Which Will Kill You First?

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Hi, this is Kate from MinuteEarth.   My temperature is just under 37 degrees Celsius -  98.6, for you Fahrenheit-ers - normal for a human.   But here’s something weird about our temperature:  the highest body temp we know someone survived   isn't that far above 'normal', but the  lowest is more than twice as far in the   other direction. Why can we get so much colder  than we can hot, before our body calls it quits?  It turns out that we’re already playing with fire,  as far as what’s happening inside our bodies.   Proteins we rely on to perform critical biological  jobs work better when they’re toasty because heat   loosens up their coiled structure, making them  flexible enough to interact with other molecules.   Plus, warmer temps boost our immune system,  making it tough for germs to gain a foothold.   But there is a limit to how hot any given  molecule in our body can get before it breaks.   Over 40 degrees or so, certain proteins get  so loose that they start to uncoil completely.   Not only can they no longer do their critical  jobs; uncoiled proteins start tangling up in tight   clumps, which can gum up cells. This tangling  is what you’re seeing when you fry an egg,   although the egg's hardy proteins can tolerate way  more heat than the delicate proteins in our cells.   Other things start breaking above 40 degrees too;  membranes made of fatty molecules start to liquify   and channels in and between our cells malfunction,  so stuff leaks where it isn’t supposed to. By the   time our body reaches about 47 degrees, enough  critical components have broken down that we’re   toast. Yet because of the benefits of warmth,  the human body - like the bodies of lots of   other warm-blooded critters - has evolved to  operate pretty close to this breaking point,   with only a little wiggle room for  the occasional fever or overexertion.  There’s way more wiggle room in the  other direction. As molecules get colder,   they become less prone to interacting, which  slows chemical reactions down. Your body can’t   metabolize food as readily, electrical activity  in your brain decreases, and less blood gets   pumped through your body. This slow-down isn’t  inherently deadly - it can actually be helpful,   because the slower reactions happen, the less  energy and oxygen organs require. That’s why we   chill organs before transplanting them and induce  hypothermia in people with brain injuries, and   it’s part of how bears and other animals survive  huge wintertime drops in their body temperature.  But there is a limit to how slow - and  therefore how low - you can go. Even cold,   slowed-down organs require some blood flow  to supply life-sustaining resources and take   away life-threatening toxins...without that,  we die. But as long as the temperature of a   person - or a snoozing bear - stays just  high enough to keep our organs working,   we can generally reverse the  problems caused by cold...just   warm up again (slowly!) and things  will go more or less back to normal.  This bear-y awesome video was sponsored  by Surfshark. I know, everyone - including   us! - seems to be promoting VPNs. Enough already,  right? But here’s the thing - it’s *really*   important to use one. Companies are collecting  more of your data than ever, which is not only   annoying but can also be costly and downright  scary. Surfshark shields all your information   when you’re online - and it doesn’t log your data,  either. Plus, it’s really easy to use and you can   run it on all your devices with one subscription.  If you don’t have a VPN - or if you already use a   different one - go to surfshark.deals/minuteearth  and check out what Surfshark can do. Signing up   with the promo code MINUTEEARTH will get you 83%  off and 3 months for free. Oh, and with Surfshark,   you’ll be able to access pretty much all  the hyena-related content from around the   world - and let’s be honest, that’s what’s  really important in life. Thanks, Surfshark!
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Channel: MinuteEarth
Views: 422,455
Rating: 4.9374719 out of 5
Keywords: MinuteEarth, Minute Earth, MinutePhysics, Minute Physics, earth, history, science, environment, environmental science, earth science, thermoregulation, denature, hyperthermia, hypothermia, temperature, protein, aggregation
Id: JFhmRfBhIHQ
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 4min 1sec (241 seconds)
Published: Thu Apr 01 2021
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