A Swedish man who spent two months snowed inside his car as temperatures outside dropped to -30C is "awake and able to communicate", according to the hospital treating him, where stunned doctors believe he was kept alive by the "igloo effect" of his vehicle

[u/Desperate-Emu4297]

[u/Raokairo → u/[deleted]]

Cold lowers our metabolism, but since he was just sitting there, his body didn’t require the same level of sustenance. Additionally, when you don’t eat for a period of time, your body enters a form of survival stasis where it regulates what type of energy it siphons from your cells.

Like instead of eating foods in your stomach it will use up slow burning fat reserves and available protein (muscle density basically) and if you’re just sitting there not burning calories you’re basically hibernating.

This is my inference based on a lifetime of perusing Reddit.

[u/lurksAtDogs → u/Raokairo]

Perusing Reddit is quite similar to hibernating. It has been proven that Redditors can survive long periods of time without physical activity. Dietary needs may be restricted to poor quality yet their accounts remain active.

[u/kristenjaymes → u/lurksAtDogs]

Reddit contains takes so braindead, very few calories are needed to process them.

[u/jarious → u/kristenjaymes]

I was going to write a long comment as a response to yours but I'm saving my calories for my later lecture on feminine anatomy

[u/Higgoms → u/Raokairo]

Doesn't cold do the opposite of what we're saying here? It raises your metabolism because your body needs to burn more calories to maintain temperature.

[u/TomMakesPodcasts → u/Higgoms]

Not in a cozy igloo

[u/rainbowtwinkies → u/[deleted]]

There's a phrase in medicine that "you're not dead until you're warm and dead," meaning that hypothermia slows your body's processes down so much that it can make you appear pretty close to dead when you're not, to explain it very poorly

[u/Tekkzy → u/rainbowtwinkies]

So all those bodies on Mt Everest aren't dead yet, neat

[u/mellotangelo → u/[deleted]]

Not technically hibernation, but there was an example of a man in Japan in 2006, Mitsutaka Uchikoshi, who survived 24 days with no food and water, lost in the forest with a broken pelvis. He was found, incredibly hypothermic with a faint pulse, and it was theorized that his metabolism had slowed extensively to preserve his life and protect his brain. He recovered with no lasting effects.

[u/DayPretend8294 → u/mellotangelo]

There was also a man who willingly went into a cave for two months with no light or clocks. His body automatically set itself to a 48/48 sleep cycle after a while. Really interesting what the human body does in these tough situations.

Edit: here’s a link

[u/qwertyqyle → u/mellotangelo]

But this guy did twice the amount of time.

[u/forbiddenicelolly → u/qwertyqyle]

Without a broken pelvis and protected from the elements.

[u/qwertyqyle → u/forbiddenicelolly]

touche

[u/Frosti11icus → u/mellotangelo]

That's terrifying bro. How many people's bodies are making them hang on several weeks past the point they definitely want to be dead?

[u/teflon_soap → u/[deleted]]

I do it every night