Good stuff, SnakeCharmer.

Prolonged starvation would very likely also make your body result to desperate measures to get nutrients: muscle-mass. I imagine it'd be more so on someone who isn't overweight, but quite healthy. In your case, though, losing some muscle-mass VS fighting cancer and stuff = no competition. Do what you gotta do, but try not to go OTT... humans do need to eat.

You may find that starving your body of important nutrition will have effects worse than what you're doing this for. If you haven't already done so, look up all the nutrients and you'll get an idea what I mean; they are all so important and each play a roll in our growth and maintenance. I'm quite surprised your doctor is backing this, to be honest, but I guess as long as it's monitored and it's not just a typical case. (although I do wonder why you're doing it, as you don't have nor had cancer, am I right? Or is it a moral support thing?)

If possible, let me know how it goes - be nice to get some insight from people who are actually doing it, and have a doctor backing them.

By the way, I don't believe the test was all that valid, or noteworthy. I think the sanity of some of those people may well have been questionable to start with. I'm just guessing they used soldiers to do this experiment, and back then, perhaps people were very stressed, likely suffering unrecognised/unaccepted/ignored mental-health problems.

Look at all the people with anorexia and stuff who starve themselves; I doubt they are all "mutilating" themselves. I know self-harm is a wide-spread issue, particularly in young people, but given those with eating disorders are (perhaps typically?) that way inclined because they hate how they look/feel and want to change that; they do stuff to make their body look better, in their eyes, as opposed to mutilating it in such a way as to make it look less appealing; that said, I have spoken to quite a lot of self-harmers who are also anorexic, over the years, so I could be way off. (I'm not without understanding on SH, don't get me wrong; I self-harmed for years - 4 or so years clean)

The other results seem somewhat to be expected. If you're starving, you're not going to be interested in anything, because all you can think about--all your body is shouting to you: EAT. I imagine you know what I'm getting at, from your old days of anorexia. I don't think that's a particularly dangerous thing, unless incredibly prolonged, but even so, I'd say you'd die before going insane, due to the severe deprivation of important nutrients.

I'm really starting to understand why some people are so against fasting; I'm trying to appreciate the idea of short-term fasting (24-hours) but any longer, and I lose faith.