Question: How could David Blaine eat after starving himself for so long?

Answer: Imagine being trapped in a box for 44 days with nothing to eat. After missing meals for days, eating a lot of food to stop the hunger pains would be the first thing on a person's mind, but it might cause death from refeeding syndrome, according to some experts.

David Blaine, an illusionist known for his extreme stunts, recently had that experience. From Sept. 5 to Oct. 19, Blaine incarcerated himself in Perspex box hung by a crane over the Thames River in London.

He had access only to water through a tube.

When Blaine emerged from the box, he was given a drink enriched with vitamins, which he sipped in small quantities. He gradually began eating solid food four days later.

"His whole gastro-intestinal tract was changed," said Jill Patterson, associate professor of nutrition. "It had difficulty processing food."

Refeeding syndrome occurs when a person is fed regular food after a long period of starvation.

The body is no longer accustomed to digestion so all the nutrients overwhelm the body and put strain on the heart and lungs, Dr. Jeremy Powell-Tuck, the nutritionist in charge of Blaine's refeeding program, told English newspapers.

It could result in respiratory failure, heart failure, an irregular heartbeat, seizures, coma and blood cell dysfunction.

When people stop eating, they lose their source of energy from calories and nutrition from vitamins and minerals. If the body ingests nothing to sustain itself, it breaks down its own fat and tissue.

"When the body starves, it has to rely on its storage sites: the liver, muscle and fat," Patterson said. "Protein in muscles degrades into amino acids and some of them convert to glucose which provides energy."

Symptoms of starvation include shrinkage of vital organs, diarrhea, reduction of muscle mass, low body temperature and immune deficiency, according to Blaine's Web site, www.davidblaine.com.

The body's normal ability to digest food lessens because of decreased acid production, Patterson said.

In addition to these symptoms, Blaine complained of having stomach cramps, severe back pain, irregular heartbeat and delusion.

He also lost approximately 60 pounds, but he is expected to recover fully, Powell-Tuck said.

Blaine has performed other stunts in the past, including being buried alive for seven days, encased in a six ton block of ice for 58 hours and balancing on a pole 100-foot tall for 35 hours and jumping down onto cardboard boxes.

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