Insatiable: A Life Without Eating
April 22, 2024 5:24 AM Subscribe
My initial reaction was to contrast Chapman's experiences with that of folks dieting to lose weight.
There were many similarities: feeling miserably unsated, physically weak from not getting enough nutrition, or socially awkward because they can't eat with everyone else.
But also glaring differences - no advice to "just try harder" to ignore the hunger, no "you have to want it" , no judgement, no minimization of his misery.
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 6:52 AM on April 22 [6 favorites]
There were many similarities: feeling miserably unsated, physically weak from not getting enough nutrition, or socially awkward because they can't eat with everyone else.
But also glaring differences - no advice to "just try harder" to ignore the hunger, no "you have to want it" , no judgement, no minimization of his misery.
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 6:52 AM on April 22 [6 favorites]
This reminds me of friends with severe food allergies, celiac, etc. that pretty much can't eat at any social event or have a hard time finding anything they can eat. It's incredibly socially awkward to not be able to consume anything in public multiple times a day, or not be able to find a safe restaurant, or be unpleasantly surprised that a safe restaurant wasn't. TPN, though, sounds like psychological torture. That poor guy.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:29 AM on April 22 [1 favorite]
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:29 AM on April 22 [1 favorite]
My initial reaction was to contrast Chapman's experiences with that of folks dieting to lose weight.
Seriously. No one told him to simply make "better lifestyle choices"
As a scientist, it reminded me that we have very compelling evidence that the relationship between hunger, satiety and food is super complex, much more so than any diet advice has ever accounted for.
posted by Dashy at 8:03 AM on April 22 [4 favorites]
Seriously. No one told him to simply make "better lifestyle choices"
As a scientist, it reminded me that we have very compelling evidence that the relationship between hunger, satiety and food is super complex, much more so than any diet advice has ever accounted for.
posted by Dashy at 8:03 AM on April 22 [4 favorites]
oh my, that is truly brutal but "I think it looks like a burrito" really hits the nail.
posted by supermedusa at 8:46 AM on April 22 [1 favorite]
posted by supermedusa at 8:46 AM on April 22 [1 favorite]
Seriously. No one told him to simply make "better lifestyle choices"
Well. That he says in the article. I can assure you that my friend with Crohns has absolutely been told that, many many times. There's also a gendered component - she gets told that much more than her brother with the same condition, for example.
posted by In Your Shell Like at 9:39 AM on April 22 [7 favorites]
Well. That he says in the article. I can assure you that my friend with Crohns has absolutely been told that, many many times. There's also a gendered component - she gets told that much more than her brother with the same condition, for example.
posted by In Your Shell Like at 9:39 AM on April 22 [7 favorites]
Intestinal disfunction (including a colectomy in the mid-90s) eventually got my mom. She just got tired of the pain of it all.
we suspect it was due to the antibiotics required to knock down strep in the bloodstream caught in the birth of my younger sister in the early 70s. Thanks, Kaiser Health.
posted by torokunai at 10:02 AM on April 22
we suspect it was due to the antibiotics required to knock down strep in the bloodstream caught in the birth of my younger sister in the early 70s. Thanks, Kaiser Health.
posted by torokunai at 10:02 AM on April 22
Crohn's is a real bastard. When I was diagnosed, I was having gut pain that had me curled up like a boiled shrimp. I feels like they don't really know how to treat it sometimes. They ran me through a series of medications until one put me in remission and then a couple years later, it started causing my liver to fail, so off we went to another medication which is brutally expensive but has been stable and functional for a few years.
I haven't had to do TPN. Everything in my intestinal tract seems good under treatment.
Oddly enough, when you get to the brutally expensive level, people in the US can't who can't afford it instead start taking oxy and other pain killers to manage the pain because those are cheap. Then to kick the addiction, they end up taking naltrexone which puts a fair number of them in remission. Up until a couple years ago, there was only one study done that had a small group of participants. There was another study done in 2022 on a small sample size that showed improvement in 25%.
This would be great because low dosage naltrexone is dirt cheap. And that is a problem unto itself. Why would a pharma company want to sell $30 a month of LDN when they can sell $2800 worth of Humira?
posted by plinth at 10:15 AM on April 22 [4 favorites]
I haven't had to do TPN. Everything in my intestinal tract seems good under treatment.
Oddly enough, when you get to the brutally expensive level, people in the US can't who can't afford it instead start taking oxy and other pain killers to manage the pain because those are cheap. Then to kick the addiction, they end up taking naltrexone which puts a fair number of them in remission. Up until a couple years ago, there was only one study done that had a small group of participants. There was another study done in 2022 on a small sample size that showed improvement in 25%.
This would be great because low dosage naltrexone is dirt cheap. And that is a problem unto itself. Why would a pharma company want to sell $30 a month of LDN when they can sell $2800 worth of Humira?
posted by plinth at 10:15 AM on April 22 [4 favorites]
A friend of mine is going through it with her Crohn's dx. She's two surgeries in and being brutally honest about how it sucks but she refuses to sugarcoat the experience.
posted by Kitteh at 10:26 AM on April 22
posted by Kitteh at 10:26 AM on April 22
I'm filing this to read on a day I'm not back from my doctor's. It was a good checkup but after last year (cancer, got lucky and surgery got it) knowing that Crohn's is on the long list of possible complications from my autoimmune problems is going to make this a tough one.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 12:56 PM on April 22 [1 favorite]
posted by gentlyepigrams at 12:56 PM on April 22 [1 favorite]
But also glaring differences - no advice to "just try harder" to ignore the hunger, no "you have to want it" , no judgement, no minimization of his misery.
As someone with a genetically related inflammatory condition, I can assure you that we get plenty of judgment, minimization, and recommendations for quack cures. There are definitely people out there who think they Whole Foods, Yoga, and Wellness better than me and that's why I'm sick and they're not. Or they sort of understand chronic illness, but at the same time get mad when chronically ill people are late/have to miss things/leave early/suddenly don't feel well/are immunocompromised and have to try to not get COVID.
posted by hydropsyche at 2:15 PM on April 22 [5 favorites]
As someone with a genetically related inflammatory condition, I can assure you that we get plenty of judgment, minimization, and recommendations for quack cures. There are definitely people out there who think they Whole Foods, Yoga, and Wellness better than me and that's why I'm sick and they're not. Or they sort of understand chronic illness, but at the same time get mad when chronically ill people are late/have to miss things/leave early/suddenly don't feel well/are immunocompromised and have to try to not get COVID.
posted by hydropsyche at 2:15 PM on April 22 [5 favorites]
Oh man, that permanent hunger sounds terrible. If you've ever done a voluntary or involuntary 24 hour fast you know the difference between appetite, cravings, munchiness and the gnawing physical pain that is actual hunger. I don't know how they can bear being in that state forever.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 12:19 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]
posted by TheophileEscargot at 12:19 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]
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