CNN.com - Mystic's fast baffles doctors
Mia Morrison Prahlad Jani says his fasting ability is divinely inspired. Story Tools
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(CNN) -- David Blaine eat your heart out.
The magician's recent stunt of going 44 days without food is child's play compared with the alleged efforts of India's Prahlad Jani.
This 76-year-old Indian mystic claims to have survived the past 68 years -- yes, years -- without eating, drinking or going to the toilet.
It's an astonishing claim, and one which is being investigated by a team of doctors at the Sterling Hospital in Ahmedabad in India's of the state of Gujarat.
So far, doctors have subjected Jani to a 10-day trial under 24 hour surveillance and have been astonished by their findings.
The reclusive Jani -- who normally lives in a cave about 120 kilometers north of Ahmedabad -- did not eat, drink or relieve himself for 10 days.
"Jani has not passed urine since he was brought here on November 12. He has not taken anything by mouth or by any other route not even water during this period," Dr Urman Dhruv of The Association of Physicians of Ahmedabad, told The Times of India.
"All his parameters are within the normal physiological range. Initially, the project was to continue for seven days but his health allowed us to extend it," said Dhruv.
What's more, there was the baffling discovery that Jani's body appeared to form urine, but that was then reabsorbed back into the bladder wall.
"He underwent all possible medical investigations -- from checking blood pressure to MRI of brain and gut, which were normal," Dr Sudhir Shah, a neurologist, told the Times of India.
"Perhaps, he is more fit than other people of his age. This is an attempt to understand a new dimension in medical science and help mankind."
Jani's explanation is simpler. He has been blessed by the gods after hearing his calling when he was eight years old.
"I get the elixir of life from the hole in my palate, which enables me to go without food and water," news agencies quoted Jani as saying.
