Alex Ritson

The body struggles to survive by shutting systems down.

And it starts doing that within three or four days, actually, but only at a slow rate and sort of choosing things that aren't essential.

But all systems are affected.

So your liver will stop processing things properly.

Your kidneys will begin to fail slowly.

Your heart will weaken.

Your immune system weakens so that you become increasingly vulnerable to getting infections.

And we kind of all carry infections around with us all the time so that they can get you in the end.

And your brain begins to shut down, too.

And you progress towards becoming immune.

well, you may be delirious or confused or actually lapse into a coma.

Yeah, right.

But Mike, what do they do in prisons?

Because they have, I mean, we've got these well-publicized hunger strikes underwear at the moment, but there are quite a number of hunger strikes in any year.

What's the general approach?

Are they force-feeding people?

Are people put onto drips?

Are those nutritional drips or just liquid drips?

What's the normal practice?

You first establish that the striker understands what they are doing and you want them to know that they are putting their lives at risk.