Total fast periods of 4 to 14 days in the management of 50 cases of intractable obesity achieved a prompt decrease in body weight of approximately 2.5 lb. per day. Subsequent shorter fast periods served to prevent a recurrence of the obese state and, also, to achieve further reduction in weight in the ensuing weeks.Non-nutritious fluids were allowed ad libitum and polyvitamins were given. Exercise was interdicted. Anorexia was the rule after the first day of fasting and paralleled the degree of hyperketonemia. A sense of well-being was associated with the fast. The patient's subsequent 1or 2-day fasts, as an outpatient promoted his reassurance that he had within his grasp a means of effectively combating what had formerly appeared to be a hopeless situation.

A 3-month-old infant died following a 3-week illness that commenced with diarrhoea and vomiting, and produced progressive infarction of his small bowel. Post-mortem identified multiorgan arteritis of uncertain aetiology, giving rise to coronary artery occlusion and myocardial infarction as well as necrosis of the entire small bowel and other organs. Kawasaki disease and polyarteritis nodosa of infancy are proposed as possible aetiologies in this case.

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