WEBVTT - Can You Hibernate a Human? 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:02.400 Hey, please take a second and leave us a review 0:00:02.480 --> 0:00:06.279 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to the podcast. 0:00:06.960 --> 0:00:11.360 Thanks a lot. Hey, welcome to Science Stuff, a production 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:14.800 of iHeartRadio. I'm hort Jam and today we're answering the 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:19.280 question can we hibernate humans? We know bears can do it, 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:22.720 some birds can do it, and even lemurs can do it. 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:26.400 But could we get a person to hibernate? And would 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:30.240 it lead to breakthroughs in emergency medicine, cancer research, and 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:33.800 even space travel. We're gonna talk to a biologist who's 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:37.720 been studying hibernation in animals for thirty years, as well 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:41.040 as a medical researcher who's been working with the European 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:44.680 Space Agency to see if this would let humans travel 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:48.720 to distant stars. So get nice and cozy and get 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:52.000 ready to enter a state of science torpor as we 0:00:52.200 --> 0:01:02.000 answer the question can we hibernate humans? Hey? Everyone do? 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:06.360 They were asking three questions, what is hibernation, can we 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:09.120 get it to work in people? And why would we 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:12.440 want to hibernate a person? It turns out there are 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:14.720 a lot of reasons why we would want to do that, 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:18.520 including maybe letting us explore the cosmos, but first we 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.800 need to understand what it is and how animals are 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:25.080 able to do it. So my first conversation was with 0:01:25.160 --> 0:01:26.840 Professor Kelly Drew. 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:32.600 So, my name's Kelly Drew. I am a professor at 0:01:32.600 --> 0:01:36.160 the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, and I direct a NIH 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.800 funded center called the Transformative Research and Metabolism. So I've 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:43.839 studied hibernation for about thirty years, so I'm very much 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:45.760 focused on the brain and hibernation. 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:48.720 Incredible. I think you're the perfect person for us to 0:01:48.720 --> 0:01:49.360 talk to you today. 0:01:49.520 --> 0:01:50.000 Awesome. 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:53.040 Maybe start us off, how do you define hibernation? What 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:53.360 is it? 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:56.960 Well, the big picture of hibernation is that it's a 0:01:57.040 --> 0:02:01.720 metabolic adaptation where it suppresses metabolism and body temperature because 0:02:02.040 --> 0:02:04.640 sometimes they need to conserve that energy if food is 0:02:04.680 --> 0:02:09.600 not available, and many animals do it. Everything from some primates. 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:15.400 There's the fat tailed lemur from Madagascar. There's marmots. Bears hibernate, 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:19.240 not polar bears. Polar bears don't hibernate because they have 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:22.600 food year round because they fish off the ice, but 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:26.799 black bears and grizzly bears hibernate. And then there's ground 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:31.480 squirrels and hamsters, even the common house mouse. If you 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:35.600 take its food away, it will hibernate. Hummingbirds will hibernate. 0:02:35.800 --> 0:02:36.480 Hummingbirds. 0:02:36.600 --> 0:02:38.639 Yeah, there's a lot of different species. 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:43.800 Yes, hummingbirds hibernate too. Okay. The big question I had 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:48.040 for doctor Drew was how is hibernation different from sleep? 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:52.480 Actually is thought to be an extension of sleep, So 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:56.840 at least with hibernation, animals have to sleep to enter hibernation. 0:02:57.240 --> 0:03:00.560 And what I think is that there's a process that 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:03.960 kind of flips a switch that allows the temperature to 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:07.600 continue to cool, and then cold by itself plays a 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:10.800 role in suppressing metabolism. 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:15.000 So hibernation is not just sleep. Something else kicks in 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:18.760 in animals during hibernation, and that causes two things to happen. 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:22.720 One through metabolism, meaning how active the cells in their 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:27.440 body are slows down. And two, their body temperature drops. 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:31.679 And this is a key feature of hibernation because normally 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:35.600 your body doesn't let your body temperature go down. Even 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:38.200 when you sleep, your body doesn't drop below one or 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:41.320 two degrees of its normal temperature. It's all part of 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:43.120 our survival mechanism. 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:46.960 We all have a point where if we get to 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:51.080 a certain temperature, our bodies kick in the keaters, humans 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:54.720 will shiver, we start generating heat. And so the trick 0:03:54.840 --> 0:03:57.960 is that during hibernation, your body allows it to get 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:00.640 a little bit colder than what we normally do. So 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:03.480 it's often thought of as well, you just lower the thermostat, 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:06.720 reset the set point on the thermostat, and you get 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:10.080 down to a colder temperature, and that temperature helps to 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:13.040 suppress metabolism. So you go into this kind of state 0:04:13.080 --> 0:04:17.599 of nirvana, very low energy consumption, and everything just sort 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:18.440 of quiets down. 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:21.880 I see. So once we go into tibernation, our set 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:25.040 point is set lower, and so the body gets colder 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:27.520 and that doesn't do any harm to the organism. 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:31.440 Well, the ground squirrel is especially adapted to cold tissue temperature. 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:36.120 For humans, if our bodies go below about thirty degrees celsius, 0:04:36.400 --> 0:04:39.599 then we can have cardiac arrhythmias, so the heart doesn't 0:04:39.640 --> 0:04:42.320 function all that well. But the ground squirrels are specially 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:45.560 adapted and their body temperature goes down actually to minus 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:49.920 three degrees below freezing, wow, minus three celsius, and they 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:51.560 have no trouble with that. 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:56.320 So Hibernation isn't just about slowing your heart rate or 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:59.599 going to sleep for a long time. Something really fundamental 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:05.040 happens to animals that hibernate. Their entire bodies recalibrate to 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:08.520 work at a lower temperature, which is something that normally 0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:12.160 our bodies very strongly rejects. I mean, if you go 0:05:12.200 --> 0:05:16.000 below thirty degrees celsius or eighty six degrees fahrenheit, as 0:05:16.000 --> 0:05:20.560 doctor Drew said, your heart basically stops working. But animals 0:05:20.560 --> 0:05:23.840 that hibern need have a special mechanism that lets them 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:25.360 run super cold. 0:05:26.640 --> 0:05:29.960 And so the ground squirrels have adapted these temperature mechanisms 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:32.520 so they keep things functioning even in the cold. I 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:34.240 mean the same thing in your car. You know, you 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:37.920 change the weight of your oil for winter compared to summer, 0:05:38.200 --> 0:05:40.279 so you want a little bit less viscous oil in 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:40.719 the winter. 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:43.839 I see, I live in California and I'm from Panama, 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:47.039 so this is need to me, that's the in fact 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:49.839 that you need to change your oil. But in Alaska, 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:51.799 I imagine that's a common thing. 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:55.520 Very common. Yes, So all those kinds of things. Animals 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:59.520 have adaptations that allow them to tolerate different temperatures, and 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:01.320 we don't know really what all those are. 0:06:03.480 --> 0:06:06.120 Okay, here I had a lot of questions for doctor Drew, 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:09.000 like what's happening in the brain of these animals when 0:06:09.040 --> 0:06:13.080 they hibernate, Do they dream or are they conscious? What 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:17.800 triggers this hibernation mechanism? And then what's going on in 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:20.320 the brain while animals are in the state. 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:24.159 Well, like I said, they are first sleeping, but as 0:06:24.200 --> 0:06:28.200 they cool, the magnitude of the brain waves they shrink 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:31.119 and get lower and lower as the animal cools, until 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:35.919 finally it becomes flat. And that actually looks somewhat like 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:38.560 being in a coma, but they're not in a coma 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:41.880 because they can be induced to arouse just by handling. 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:44.799 But it's more extreme than sleeping for example. 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:48.320 Right, Yeah, it's a different state of consciousness. So cold 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:52.680 really continues to dampen the brain waves so that then 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:54.640 they will become flat. 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:57.480 Meaning like the brain doesn't work at those lower temperatures. 0:06:57.600 --> 0:06:59.520 You don't see any electrical activity. 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:05.560 That means, so basically the brain of the animal stops working. 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:09.880 It's almost being brain dead, but not quite. In fact, 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:14.800 it's something very different. Amazingly hibernating animals have been shown 0:07:14.880 --> 0:07:17.720 to be able to learn while they hibernate. 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:21.360 And they can learn actually when they're in this state. 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:23.880 Wow, what do you mean they learn? How can they 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:25.320 learn if they're passed out? 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:29.240 What they learn is they habituate to handling. If you're 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:31.760 like needing to do something with the animal when they're 0:07:31.760 --> 0:07:35.600 in hibernation, you can just handle them, and at first 0:07:35.640 --> 0:07:38.160 they'll be bothered by it, and they'll start to wake up. 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:40.160 And if you do that over and over, they pretty 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:42.640 much get used to it to where they just don't 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:44.600 bother anymore. They're used to it. If you go in 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:47.880 and handle them, they won't arouse. Wow, And so we 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:50.440 consider that to be learning. It's called habituation. 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:52.840 Oh wow, that's uds like my teenage son when you're 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:53.240 trying to. 0:07:56.240 --> 0:07:57.200 That's exactly it. 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:03.400 Yeah, even though their brain activity is totally flat and 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:05.840 they seem like they're in a coma or brain dead, 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:10.040 the hibernating animal can still somehow process what is happening 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:13.520 to it. It's really a very different state of being. Okay. 0:08:13.600 --> 0:08:16.800 The next question I had was what triggers hibernation. 0:08:18.760 --> 0:08:22.160 We've got animals that hibernate according to season. We call 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:25.560 them obligate hibernators. So they have a clock in their 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:28.120 bodies that tell them what time of year it is, 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:31.600 and no matter whether it's cold or dark, or whether 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:34.400 they have food or don't have food, they will hibernate. 0:08:34.640 --> 0:08:37.880 And those are the ground squirrels and other species like 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:42.120 the hamsters are what are called facultative hibernators, and for those, 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:46.600 the hibernation has to be induced by short days, so 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:50.640 like what you would see in winter. Other animals like 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:54.240 mice will hibernate just because they don't have food. It's 0:08:54.280 --> 0:08:56.880 just simply, hey, we don't have any food. Let's chill 0:08:56.920 --> 0:08:58.560 for a while as long as we can, and then 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:00.880 we're gonna warm up again. See if there's any food. 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:02.840 Oh, I see, let's just wait it out and see 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:05.160 what happens. Yeah, what about like bears. 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:08.600 And bears are a little bit more facultative because if 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.240 it's warm, they won't hibernate. If they have a whole 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:15.240 lot of food, they don't hibernate. So bears, because they're 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:18.240 so big, they don't actually get that cold. They don't 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:22.160 get colder than about thirty degrees see, but they suppress 0:09:22.200 --> 0:09:26.520 their metabolism down to twenty five percent of basil metabolic rate. 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:29.640 So basil metabolic rate is as low as you can go. 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:31.400 If you go lower, you're dead. 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:32.680 Kind of, yeah, you're dead. 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:35.520 Would you say? That's kind of a definition of hibernation 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:39.480 is let you basically slow your body down to where 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:40.719 you would normally be. 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:44.400 Dead, exactly right. And lots of people like to think 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:48.280 of it as near death, and that way is very similar, 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:52.320 and we like to imagine that hibernation is a state 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:56.040 that kind of is near death, but it can be reversed. 0:09:57.880 --> 0:09:59.640 All right, When we come back, we're going to talk 0:09:59.679 --> 0:10:03.199 about another interesting fact site to sit found about hibernation, 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:05.400 and then we're going to talk about whether we could 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:10.160 ever make it happen in humans. Don't go anywhere, we'll 0:10:10.200 --> 0:10:27.880 be right back. Hey, welcome back. We're talking about hibernation 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:30.480 and whether we could ever do it in humans. And 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:34.280 so far we've learned what hibernation is, which animals do it, 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:38.640 what triggers it, and whether animals dream while they hibernate. 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:40.960 The last thing we're going to talk about before we 0:10:41.000 --> 0:10:44.920 get to hibernation humans is that hibernation in animals is 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:49.200 not constant. There's a cycle in hibernation. 0:10:50.040 --> 0:10:53.360 And for whatever reason we don't understand animals when they 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:56.679 go colder than thirty degree c they have to rewarm 0:10:56.840 --> 0:10:59.959 every so often. Hamsters will rewarm every three to four 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.520 five days. Ground squirrels rewarm every two to three weeks, 0:11:03.600 --> 0:11:07.640 and we call these interbout arousals. And during that interbout arousal, 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:11.040 they sleep, so the flat eeg turns into slow wave sleep. 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:15.280 They make glucose, they urinate just a little bit, they 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:18.120 fluff up their nest, and they sleep and then they 0:11:18.160 --> 0:11:19.199 re enter torpurth. 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:23.520 Torpor, by the way, is what scientists call that deep 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:28.959 low metabolism, cold temperature, almost brain dead state animals enter 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:32.360 during hibernation. But what doctor Drew is saying is that 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:35.720 animals are not in that state the whole time. They 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:38.600 kind of stir and kickstart their body every so often 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:42.680 throughout the hibernation period, and scientists think animals do this 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:45.319 to kind of do body maintenance. 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:51.439 Something initiates that in about arousal. That evidence suggests that 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:54.360 it's either an accumulation of something a waste that they 0:11:54.360 --> 0:11:57.559 have to get rid of, or a lack of metabolite 0:11:57.559 --> 0:12:00.839 that they need, like for example, glucose and so they 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:03.160 need to make glucose and they can't do it when 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:06.640 they're cold. So during hibernation, they may need to warm 0:12:06.720 --> 0:12:08.959 up to make glucose. They may need to warm up 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:12.640 to get rid of nitrogen somehow, And so that's what 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:16.200 we think is that they have to warm up periodically 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:18.480 to do some of that metabolic work. 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:21.800 So you're saying built into hibernation is this sort of 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:25.440 periodic arousal where they do a little bit of maintenance 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:27.079 and then they go back to hibernation. 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:30.600 That's right, that's right. 0:12:29.840 --> 0:12:31.800 All right, And now we get to the topic of 0:12:31.920 --> 0:12:35.640 making humans hibernate. And the first question you might have 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:39.280 is why hibernate a human? Well, according to doctor Drew, 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:41.959 there are many reasons why we would want to put 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:46.200 humans in a deep state of torpor. Okay, why would 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:47.680 we want to hibernate humans? 0:12:47.880 --> 0:12:51.800 Well, the most lowest hanging fruit is for critical care, 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:55.160 particularly for brain injury. Like if you have a cardiac 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:57.920 arrest that means like sudden heart failure, you fall on 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:01.080 the ground and now you're comatose and you get resuscitated 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:04.360 by CPR. Those people actually wouldn't know it, but they 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:07.240 ultimately die from brain injury. So even though they can 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:10.040 bring them back, the brain doesn't tolerate that lack of 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:13.200 blood flow very well. So if we can induce hibernation, 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:17.520 there's potential that it could have immediate benefit to people 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:21.080 that suffer stroke or cardiac or risk drowning or lack 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:21.760 of oxygen. 0:13:22.360 --> 0:13:24.240 How would that help them, Well, it may. 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:26.920 Just simply prevent the injury caused by the lack of 0:13:26.920 --> 0:13:31.880 blood flow, or it could stabilize the injury while every 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:34.760 other processes kind of come back to normal and then 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:36.880 allows the body to kind of deal with it at 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:38.640 a slower pace at a better time. 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:41.800 Meaning you just want to slow everything down so that 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:43.400 the injuries don't get worse. 0:13:43.800 --> 0:13:48.320 Yes, right, having them enter this hibernation natural cooling state 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:50.520 is expected to be more beneficial. 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:54.719 I see. So that's one reason we might want to 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:58.520 hibernate a person in an emergency. Going into hibernation could 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:02.560 cool the body down going into hypothermia, and that would 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:05.280 slow the response to the body so that doctors have 0:14:05.440 --> 0:14:08.320 more time to deal with the injury. And this could 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:10.880 be useful not just in heart attacks and strokes, but 0:14:11.040 --> 0:14:14.280 in any kind of injury where medical care is not 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:15.680 easy to get. 0:14:16.400 --> 0:14:18.800 So you could stabilize somebody by putting them into a 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:21.920 hibernation state, and how you can get them to medical facilities. 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:26.840 It certainly battlefield operations. Same with remote emergency care. If 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:31.560 somebody falls mountain climbing or whatever and is injured but 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:34.440 they can't be evacuated for a period of time, they 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:37.360 could be stabilized by putting them into these states. 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:41.920 And another interesting reason to hibernate people is to maybe 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:46.440 save the planet, he said, saving the planet. What's the 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:47.200 scenario there? 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:50.840 So the other kind of grandiose ideas I've heard. One was, well, 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:53.880 we can save the planet if you know, we can 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:57.320 just all chill on a regular basis. We don't drive 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:01.400 as much, we don't use as much electricity, all these things. 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:03.440 Like we would all go into hibernation every once in 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:05.160 a while or every night or what do you mean? 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:09.800 Yeah, maybe for you know, like life holidays, Yeah, a 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:12.200 couple of weeks at a time. I think it was 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:15.400 inspired by COVID a little bit, because as horrible as 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:21.080 it was, we definitely saved some things. You know, traffic 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:25.440 was less and pollution lowered, wasn't so bad. People get 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:28.280 pretty engaged in the life and hard to say, well, 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:29.920 I'm just going to cut out for a couple of 0:15:29.920 --> 0:15:30.720 weeks or a month. 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:35.720 Yes, we could take hibernation vacations. Say you just want 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:38.080 to check out for a few days or a few months, 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:42.800 you could hibernate, and overall we would reduce human activity, 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:45.440 which could be good for the planet. I mean, how 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:47.120 many of us would like to take a break right 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:50.040 now and not wake up until the next presidential election. 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:54.680 And doctor Drew says taking hibernation vacations wouldn't just reduce 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:59.200 your carbon footprint, it could actually help you dage and 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:00.720 live longer. 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:06.560 But what's interesting and hybridating animals is they do live longer. 0:16:06.920 --> 0:16:10.000 Hibernation prolongs life, but you just kind of a pause. 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:12.320 It's not the wear and tear on the body. You're 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:16.440 really taking a break and cooling and rewarming. There's evidence 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:20.160 that it has some regenerative properties, so you can actually 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:24.560 you know, regenerate synapses, potentially regenerate muscle. But certainly in 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:28.120 hibernation is interesting because even though they don't eat or 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:32.440 move for eight months, they wake up strong. Whoa, they 0:16:32.440 --> 0:16:33.920 don't lose any muscle. 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:37.240 So they live longer, not just because they pause their body. 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:40.440 But because there's other benefits to hibernation. 0:16:40.120 --> 0:16:43.040 There could be that's still a hypothesis, but we're seeing 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:47.000 evidence of cold and rewarming. The combination of cooling and 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:49.880 rewarming stimulates regenerative processes. 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:52.760 I see. You would think that it's just your body 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:55.520 kind of goes downhill when you're hybrided. But now there's 0:16:55.560 --> 0:16:59.240 something stimulating about hibernation. Yeah, fascinating. 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:02.080 But you know it's also a wonderful weight loss program. 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:04.560 What do you mean, what do you mean. 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:08.520 Well, you don't eat, metabolism is down These ground squirrels 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:11.960 can double their body weight pre hibernation and then they 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:14.879 lose all of that by spring, but they're fit and 0:17:14.960 --> 0:17:16.159 trim when they wake up. 0:17:16.320 --> 0:17:20.000 Oh wow, that does sound like a really good program. 0:17:23.480 --> 0:17:26.960 Well I am all in on that startup. Right, that's 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:30.679 Fitness Life Extension. Where do I sign a check for 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:31.520 that investment? 0:17:31.800 --> 0:17:32.359 Exactly? 0:17:33.440 --> 0:17:37.200 That's right. You could use hibernation to lose weight during 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:40.320 hibernation and the most burnt fat to stay alive. And 0:17:40.359 --> 0:17:42.879 so you could imagine going into hibernation for a while 0:17:43.119 --> 0:17:48.240 and waking up thinner without having to diet or exercise. Okay, 0:17:48.359 --> 0:17:51.400 the last super interesting reason to hibernate people is for 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:55.000 space travel. You've all seen the science fiction movies where 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:58.600 astronauts climb to a sleeppond and going to suspended animation. 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:02.440 But why is that? How does hibernation help with goin 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:05.200 as space? To find out, I talked to a medical 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:08.880 researcher that's been working with the European Space Agency on 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:12.960 this idea. Well, thank you, doctor Huk for joining us. 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:15.800 It's my pleasure. I'm very curious a lot your questions 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:18.280 and to explore with you together, you know, the new 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:21.199 perspectives of potential hibernating humans. 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:23.160 One day, can you please tell us who you are 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:23.840 and what you do. 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:27.520 I'm a physician by training during research and mostly about 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:30.679 organ protection, which has brought me to this field of 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:34.440 spaceflight and how the organisms reacting to extreme environments. 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:38.960 Okay, now, according to doctor Chuk, there are several reasons 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:43.880 why being able to hibernate would help humans travel through space. Now, 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:46.240 you probably think the main reason is the one you 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:50.159 see in movies, which is that space is huge and 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:53.520 it takes a long time to get anywhere. For example, 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:57.400 the near start to us Proximus centory is forty trillion 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:01.000 miles away and getting there could take hundreds or even 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:04.159 thousands of years. So being able to climb to a 0:19:04.200 --> 0:19:07.439 pod and somehow good sleep and stop aging means you 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:11.960 could actually survive the trip. This is true. But actually 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:15.879 NASA and the European Space Agency are interested in hibernation 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:19.600 for more practical reasons, and they're looking at it as 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:24.240 a strategy for shorter journeys like say to Mars. Getting 0:19:24.240 --> 0:19:26.680 to Mars takes a little less than a year. So 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:29.520 why would we need to hibernate? Well, like I said, 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:32.360 there are several reasons, and the first is that when 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:37.840 you're hibernating you don't need to eat as much. You said, 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:40.440 there are big advantages in terms of resources. Can you 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:41.359 explain what that means? 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:43.680 Yeah, we did a study with the European Space Agency. 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:47.080 We designed the mission of six people going to Mars 0:19:47.160 --> 0:19:50.240 and back just theoretical design. What do would that mean? 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:52.639 How much resources do we need? How much oxygen, how 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:55.479 much water supply, food supply, so on. What would be 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:59.960 the scenarios of being under hibernation condition versus another high 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:03.080 condish And of course oxygen you save a lot, but 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:06.560 the most tracking element is for food. For instance, you 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:10.320 have maybe a twenty percent of fifteen percent of food needed. 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:14.679 Only Doctors huqu In the European Space Agency calculated that 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:17.919 for a six percent mission to Mars, where everyone stays 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:20.680 awake the whole time, you need to bring about six 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:25.040 tons of food, which is six thousand kilograms or about 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:29.080 thirteen thousand pounds of food. And that's because the whole 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:32.120 trip would take about two years, and so you need 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:35.639 over two thousand, two hundred meals for six adults, and 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:38.600 there are no grocery stores along the way, so you 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:41.480 have to bring everything. But then they compared that to 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:45.480 a Mars mission in which the crew hibernated some or 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:48.040 all of the way there and back, and the amount 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:50.280 of food you need in that case turns out to 0:20:50.320 --> 0:20:54.520 be only seven hundred kilograms, or about fifteen percent of 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:58.439 the original amount. That's about five tons of payloads that 0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:02.760 you don't need to bring. If you hibernate the crew, 0:21:02.920 --> 0:21:05.320 you only need sixty seven hundred kilograms. 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:08.359 Wow, exactly. This makes the difference. And when you just 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:12.359 think about the implementation of a travel to Mars, you 0:21:12.520 --> 0:21:15.600 just need less payloads. Yeah, so this is why agencies 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:18.240 maybe like it. Yeah, yes, we reduce the payloads. You 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:21.120 need less stuff to get uploaded, and every kilochrome every 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:22.800 pound costs a lot of money. 0:21:24.080 --> 0:21:30.680 So hibernation would make space travel cheaper. Another reason hibernation 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:34.440 would help going to space is that hibernation apparently makes 0:21:34.440 --> 0:21:39.480 you more immune to radiation damage. Space is full of 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:42.680 harmful radiation, some of which comes from the Sun and 0:21:42.800 --> 0:21:45.679 some of which comes from cosmic rays, but it's a 0:21:45.720 --> 0:21:48.879 real problem for astronauts. It means that your chances of 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:52.040 getting cancer out in space are much higher than if 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:55.760 you stay on Earth. But for reasons that scientists aren't 0:21:55.840 --> 0:21:59.520 quite sure of, going into hibernation makes you more radiation. 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:06.200 When you relief of vicinity and go the younger fun 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:10.440 old belt and having less protection, you will see more 0:22:10.560 --> 0:22:14.800 radiation effects there it will increase, and depending on solar eruptions, 0:22:14.800 --> 0:22:18.800 this may even be detrimental. So radiation resistance is a 0:22:18.840 --> 0:22:19.320 big thing. 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:23.080 Doctor Chuke says that scientists in Germany and Italy have 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:26.879 done experiments where they induce torpor in test animals and 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:30.800 they found that it kind of protects them from radiation damage. 0:22:31.040 --> 0:22:34.400 And the reason for that is not quite clear to scientists. 0:22:34.520 --> 0:22:37.800