WEBVTT - How long can you go without food and water? 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.600 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know? 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:11.880 From house Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to 0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:15.120 the podcast. I'm Josh. There's Chuck. This is stuff you 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:22.840 should know. Welcome, Welcome. How you doing the invenue? So, Chuck? Yes, 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:26.520 I just um, I just drank a coke and I 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:31.200 also ate some chips and salsa, nice, and I it 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:32.760 was all on an empty stomach, so I feel like 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:35.040 I'm gonna vomit. Three of the four food groups right 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:38.160 cover right, So, yeah, you've got corn in the chips, 0:00:38.720 --> 0:00:42.760 You've got tomato onion, God knows what else is cilantro 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:46.040 in cilantro? I'm sure is that a food group? So 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:47.920 you've got all this stuff in the salts and the 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:52.200 chips and and then whatever's in the coke, right, um, 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:55.200 And all of it came to me and into my 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:59.440 stomach because I am a member of the wealthiest nation 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:02.840 on the planet. Okay, Yeah, do you want me to 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:04.640 get to the bottom of this? Yeah, I kind of 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:07.080 don't know where you're going. Well, ironically, I should say 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:08.720 I didn't even pay for this. I found it in 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:11.479 the brake room and ate it. Okay, but I live 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:15.520 in America, and America's got the money to pay for food. 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:20.600 So food naturally finds its way to countries like the 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:26.680 United States, Western European countries, developed nations, right, it doesn't 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:31.000 necessarily find its way to underdeveloped nations. Okay. So you're 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:35.160 familiar with the carrying capacity, right, Okay, Um, well then 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:38.680 I'll explain to everybody else. Uh. It's an anthropological term, 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:41.319 and I think it may also have to do with economics. 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:46.839 But basically, a carrying capacity is the total number of humans. Uh, 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:50.440 something can sustain so like hunting, hunting and gathering. I 0:01:50.480 --> 0:01:55.240 think could sustain something like several hundred million people up 0:01:55.320 --> 0:01:58.080 to maybe two billion, I'm not sure. Uh. And right 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:00.760 as we were on the verge of hitting that mark, 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:03.920 we came up with agriculture out of the blue. Agriculture 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:10.120 can buy estimates, Uh, carry ten billion people. Okay, we're 0:02:10.120 --> 0:02:12.640 coming up on that mark pretty quickly. Yeah. I think 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:15.360 we're supposed to hit ten billion in like or something 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:19.200 like that, and we may go it may go shorter, um, 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:22.280 depending on you know, if there's any kind of catastrophes 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:26.120 or major food crises or climate change. It could go 0:02:26.200 --> 0:02:30.000 longer if we'd be if our technology advances sufficiently, like 0:02:30.080 --> 0:02:32.079 you know, we come up with soilent green or something 0:02:32.160 --> 0:02:35.840 like that, right, grow from food in outer space. That's 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:39.800 that's where we we eat humans. Okay, that the science 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:43.320 fiction film you're talking about, soilent Green. Yeah, okay, So 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:45.720 so we may go more or less ten billion, but 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:48.600 ten billions usually the mark And um. This has kind 0:02:48.639 --> 0:02:51.880 of been on the mind of some people for a while, right, Um, 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:54.520 especially in the in the mid to late sixties, there 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:56.920 was a food shortage and there were all sorts of 0:02:56.960 --> 0:02:59.919 predictions coming out that you know, we were about to 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:02.799 be screwed, we're in big trouble. Um. And there is 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:07.800 a book called um Famine nineteen seventy five with an 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:10.480 exclamation point or anything. Yeah, And it was an academic 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:13.400 book and it used an exclamation point in the title UM. 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:17.160 And basically in it, the author um suggests that we 0:03:17.200 --> 0:03:22.320 need to triage essentially who gets food. So the countries 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:24.360 that are contributing the most to the rest of the 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:29.800 world through advancement and you know, um whatever, uh, they 0:03:29.840 --> 0:03:32.320 should get the most food and basically the other countries 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:36.240 should be left to starve to death. It was pretty grim. 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:39.440 It was written in nineteen seven, and obviously no one 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.160 took that up and ran with it, of course not. 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:45.840 It's pretty creepy, but it seems like price mechanism kind 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:50.480 of has come to fulfill that same prediction. You think, yeah, 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:52.560 because if you look at it, if you look at 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:56.640 the the eu n's World Hunger Map, uh, the the 0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:59.640 areas that are the hungriest are the areas that are 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:02.280 the least developed. They have the least amount of food. 0:04:02.640 --> 0:04:05.600 And as if that weren't enough, it's all a vicious cycle. 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:09.520 The more hungry you are, the higher your literacy rates are, 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:15.839 unemployment rates, all sorts of mortality rates obviously, um, so 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:18.119 you can't really break your way out of it unless 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:22.480 somebody helps you. And the price mechanism theory, my theory 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:26.520 is supported by the recent food crisis we saw in 0:04:26.520 --> 0:04:31.200 two thousand seven, right, food just dried up everywhere. Why 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:34.120 because fuel prices went through the roof. We got expensive 0:04:34.160 --> 0:04:36.800 to produce and transport food, and so all of a 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:39.919 sudden it didn't go the way it used to. You know, 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:45.400 care International there like an aid group, the Food Aid Group, 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:48.560 and they have a food Aid section. They actually stopped 0:04:48.640 --> 0:04:51.880 handing out surplus food. They can't get it anymore. Yeah. 0:04:52.080 --> 0:04:57.240 So food is pretty much a wealthy luxury, sadly enough. 0:04:57.279 --> 0:05:01.400 And we're kind of hitting that famine nine seventy scenario 0:05:01.480 --> 0:05:03.320 one way or another. Wow. I never thought of it 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:05.400 that way. Yeah, And it is tough to think about it. 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:08.480 And I mentioned all this because we're talking about how 0:05:08.520 --> 0:05:10.640 long can you live without food or water? Right? Right? 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:13.880 So I guess my my goal was to kind of 0:05:13.880 --> 0:05:17.200 put a human face on this, like what happens when 0:05:17.279 --> 0:05:22.200 you live in Bangladesh or you know, Chad or somewhere 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:25.800 and you are starving to death and even worse, you 0:05:25.800 --> 0:05:28.520 can't get any access to water or fresh water, at 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:32.440 least from from researching this, it's a horrible, horrible way 0:05:32.480 --> 0:05:35.240 to die. Yeah, I may i may um, I may 0:05:35.279 --> 0:05:37.960 reevaluate my dropping out of the sky in an airplane 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:40.080 is the worst way to die. Starving to death or 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:43.279 dehydration might do it for you. Right. Yeah, So let's 0:05:43.640 --> 0:05:47.560 I mean, how long can you go without food? Say, well, 0:05:48.080 --> 0:05:51.279 there's a general rule of threes. If you're talking about 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:54.600 survival experts, they call it the rule of threes. Odly enough, 0:05:55.480 --> 0:05:58.799 and uh, supposedly you can go and these are rough estimates, 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:01.360 you know, there's we'll talk about the variances later, but 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:04.279 you can go three minutes without air before you die, 0:06:05.120 --> 0:06:07.920 three hours without shelter if you're in a really harsh environment, 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:12.760 three days without water, in three weeks without food, three 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:16.000 hours without shelter, and if you're you know, stuck in 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:18.719 the freezing cold somewhere, that kind of thing. So that 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:21.800 that's the rule of threes. Um. There's all sorts of 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:24.360 play within that though. So if you're talking about food, 0:06:24.520 --> 0:06:28.000 how long you go food, three weeks is actually kind 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:31.040 of on target. Um. You know, you can look at 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:33.919 political prisoners that have gone on hunger strikes. Yeah, the 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:38.239 IRA in the early eighties a lot longer than three weeks. 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:40.960 Well they did, and you can and you know, Gandhi 0:06:41.279 --> 0:06:43.599 fasted for exactly three weeks, but he was in his 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:46.159 seventies at the time, so he wasn't in you know, 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:49.560 premium condition, which obviously if you're in the most fit 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:51.320 and the most healthy, you can go a little bit 0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:54.240 longer than you know, someone who's grossly out of shape, 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:57.039 although having an abundance of fat actually would help you 0:06:57.080 --> 0:06:59.640 survive too. So I guess that gets this into what 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:02.279 happened is when you start to run out of food, 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:05.359 bringing up the fat part, because your body what it 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:10.800 does is it processes uh, fat, carbohydrates, and proteins as 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:14.200 the stored energy, right, because it keep surviving. That's energy 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:16.960 you need your cells need for you know, to to 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:19.840 perform the functions that they do right. Right. And so 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:22.160 if you're talking about those three things and you're starting 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:26.040 the process of starving to death, uh, your body is 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:29.280 going to burn up carbohydrates. That's the first thing that's 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:31.680 going to burn up, which is which is good because 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:34.960 carves make you fat, sure, and then uh, then it 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:37.400 starts to burn up your fat. Stored fat even better 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:39.600 than burning up carbs, right. And if you have extra 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:41.440 stored fat, that's why you might get less a little 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:43.480 bit longer. I think you're I would make it for 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:45.760 a while. I think we'd beat the average. I have 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:48.560 a few extra pounds, if that's what you're alluding to, 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:52.520 I said you and okay, And then after that, the 0:07:52.520 --> 0:07:55.640 proteins start to get burned. And that's bad news because 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:59.200 using up proteins is basically your body itself. Your body 0:07:59.240 --> 0:08:02.040 is kind of consumed itself in a way, so it's creepy. 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:05.560 That's like the maybe the structure, cellular structure, like you're 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:08.760 just eating your own muscles or something like that. I 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.800 don't know. It sounds pretty rotten either way. Yeah, that's 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:15.440 that's very rotten. Your metabolism comes into play obviously, which 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:18.320 is how your body converts food into energy. So if 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:20.680 you have a real slow metabolism, you're gonna burn your 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:24.000 food a slower so you'll last longer you have which 0:08:24.000 --> 0:08:26.160 which will also cause you to you know, have carry 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:28.200 little extra weight if you have a slow metabolism, right, 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:31.200 But also you would be breaking down the carbohydrate slower 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:35.319 and then the fat slower, and then the proteins more slowly. Right, Yeah, Josh, 0:08:35.320 --> 0:08:38.400 I think that's that's probably the case. So that's explains 0:08:38.400 --> 0:08:40.720 why you would live a little bit longer if you're starting. 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:44.800 Climate plays plays a role. If you're in the freezing 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.559 cold or in the burning heat, neither one of those 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:52.160 are aren't any good because you're gonna die faster basically, 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:55.679 which actually in this case may be better. Uh Well, 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:59.439 chances are if you're in extreme heat or cold, you 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:01.520 wouldn't make it to the point where you actually starved 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:04.080 to death. You would die from the elements before that 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:07.520 because it would weaken your body, you know, and tomato 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:10.520 tomato at that point, right, sure, yeah, you're probably just 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:13.400 you know, whatever hastens death, I imagine at that point 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:17.400 it's okay. So, um, I mean there's different stages, and 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:22.480 there's different symptoms for the stages of starvation, right um, 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:24.760 So at first, you know, and you can I can 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:30.080 identify with these like weakness, confusion, chronic diarrhea, got it 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:34.400 all the time, I barely ever eat, right. Um. Don't 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:37.400 you find that significant that you you your body starts 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:41.440 ejecting stuff while you're starving. You would think you'd be 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:43.960 hoarding it, right, Yeah, I guess it makes sense. But 0:09:44.000 --> 0:09:46.920 that's that seems to be a common theme that that you, um, 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:51.080 you you have diarrhea, which is just bad because that 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:53.199 will also lead to dehydration, which we'll get treated in 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:56.640 a minute, right exactly. Um, and then advanced starvation. You're 0:09:56.800 --> 0:10:00.920 you're really bad off. You're convulsive. Um, you can have 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:07.480 muscle spasms, a regular heartbeat, m hallucinations. Uh, and then 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:10.560 ultimately you can die of shock, correct, right, Well, your 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:13.520 organs will just start shutting down basically one by one. Yeah, 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:16.000 you know, your body's a machine and they always say 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:18.120 that and that food, food is the fuel, and so 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:20.880 without it, you're literally just gonna start breaking down bit 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:23.760 by bit. You said, Gandhi fasted for twenty one days, 0:10:23.760 --> 0:10:27.000 and he probably did it more than once, I imagine. Um. 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:31.600 But when we were talking about the IRA earlier, they 0:10:31.640 --> 0:10:34.240 one of them made it seventy one days, I think, so, 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:36.360 I don't remember the number exactly, but I think the 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:38.840 last one made it seventy one days. And um, there 0:10:38.880 --> 0:10:41.440 were a group of ten of them, right they were 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:44.080 in prison in Great Britain, and they started a hunger 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:47.600 struck because they were being um, pretty much tortured. At 0:10:47.600 --> 0:10:51.920 the time, everybody hated the IRA, and Thatcher, Margaret Thatcher 0:10:52.040 --> 0:10:55.360 was Prime Minister at the time, would would not budge. 0:10:55.880 --> 0:10:58.840 She went doing very public and yeah the world and 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:02.040 um she she she kept repeating that these people are 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:04.640 criminals and they're committing suicide and she had zero compassion 0:11:04.679 --> 0:11:07.000 for him. But from what I understand, it actually started 0:11:07.040 --> 0:11:10.120 to kind of turn the tide of public opinion slightly 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:12.920 more in favor of the I R A UM than 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:15.320 than it had been before, because up to that point 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:19.120 they were just heartless bombers, you know. So, and actually 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:23.280 seventy three days. Thomas mcawie he lasted the longest at 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:25.560 seventy three days, and he lasted what a week or 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:29.040 so longer than the second Yeah, full week. Well, choosing 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:31.840 to starve to death is one thing that's pretty harsh, 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:34.280 and you've got to be pretty committed to your cause 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:37.760 to do that. There's absolutely no way whatsoever you're gonna 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:41.240 last seventy one days without water right now. You never 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:44.600 see anyone go on on a dehydration strike, no, because 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:47.640 even the I ra a guys, um, we're taking small 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:50.760 amounts of water, which is what allowed them to live 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:52.600 that long. Exactly, you have to would be a very 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:55.520 short protest if you were doing a water strike, agreed, 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:58.200 and you would not get much accomplished. So what what 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:00.400 kind of time length they are we talking? I'll go 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:03.960 back to the threes three days you could potentially live 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:08.040 without water. Um. Again, environment and what kind of shape 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:10.240 you're in play a role. If you're obviously in the desert, 0:12:10.600 --> 0:12:13.080 you can start to be the hydrated within the hour. 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:16.000 And you hear about, you know, these awful stories about 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:18.040 like a baby being locked in a car that can 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:20.600 die from dehydration just a couple of hours in the car. 0:12:20.720 --> 0:12:22.360 I think you've been showing them that. I think like 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:25.480 maybe an hour. Yeah, yeah, and it's um, I guess 0:12:25.520 --> 0:12:27.439 this is the point where we should say that this 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:30.920 is not something anyone should test. You know, this is 0:12:30.960 --> 0:12:34.200 no laughing matter. Legal department loves you, chuck. Yeah. I 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:36.080 need to say these things because you do not want 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:37.400 to test your body to see how long you go 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:39.480 without water. You can go on fast and people do 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:42.160 the cleanses and things, as you know. I've done my 0:12:42.240 --> 0:12:45.560 cleans the Master cleanse before and um, is that the 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:48.520 lemonade cleans Yeah, yeah, with the cayan pepper lemon and 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.160 gray bean maple syrup. I've done that before. To all 0:12:51.160 --> 0:12:54.000 it did was kick up like chicken pox and me, oh, 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:56.560 I was so sick after like four days. Yeah, yeah, 0:12:56.559 --> 0:12:59.880 I couldn't hank I pooped my pants. I'll bet you did. 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:04.160 Once per moves through you, isn't it. Yeah, it's very 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:08.560 h It leads lends itself to an accidental scenarios that 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:11.600 is a sign of starvation. So it is so Yeah, 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:13.960 you can't live without water for very long. Um, you 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:17.800 lose water when you sweat, when you urinate, um water 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:21.559 in your feces. You lose water when you breathe through evaporation. 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:25.520 So your body is constantly losing water. Yeah, even like 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:27.800 you said, when you breathe, I found that surprising until 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:29.760 I really thought about it. I'm like, of course, that's 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:32.400 why you can see your breath. It's water vapor right right, 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:35.120 And you know there's a lot of water. Our body, 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:38.160 I believe is water, and uh, we need water. It 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:41.640 carries it runs through the blood to carry oxygen everywhere. 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:45.439 It acts as cushions for your joints and soft tissue 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:49.000 and helps your food digest, helps you absorb food energy. 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:53.280 There's actually this precarious balance going on, Chuck. There's this, uh, 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:57.080 I guess kind of dance between water and solutes in 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.680 your body. A waltz sure sometimes is a fox trot 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:04.760 depending on the state of um. And so solutes can 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:09.040 be things like calcium, sodium, electro lights, think things that 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:12.160 you need, but um, you don't need an over abundance 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:14.520 of them in relation to the amount of water. You 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:17.320 don't want to high concentration or low concentration. And this 0:14:17.440 --> 0:14:20.800 is part of the homeostasis that that um state of 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:25.520 balance in your body's processes. Part of that is UM 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:28.960 an isotonic state, which is a balance in the solution 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:33.920 of solutes and water. Got got me? Okay, you got me, 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:37.240 You're with me so far with so basically there's there's 0:14:37.320 --> 0:14:41.000 two places um. These solutions can be in your body 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:43.760 on the cellular level. They can be outside the cell, 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:46.800 which is extracellular, or they can be inside the cell, 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:49.240 which is intercellular. But and you want to have an 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:54.080 equal and isotonic balance and equal solution inside and outside. Right, 0:14:54.200 --> 0:14:57.720 and if you if one's thrown off, say there's a 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:00.840 high concentration, which means there's a lot of salutes and 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:05.280 not too much water. UM on the extracellular spaces. Uh, 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:09.040 the water is going to go from inside the cell outside. 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:12.880 It's it's trying to strike a balance. If you're not 0:15:12.960 --> 0:15:16.960 replenishing water and the water is being shifted around like this, 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:20.280 that's when you're in trouble. That makes sense. Okay, Now, 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:24.080 when you start losing water, you get thrown out of balance. 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:29.320 When you get thrown out of balance, basically dehydration, all 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:31.800 sorts of terrible things can happen. To your cells. Right, 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:34.760 So let's say there is a build up of sodium. 0:15:34.920 --> 0:15:37.920 You've seen what sodium does your lips if you eat. 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:42.160 Have you ever had Burger King's chicken fries? No? Okay, 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:44.680 well what if you? If you they were an ill 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:47.200 conceived and short lived. Um, they were French fries, but 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:49.680 they were made of chicken, so they weren't they were. 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:54.080 It was chicken, a chicken nugget elongated and those things 0:15:54.120 --> 0:15:56.080 you just you took a bite and your lips were 0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:59.000 immediately checked like you've been skiing for eight days. Yeah, 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:03.800 oh my god. It's so there's um, there's too much 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:06.880 sodium can dry out cells, right, it can wither them. 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:09.240 So if you have too much sodium in your cells 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:13.120 and not enough water, they can shrink and become destroyed. 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:15.560 And also outside of the cells as well, you have 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:18.040 all sorts of process He's going on. So if there's 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:21.640 too much water inside the cells and not enough outside, 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:24.520 the solution is too concentrated outside, then you have all 0:16:24.560 --> 0:16:27.000 sorts of connections, um, a little vessels and things that 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:31.040 can rupture. Right, Okay, so this is what's going on 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:34.720 with dehydration. Actually, both of those can happen. So One 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:37.840 of the processes that that can take place and kill 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:42.000 you very easily is cerebral adema. Right, that just sounds 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:45.640 like a killer. It's not good. Basically, what happens is 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:50.000 the U the uh osmotic gradient occurs, so it's out 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:55.520 of balance and the water is sucked into the cell, 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:59.560 which sounds kind of weird because you know you're dehydrated, 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:04.000 but so it's taking any available water. It can um 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:07.360 and if that happens too much to sell can rupture, 0:17:07.720 --> 0:17:10.280 and if it happens in your brain, your brain swells 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:13.879 and you're in big trouble because once a cell is 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:18.680 damaged like that, it can't be repaired. The exact opposite 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:21.520 can happen to your brain can if the balance is 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.560 off you have too much sodium not enough water, which 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:27.960 seems much more intuitive, and dehydration, uh, the the brain 0:17:28.080 --> 0:17:33.040 can shrink. Actually. Do you remember Terri Shiavo, right, the 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:35.760 patient that was on life support and I got too 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:39.400 much media attention. I remember her? Right? Um? She actually 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:42.240 when when she finally died, you know, she died of dehydration. 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:44.920 After thirteen days they took her off life support. She 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:48.840 was in a persistent vegetative state. Which we've talked about before. Um, 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:52.600 And she was basically just functioning on her brain stem. 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:55.680 When they did the autopsy after she died of dehydration 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:58.639 thirteen days later, it was half the size, half of 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:02.119 its normal size. Her brain was it just shrunk because 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:05.000 of a lack of water. It's interesting, It is interesting 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:08.200 and horrifying. It is Unfortunately, from everything I've read, every 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:11.040 medical professional said, there's no way she can feel pained. 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:13.920 She's not in a state of consciousness where she can 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:16.719 experience pain, which is good because that would have been 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:19.440 a really painful way to die. I would imagine dying 0:18:19.480 --> 0:18:22.800 of thirst or dehydration starvation is not a pleasant way 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:27.200 to go if you're obviously not in a vegetatus. Right. Yeah, well, 0:18:27.240 --> 0:18:31.320 you know though you've experienced something similar before. I know 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:34.600 you have when you've had a hangover. You know those 0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:39.879 throbbing headaches that you have. Your brain is literally shrinking, 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:44.720 right right. Um, You're you're you're dried out, basically. Um. 0:18:44.760 --> 0:18:47.760 You dehydrate when you when you drink heavily. Um, and 0:18:47.880 --> 0:18:54.480 your body actually shuffles water around itself, right, And one 0:18:54.720 --> 0:18:57.119 one great store of water in your body is in 0:18:57.200 --> 0:19:00.119 your brain. So what's happening is water is being on 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:01.880 from your brain and sent to other parts of your 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:05.639 bodies to rehydrate them, which seems like a terrible mechanism, right, 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:08.320 But what's going on is your brain actually doesn't have 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:11.560 any um, any any nervingtings. There's no way to feel 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:15.800 pain in your brain. But the membrane that connects your 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:18.600 brain to your skull, it's called the dura, it does 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:22.400 have pain receptors. So that's where the stretched and that's 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:23.959 where you get the headache, which is why you need 0:19:24.040 --> 0:19:27.280 to replenish yourself with water. Well, yeah, they say, you know, uh, 0:19:27.760 --> 0:19:30.720 if you're drinking alcohol in large amounts for you know, 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:33.359 New Year's Eve, let's say to uh toward the end 0:19:33.359 --> 0:19:34.760 of the night, and you you need to start slamming water 0:19:35.080 --> 0:19:37.280 or alternate the alcoholic beverage with a couple of I've 0:19:37.280 --> 0:19:40.440 always heard that too. I find it really difficult to do. Well, yeah, 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:41.879 that's because you have to put down the glass of 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:44.560 scotch in order to do it. So what else you got? 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:47.080 You got anything else? I've got nothing else? You know, 0:19:47.200 --> 0:19:49.320 don't don't try this at home if you're in a 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:52.800 survival scenario though you're gonna want to get on the 0:19:52.840 --> 0:19:55.639 water too. It's sweet. That's first order of business, unless 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:59.439 you're obviously caught in freezing ice storm somewhere, and then 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:02.080 you're gonna one to get your shelter really fast. Right. Also, 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:04.760 you you've got plenty of water right around. You need 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:06.600 to melt it, true, Yeah, you have to melt it. 0:20:06.640 --> 0:20:08.440 That's a good point. You don't want to eat snow 0:20:08.640 --> 0:20:10.960 or chew on ice that will actually dehydrate you further. 0:20:11.440 --> 0:20:13.320 Well it really, I know that the best way to 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:15.879 drink water is that room temperature. That's when your body 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:18.399 absorbs the most from it, right, But I didn't know 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:21.760 you can't eat snow. Well, it's uh. What it does 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:23.919 is it drops your core body temperature so much that 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:26.119 you're doing more harm than good. Got you, got you 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:30.040 well again, don't try going without food or water if 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:32.320 you don't have to drink eight to tin cups a day. 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:35.160 I know it varies from different doctors, but I think 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:38.160 by and large, if women drink, you know, roughly ninety 0:20:38.200 --> 0:20:40.720 ounces of water day and men drink about a hundred 0:20:40.760 --> 0:20:42.920 and twenty ounces a day, then you should be doing 0:20:42.920 --> 0:20:46.560 pretty well. You definitely want to hydrate got you and 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:48.679 when your mom said that you should eat all your 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:51.119 food because they're starving kids in China, she wasn't that 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:54.879 far off. So consider that and uh, chuck, what do 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:58.240 we got? Uh? You know, I think we should give 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:01.439 some props to some of our podcasting mates here. I 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:03.159 know that we have a lot of great fans and 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:05.119 so of you know some of the other podcasts we do. 0:21:05.160 --> 0:21:08.199 But we have a great auto podcasts if you're into that, 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:11.280 called high Speed Stuff, and we have a music one 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:14.600 that's been launched recently. It's very cool kind of side. Yeah, 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:17.080 it's stuff from the B side takes an interesting angle 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:19.960 on different various music subjects. Is school. I like it? 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:24.240 And of course stuff you missed him? History class? Great? Yeah? 0:21:24.359 --> 0:21:28.240 And uh what else? Brain stuff from our company founder 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:31.639 Marshall Brain the brain and then we can't forget Strickland 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:34.240 and tech stuff he would badger us for the next 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:37.320 few weeks. Sold. So tech stuff. If you're into gadgets 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:39.880 and technology, then they're your guts. But you can find 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:43.040