
Human Hibernation Is a Real Possibility - gozzoo
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/01/human-hibernation-real-possibility/605071/
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dTal
>The squirrels Drew studies, for example, curl up into little balls and
plummet from 99 degrees to 27. This drops their basal metabolic rate by about
99 percent.

Not sure if this is meant to be C or F, but either the squirrels are boiling
hot normally, or frozen solid while hibernating.

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deweller
Fahrenheit

From the study:

> ...their core body temperature falls to as low as −2.9 °C, or 2.3 °C below
> the equilibrium freezing point of their body fluids. At these body
> temperatures, arctic ground squirrels avoid freezing by supercooling, which
> refers to the metastable state that fluids enter when cooled below their
> crystallization temperature in the absence of catalysts of freezing, or
> nucleators.

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wodenokoto
Does that mean that if you kick a hibernating Arctic ground squirrel It will
freeze solid?

That sounds both fascinating and horrible at the same time.

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pochamago
Feels kind of misleading to say that humans lack no organ for hibernating, and
then bring up at the end that hibernating animals have a different bowel
structure to prevent sepsis.

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war1025
Also the bit about "Astronauts would need a tube surgically implanted in their
abdomen to remain fed during their hibernation"

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apk-d
I'm confused about that part. There's cases of people living without food for
many months, given enough stored body fat. I'm assuming there's a reason for
the surgical approach (you still need water and supplements), but I think the
article isn't clear on what it is.

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deegles
Let's say you hibernated 4 months each year starting at age 35, if you live to
85, that would be an extra 16 years of wall clock life. A person born in the
year 2000 could live past 2100, or at least until there are more advanced
therapies available. I could see hibernation retreats becoming a big business
if this technology works out.

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farnsworth
Imagine going into hibernation at the beginning of february this year and
waking up now.

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linuxftw
Perfect timing. The ski slopes all closed mid March, and the beaches have been
re-opened. If you have the cash to sleep for 4 months, you probably spend most
of your time doing activities and the economic impacts are trivial.

If you live in a country where these things aren't available to you, well
yeah, sucks to be you in that situation.

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peter_retief
Interesting read. I read an article years ago about early humans in Europe who
did indeed hibernate or slept a few months of the year when it was very cold
and no food.

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mythrwy
This one? I think it was posted to HN a few years ago.

[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1117993/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1117993/)

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peter_retief
There was another that dealt with prehistory as well...

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WarOnPrivacy
I was hoping to find a clue to why I can sleep indefinitely, at least 70 hours
straight. It feels like what I imagined hibernating to be.

I still have my OEM bowel tho; I guess my super sleep isn't actual
hibernation.

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015UUZn8aEvW
Maybe you could, but would you want to?

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBvIweCIgwk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBvIweCIgwk)

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bovermyer
So that scene in The Abyss was not so far-fetched after all.

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tobylane
Lindsey’s drowning and hypothermia or the liquid breathing rat?

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bovermyer
I was referring to Lindsey's drowning/hypothermia in this case.

