But we all live dangerous lives: not far from death if we don’t have access to simple things like water, food, or even sleep
How long can we survive without the basics? Each person and situation is different, although the ‘rule of three’ comes down to the desperate situation of what our bodies need: 3 minutes without oxygen, three days without water, three weeks without food some extraordinary members of our species are breaking and redefining these and other boundaries of human existence Here are some of the records of how long humans have survived without basic things like air, water, food, sunlight and sleep Warning: Do not attempt to break any of these records yourself
You can die The 3-minute no-breath rule is a good guideline
Hold your breath for a long time, and you risk brain damage But some people can hold their breath for a long time, as in the case of diving training The current world record for static apnea, or holding your breath in water without moving (often face down, unlike this training session), is 11 minutes and 35 seconds, and was established by Stéphane Mifsud in 2009jayhem/Flickr Allow a breath of fresh oxygen before trying?
The record was almost doubled to 22 minutes and 22 seconds
We can hold our breath longer underwater than in air due to a mysterious function known as the mammalian diving response
It allows us to more easily suppress the reflex that forces us to breathe – and drown And what about water?
How long can we go without the vital fluid that comprises two-thirds of our bodies? Find the source within three days or you’re in trouble ShutterstockBut the actual time a person can go without water varies, mainly because our bodies must maintain a water balance, and our fluid stores must be filled as we sweat, we urinate, and exhale Under extreme conditions, such as strenuous exercise under the hot sun, we can sweat 15 liters of water per hour
Fail to fill this, and the blood volume drops, sweating stops, and we become even hotter and more dehydrated, leading to death within hours
However, in a comfortable environment, an adult can live a week or more without water Andreas Mihavecz, an 18-year-old Austrian man, may have survived for a long time without drinking water: Police accidentally left him in a locked cell for 18 years days in 1979
It is a mysterious statement, however, because he licked the hardness of the prison walls Survival without food is more difficult to define
Humans evolved a tolerance for hunting, so it makes us very good at dealing with hunger Food scarcity is also a difficult thing to assess morally, although voluntary starvation gives us clues
Mahatma Gandhi’s longest spell lasted 21 days James A
Mills/AP But the longest hunger strike in recorded history was carried out by Irish political prisoner Terence MacSwiney, whose 74-day strike ended with his death in 1920
During starvation, the body begins to use glycogen in the liver and muscles to produce a sugar called glucose, followed by amino acids
After that, your body will begin to process fat stores and then its protein If the period of starvation is over, and the patient’s diet is not monitored carefully, they can store a lot of sodium, causing a dangerous accumulation of fluid that can cause heart failure And what about sunlight?
Can humans live in total darkness? Unfortunately, we know the answer to this from a group of children who were kept in a black cemetery by a Russian cult in Kazan, Tartarstan until 2012
Many of them, including a 19-year-old, had never seen the sun
Your body’s serotonin levels can be disrupted, however, which can affect your sleep and mood
And sleep is important – go without it for too long, and your brain starts to deteriorate
Randy Gardner, a 17-year-old high school student who stayed awake for 264 hours (11 days) in 1965 at a science fair, is often cited as the record holder in resting places such as sleeping
Some suffer from Fatal Familial Insomnia, which – after months without sleep – leads to brain degeneration and death Scientists still don’t know why we need sleep
But one thing is certain about sleep: Not getting it is bad news This article was originally published by Tech Insider
Food is one of the simplest and most sacred aspects of human happiness
Some may say that the hand of God helps the hungry while others, with a cynical mind, may say that hunger can lead to reduced hallucinations and delusions
In February 1963 Flores was lost in a storm while flying from Alaska to California
He was lost and tried to find the Alaska highway, during his search he crashed his plane into the trees in the Yukon Territory of Canada
Armed with only a five-inch hunting knife they survived in the snow for 29 days after their meager food ran out
Flores eventually abandoned their makeshift camp and chased SOS into a nearby frozen lake
Flores, who recently converted to Mormonism, assured Klaben that they would be saved if he would read the New Testament, when he finished the last page of Revelation Flores’s stamping was noticed by the Yukon Flying Services plane
Helen Klaben’s autobiographical account Hey, I’m Alive was eventually turned into a successful movie
Lifetime: 30 days (guaranteed) 70 years (claimed)
He claims that he did not eat or drink for seventy years as the goddess gave him a daily drop of divine ambrosia delivered through a hole in the roof of his mouth
In the 2003 tests he stayed for 10 days, during the 2010 tests he survived without food and water for 30 days but left without passing any kind of waste
Dr Micheal Van Rooyen of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative has criticized the study alleging that Prahald Jani was not adequately monitored during the trial and that any person deprived of water would die after 20 days
James Scott was a 22-year-old Medical Student who traveled from Australia to Nepal to enjoy trekking in the Himalayas
In December 1991, when he was trying to cross a 4km mountain pass he was hit by blowing snow and got lost
For the next 43 days he survived melting snowballs and one worm
Just before he was rescued, the Vula had already started to surround him during the day
Despite this difficulty he remained cheerful; “My attitude throughout that difficult period was generally one of hope and optimism” (from his book Lost in the Himalayas)
David Blain, that Houdini of the noughties, had a penchant for stunts that required extreme levels of mental and physical endurance
Starting with his Buried Alive stunt in 1999 Blain then endured freezing to death, and stood on a giant pole before attempting to survive without food for 44 days while suspended in a Plexiglas box over the River Thames
One man was arrested after trying to supply Blaine’s water with monkey urine
Blaine has a new show planned for 2012
Brendan Hughes was born into a Republican family in Belfast
After running away, like Cleopatra -he rolled on the carpet-, to Dublin for a few years he returned to Belfast with a changed name and a new job as a toy salesman, then he was arrested for possession of weapons
While in prison he participated in many of the protest actions of Republican prisoners in the late 70’s
It was in 1980, together with six other prisoners, that he started his hunger strike
It lasted 53 days and was only ended by a direct response from the British government, he was released in 1986
He died, aged 59, in 2008, no doubt a relatively young death due to a long period of self-starvation
Anastasia was born a Roman citizen during the late Roman Empire under the rule of Emperor Diocletian
Christians at this time suffered severe persecution, if a person was found to be a follower of Christ he was deprived of social status, imprisoned and tortured until he abandoned all belief in the Trinity and reaffirmed his loyalty to the ancient Roman gods
Emperor Diocletian, after receiving advice from Apollo’s preacher, a source some would argue was biased, began to persecute all Christians in 303
Anastasia, who was famous for providing food and medicine to Christian prisoners, was sentenced to death by starvation
Having lived 60 days without food (with no ill effects) the magistrate sentenced him to drown in an open boat abandoned at sea
Few can, even today, match the Roman states in giving themselves up to persecution
Barry Horne was an animal rights activist in Britain during the movement’s late 90’s / early 2000’s heyday, a time when more time was spent in Westminster debating fox hunting than the invasion of Iraq
He was convicted at the end of 1996 and began his first hunger strike in 1997 which lasted 35 days, this gained significant media attention and led the Labor Party to commit to reducing and eventually closing the prisons
Encouraged by the positive response, he went on hunger strike again in August 1997
He began his third and final hunger strike in October 1998
On the 43rd day of his hunger strike he received his last privileges and was placed in a “hunger cell”, equipped with just a cardboard chair and table
On the 66th day he was sighted, deaf in one ear and blind in the other eye; he couldn’t remember why he was hungry
After 68 days of not eating he ended his problem
In 2001 after an unsuccessful, unsupported hunger strike, he died of liver failure
Survival Time: 75 days
Survival Time: 75 days
Survival Time: 75 days
Survival Time: 75 days
Survival Time: 75 days
Survival Time: 75 days
Survival Time: 75 days
The Chinese evangelical preacher Brother Yun suffered incredible hardships and experienced the most amazing miracles
Refusing to join China’s official Christian church, he was imprisoned and tortured in Zhengzhou Maximum Security Prison
During this time Brother Yun claimed to have fasted for 75 days, beating his saviors’ record of endurance (Jesus only took 40 days and nights)
Being the only person to ever escape from Zhengzhou Prison, Brother Yun also claimed that he was given the power of invisibility to escape his oppressors
Survival Time: 11 months
This amazing young man from Nepal was ‘discovered’ when he was 15 years old, he was found meditating under a tree apparently he didn’t want food and water and he stayed in one place for 11 months, meditating on the truth
Since then he came to prominence and an entire industry has grown around ‘Buddha Boy’ becoming the main source of income for the remote Nepalese village he calls home
On July 22, 2010, residents climbed onto his meditation platform, held it and tried to imitate the Buddha, according to Bomjon himself “so he was forced to beat them”