Excuse the interruption of the story. This author wishes to expound on some of the "medical" issues in the previous sections (and which will be pertinent in future sections.)
Belladonna does react just as I have indicated, however the parasitical issues are completely my own as well as the Dream Walker plant.
Smooth muscle runs throughout the body. Essentially this is the muscles you have no control over, the involuntary ones. They are concentrated through out the veins, arteries, and the digestive tract from the trachea downward. Essentially, once you swallow, smooth muscle takes over to move the food through the stomach, intestines, to the end.
The effects of acidosis and alkalosis are exactly as I described them. A few other complications can arise, but I did not want to overwhelm people with medical jargon or irrelevant facts.
A few other tidbits: a person can lose 40 of their blood volume and still survive with immediate transfusions. Athletes and those in top physical form can lose a bit more and still survive. Keith could lose that much blood and still function with the help of adrenaline.
Agappon, I have learned after the fact (Thanks Dr. Jon!), could have some basis in fact. Not completely, but there are combinations of substances which could produce most of the effects. Doctors today can stop the digestion process, lower heart rate, and increase alertness. Not necessarily simultaneously, but possible.
In medieval times, arrows were often left in wounds until the healer could attend to them. Leaving them in place staunched the bleeding, until the arrow could be removed and the wounds cauterized. Yes, without anesthesia.
In the case of the weight loss, a person is considered anorexic when their weight hits 85 of what is considered normal. Keith is a 6' male, well-muscled and in good shape. His healthy weight is around 180 pounds give or take 10. That means his anorexic weight is around 150 pounds /- 5 pounds. That can be taken even further. Starvation and malnutrition victims can drop below 100 pounds, although they look like skeletons with skin. At the risk of sounding insensitive, think how the people from Schindler's list looked.
In terms of gaining weight (or losing if you wish). To debunk the myth, a pound of muscle is not more than a pound of fat, simply denser. One pound is one pound. Each pound of body weight is approximately 3500 calories (depending on the person this varies, but this is a nice average). Does this mean if you eat an extra 3500 calories daily, you will gain a pound a day. Depends on the person, the short answer is (like everything else in life). If you add an extra 500 calories a day, or simply reduce your burning of calories by 500 calories then in a week you will gain one pound. Without going into so much detail your head spins, whether this turns to fat or to muscle depends on what your activities are and what you are eating. Candy bars and couch potato? Fat. Fruit, veggies, and protein with exercise? Muscle. If you need more information, try Wikipedia.
As most of you know, most people will live about 40 days without food but only a week without water. Strangely enough a week of no sleep can also lead to death.
Intestinal parasites, in later stages, act as described. Attaching to the veins and arteries is my own imagination.
Spindling blood is much like dialysis. Sometimes it is done with the purpose of warming or cooling the blood to increase body temperature in case of hypothermia, or to reduce it in the case of high fevers. I am not totally familiar with the process, just hijacked enough for my own purposes.
Poisons do accumulate in the muscles and other body tissues. Once the initial amount is removed, the body then releases it from the muscles. The best example is lead poisoning and why it is so dangerous.
The truth of the matter is this kind of thing fascinates me, so I spend too much time researching to make things slightly more realistic. The idea someone can receive enough internal damage to require surgery and then be up and moving like normal makes me snort. Suspension of disbelief only goes so far.
Oh, sidebar note: the advancement of correcting problems with a baby while in-utero continues to grow apace. I believe within a century, many of the genetic issues children have will be corrected with an engineered RNA virus. Yes, I really do like this kind of thing.
Now that you have been inundated with too much info, I humbly ask for your feedback!
Thanks,
--KM