Uninvolved doctors and other critics have questioned the validity of the studies[2][5][6] and stated their belief that, although people can survive for days without food or water, it is not possible to survive for years.[6]
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2003 tests
In 2003, Sudhir Shah and other physicians at Sterling Hospitals, Ahmedabad, India observed Jani for 10 days. He stayed in a sealed room and was given only 100 millilitres of water to use as mouthwash each day. Doctors say that he passed no urine or stool during the observation, but that urine appeared to form in the bladder.[1] A hospital spokesperson said that Jani was physically normal, but noted that a hole in the palate was an abnormal condition.[1] The fact that Jani's weight dropped slightly during the 10 days has cast some doubt on his claim to go indefinitely without food.[7]
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Reactions
Dr. Michael Van Rooyen, director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, dismissed the observation results as "impossible", observing that the bodies of profoundly malnourished people quickly consume their own body's resources, resulting in liver failure, tachycardia and heart strain. A spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association remarked that the human body could survive on water alone, although not healthily, and that a person could not expect to meet their body's vitamin and mineral requirements without ingesting food.[5] Nutrition researcher Peter Clifton also disagrees with study results. He accused the research team of "cheating" by allowing Jani to gargle and bathe, stating that a human of average weight would die after "15 to 20 days" without water.[6] People who avoid food and water to emulate mystical figures often die.[6] Sanal Edamaruku characterized the experiment as a farce for allowing Jani to move out of the CCTV cameras' field of view, claiming that video footage showed Jani was allowed to receive devotees and to leave the sealed test room for sunbathing. Edamaruku also said that the gargling and bathing activities were insufficiently monitored, and that he was denied access to the site where the tests were conducted in both 2003 and 2010.[3] He accuses Jani of having "influential protectors" responsible for denying Edamaruku permission to inspect the project during its operation, despite having been invited to join the test during a live television broadcast.[3] The Indian Rationalist Association stated that individuals making similar claims in the past have been exposed as frauds.[2]