makes the paint taste sweet.

"She says 'I like it. It tastes nice.'

"Before it was diagnosed she would say her tummy hurt. I thought something was wrong but I didn't know what it was.

"The X-ray showing flakes of paint in her stomach and glowing particles of lead. The paediatrician was horrified." The paint problem was discovered after Destiny was diagnosed with irondeficiency anaemia and ordered to leave the family home for two weeks.

Lisa said: "If she had carried on doing it she could have died. She can expel her current lead levels naturally if she doesn't eat any more."

Birmingham Children's Hospital consultant paediatrician Geoff Debelle said he saw an average of just one Pica case every year.

"It seems to occur in the second or third year of life and disappears in later childhood," he said.

"It is commonly associated with iron deficiency anaemia but nobody knows what the association is."

Lead was removed from paint in the 1970s but is still present in older buildings.

A Birmingham City Council spokeswoman said it was not harmful unless it was repeatedly eaten.

Source

and naother report:

Destiny's deadly lead craving

Oct 19 2004



Doctors seemed at a loss as to why little Destiny Wheeler had abnormal levels of lead in her blood. Until they looked out on the balcony of her Northfield home. Emma Pinch reports

Any mother will be wearily familiar with a toddler's urge to pop any new find straight into its mouth.

Soil, twigs, paper, crayon, most inquisitive young children have tried them all - and come off none the worse for it. But for one four-year-old girl her curiosity sparked a deadly craving - a predilection for lead paint.

Despite her mother Lisa's attempts to keep her away, Destiny Wheeler has managed to eat so much of the lead paint from the railings at their Northfield flat that she has developed 'lead lines' in her bones and traces have also been identified in her liver and kidneys.

Her abnormal lead levels were only discovered after being diagnosed with iron-deficiency anaemia and its source only after the youngster was ordered to leave the family home for two weeks.

In July this year Destiny was diagnosed with Pica, a condition where sufferers crave non-nutritious substances, which is also linked to abnormal food cravings in pregnant women.

Anaemia is also linked to Pica and some experts think that its is this mineral deficiency that leads to the non-food cravings.

"We sent her for tests after staff at her nursery found she had been regularly trying to eat paint," said mother-of-four Lisa. "Destiny was eating strange things, like toilet paper and paint.

"At first I thought she was just doing the things toddlers do, trying to gain attention. I thought, all kids pick things up and put things in their mouths. It never crossed my mind the paint was doing this.

"I had put a stair-gate across the stairs of our balcony so she had somewhere to play out.

"To her Pica makes the paint taste sweet. I kept having to tickle her to make her stop. She says, 'I like it, it tastes nice'. I told her, you can't eat it, it makes you poorly. Before it was diagnosed she would say, 'mum, my tummy hurts'. I thought something was wrong but I didn't know what it was.

"The X-ray showed flakes of paint in her stomach and glowing particles of lead. The paediatrician was horrified. On her advice Destiny was immediately sent to her grandmother's for two weeks so the source could be identified and removed. Her lead levels dropped."

Following the diagnosis, Ms Ingles started researching on the internet to find out what she could about lead ingestion and Pica. She found it could cause irritability, restlessness and aggression, Pica pallor, poor learning ability, speech, slow brain development, which tallied with the symptoms displayed by her daughter.

Now the family is moving house and they hope to put the nightmare behind them.

"If she had carried on doing it she could die," said Ms Ingles

"She has lead lines in her wrist and a bit in her liver and kidneys. She can expel what she has got naturally if she doesn't eat any more. I am hoping that her behaviour improves now she is away from the source."

Consultant paediatrician Geoff Debelle, who works at Birmingham Children's Hospital, said there were many question marks surrounding the unusual condition and that he only on average saw one case a year. "Pica involves the repeated or chronic ingestion of non-nutritious substances, commonly plaster, paint, paper, dirt or clay," he said. "It could be that the child has abnormal taste sensations.

"It seems to occur in the second or third year of life and disappears in later childhood.

"Once they discover they like it they seem to become locked on to it. One child I came across on a home visit was eating his way through his plaster bedroom wall."

He said the biggest danger was when the substance contained heavy metals such as lead.

"It is commonly associated with iron deficiency anaemia but what the association is nobody knows.

"Children I've seen haven't had a learning impairment but there is a suggestion autism, sleeplessness and learning difficulties are linked to Pica although that is not established.

"Alternatively that could be as a result of lead ingestion."

In 1978 lead was eliminated from paint but in older buildings it still remains and a spokeswoman for Birmingham City Council said all old paint contained lead but it was not harmful unless repeatedly ingested.

Source

 

[Mal_Adjusted]

90 metal objects recovered from man's stomach

Hi

Ananova:
*/09:07 Tuesday 14th December 2004/

*90 metal objects recovered from man's stomach

*

Doctors in southern India have removed 90 metal objects including keys, screwdrivers, spanners and nails from a man's stomach

22-year-old Nagaraju is reportedly out of danger after surgery at the Singareni Area Hospital in the Andhra Pradesh town of Karimnagar.

The coal miner's son was first admitted to the hospital with symptoms of schizophrenia and was later moved to a surgical ward when he complained of pain in the stomach and began to vomit.

A X-ray revealed presence of a big metal object in the stomach but the doctors were later surprised to find as many as 90 articles, reports United News of India

Dr Vamsi Mohan, who led the team of surgeons who operated on the youngster, said: "The patient did not die because the objects had not entered the intestines."

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1210170.html

Mal

 

[Anonymous]

So it's if they perforate your intestines that eating weird things is really dangerous?

Ruling out poison, I think I'd always assumed that having them in your stomach would do for you but I'd not thought about a mechanism.

Fascinating.

Are there cases of people who eat like this and it doesn't cause problems? I know, how would we know?

 

[Heckler]

Are there cases of people who eat like this and it doesn't cause problems? I know, how would we know?

I can't find it on Google but I do recall a guy who eats cars (literally) though I always assumed it was a similar trick to sword swallowing and glass eating fakirs of India i.e. For the glass eat loads of bananas before hand then crunch up the glass on the back teeth until it's a fine powder, it then gets stuck in the banana and is 'passed'. The sword swallowing is just a gradual process of acclimatising your gag reflex to not gag when an object passes down the throat, usually by gently poking it over an extended period. They also regurgitate objects which they have swallowed which again is just a gradual process of training your stomach muscles usually by swallowing pebbles and bringing them back and this is probably how the car eater works, i.e. briefly swallow a car part then regurgitate it when convenient.

A fantastic book on the subject of fake Fakirs is The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Tahir Shah btw.