I’d imagine not, unless there’s already something wrong with either the patient or the food. Provided your caller avoids botulism, aspiration of vomitus or other unfortunate complications, I suspect he’s in the clear.
As you probably know, it *is* possible to die of an electrolyte imbalance if one drinks massive amounts of water (on the order of 15-20 litres in one day, or less if one is already salt-deficient). Seems unlikely one could do the same thing with food, though, unless one gorged oneself on an awful lot of cucumber.
If you’d had one of those stomach staple operations they do for the morbidly obese, and then eaten so much that that your stomach burst, that could kill you, eh?
I’m sure I saw a program once about the capacity of the stomach that said it was impossible to eat some huge steak because it was bigger than your stomach could handle. It didn’t say what happened if you went ahead and ate it anyway, though. Perhaps it just, uh, came out your other orifices.
I’m sure that in one of the few occasions when I paid attention during school history lessons, I remember learning that at least one British monarch or old died from ‘a surfeit of lampreys’. A quick Google search suggests that King Henry I and King John may have been the over-fed unfortunates.
Yeah, I was thinking of that king, and I think it was King John. Why do they ALWAYS describe it as “a surfeit of lampreys” all posh and Olde English so nobody can understand? Just say “too many bloody eels”, for Pete’s sake!
On the TV series “Mythbusters” (Discovery Channel) they measured the amount a stomach (they used a pigs stomach) can … uhh.. stomach … before exploding.
It was a lot! The stomach quadrupled or more in size before it burst.
Lampreys aren’t eels. Lampreys aren’t eve true fish (eels are).
King John died of a ’surfeit of peaches’
King Henry I died of a ’surfeit of lampreys’
Alexander the Great is said to have died after over-indulging in food and wine
All these are likely to be red herrings; in the past very strong connections were made between what you ate and your health. Also glutony was considered a major sin (gluttony covered both food and alcohol). Therefore, the over-indulgence is likely to be what people around them remembered, not that the king was feeling a bit peaky before he started eating.
You can die from force feeding yourself rice untill you just can’t eat any more. Then you drink down a glass of water. Any organic material that gets wet expands. Rice is an organic material so the result it having your stoughmach (can’t spell it) ripped open…
Not a nice way to go. Makes me wince just thinking about it.
The book Stiff by Mary Roach (subtitled the curious lives of human cadavers) mentions two cases of deaths caused by stomach ruptures after eating too much.
SPOILER ALERT!!! You probably shouldn’t read this post if you are or plan on reading Inherit the Wind.
I just finished reading Inherit the Wind (great book, you should read it some time) and I came here because one of the characters, Brady, died from his stomach bursting. That made me wince and wonder if that was even possible. It did say earlier that he was drowning out his troubles in food but he must’ve aten a whole lot in order for his stomach to burst. (I read JBJ’s post.)
This whole conversation topic is rather unpleasant though. I think the stomach is a rather disgusting organ so the thought of it bursting makes me want to puke.
-Loida
you can not die from eating too much unless you are allergic to what you ate. You may have allergies, and will have too get your stomach pumped, or death.
-Jim Collans
First, I am French, so sorry for my english… I don’t konw if we can die with eating, but for the stomach, I know that it can distended a lot (I train myself to drink lots of water - several litres) to see my stomach distended, to feel my belly full of water). If somebody do the same, I would like to discuss about the experience. boireau1@free.fr
November 21st, 2005 at 1:05 am
I’d imagine not, unless there’s already something wrong with either the patient or the food. Provided your caller avoids botulism, aspiration of vomitus or other unfortunate complications, I suspect he’s in the clear.
As you probably know, it *is* possible to die of an electrolyte imbalance if one drinks massive amounts of water (on the order of 15-20 litres in one day, or less if one is already salt-deficient). Seems unlikely one could do the same thing with food, though, unless one gorged oneself on an awful lot of cucumber.
November 21st, 2005 at 4:38 am
how about when ye regurgitate that digestive intake and then let it go to ye olde lungs instead of breathing fresh air?
November 21st, 2005 at 5:24 am
If you’d had one of those stomach staple operations they do for the morbidly obese, and then eaten so much that that your stomach burst, that could kill you, eh?
November 21st, 2005 at 10:25 am
won’t too much of anything kill you?
November 21st, 2005 at 10:58 am
I’m sure I saw a program once about the capacity of the stomach that said it was impossible to eat some huge steak because it was bigger than your stomach could handle. It didn’t say what happened if you went ahead and ate it anyway, though. Perhaps it just, uh, came out your other orifices.
November 21st, 2005 at 12:12 pm
I’m sure that in one of the few occasions when I paid attention during school history lessons, I remember learning that at least one British monarch or old died from ‘a surfeit of lampreys’. A quick Google search suggests that King Henry I and King John may have been the over-fed unfortunates.
November 21st, 2005 at 1:29 pm
Wasn’t there also a king who demanded that he be fed pages of the Bible whenever he was ill, until he eventually died of ink poisoning?
November 21st, 2005 at 1:30 pm
Yeah, I was thinking of that king, and I think it was King John. Why do they ALWAYS describe it as “a surfeit of lampreys” all posh and Olde English so nobody can understand? Just say “too many bloody eels”, for Pete’s sake!
November 21st, 2005 at 1:46 pm
Tsk. Haven’t you seen Se7en?
November 21st, 2005 at 2:35 pm
@Bob, but in Se7en the guy died because someone kicked him in the stomach, iirc
November 21st, 2005 at 4:13 pm
You can die from overeating. All it takes is that final “waffer thin mint”, and you will explode.
November 21st, 2005 at 11:52 pm
In 1066 and all that, it was a surfeit of palfreys, which is a type of horse.
November 22nd, 2005 at 9:36 am
On the TV series “Mythbusters” (Discovery Channel) they measured the amount a stomach (they used a pigs stomach) can … uhh.. stomach … before exploding.
It was a lot! The stomach quadrupled or more in size before it burst.
November 22nd, 2005 at 12:29 pm
People with Prader-Willi normally need to live in an environment with restricted access to food or they will eat themselves to death.
November 23rd, 2005 at 11:10 am
Lampreys aren’t eels. Lampreys aren’t eve true fish (eels are).
King John died of a ’surfeit of peaches’
King Henry I died of a ’surfeit of lampreys’
Alexander the Great is said to have died after over-indulging in food and wine
All these are likely to be red herrings; in the past very strong connections were made between what you ate and your health. Also glutony was considered a major sin (gluttony covered both food and alcohol). Therefore, the over-indulgence is likely to be what people around them remembered, not that the king was feeling a bit peaky before he started eating.
November 25th, 2005 at 4:49 am
I remembered reading this a while back and looked it up. Just a warning; there is a graphic picture in the article.
geocities.com/edpetition/EDs_DO_kill.html
November 27th, 2005 at 1:43 pm
You can die from force feeding yourself rice untill you just can’t eat any more. Then you drink down a glass of water. Any organic material that gets wet expands. Rice is an organic material so the result it having your stoughmach (can’t spell it) ripped open…
Not a nice way to go. Makes me wince just thinking about it.
November 27th, 2005 at 6:10 pm
The book Stiff by Mary Roach (subtitled the curious lives of human cadavers) mentions two cases of deaths caused by stomach ruptures after eating too much.
May 27th, 2006 at 5:12 am
SPOILER ALERT!!! You probably shouldn’t read this post if you are or plan on reading Inherit the Wind.
I just finished reading Inherit the Wind (great book, you should read it some time) and I came here because one of the characters, Brady, died from his stomach bursting. That made me wince and wonder if that was even possible. It did say earlier that he was drowning out his troubles in food but he must’ve aten a whole lot in order for his stomach to burst. (I read JBJ’s post.)
This whole conversation topic is rather unpleasant though. I think the stomach is a rather disgusting organ so the thought of it bursting makes me want to puke.
-Loida
May 29th, 2006 at 7:15 pm
you can not die from eating too much unless you are allergic to what you ate. You may have allergies, and will have too get your stomach pumped, or death.
-Jim Collans
September 19th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
First, I am French, so sorry for my english… I don’t konw if we can die with eating, but for the stomach, I know that it can distended a lot (I train myself to drink lots of water - several litres) to see my stomach distended, to feel my belly full of water). If somebody do the same, I would like to discuss about the experience. boireau1@free.fr
December 11th, 2006 at 10:04 am
Yes, your stomach will rupture if you can force enough food down into it. This has happened several times in the past, a lot actually.