I love Bear Grylls in Man vs. Wild... as entertainment. How accurate is his information when it comes to medicine and health ...

doctor-reacts-to-questionable-bear-grylls-survival-tips

Doctor Reacts To Questionable Bear Grylls Survival Tips

- Apparently, there's a lot
of Bear Grylls fans out there. You've asked me to watch the scenes, comment on their medical
accuracy and safety, - [Bear] You'll need water,
but if there isn't any, you can drink your own pee. - No! Bear, come on. PSA, do not drink your own pee. If you drink what your body excreted, especially if you're already
borderline dehydrated, you're gonna be getting
rid of all the stuff that you don't need and
then taking it back in. I know we sometimes say, urine is sterile. It's not.
(alarm blares) There's bacteria. Then you're gonna be drinking it? Now you're giving yourself diarrhea, potentially another fever-causing illness, which is gonna dehydrate you further. And there's other uses for your pee! Put it on your clothes
and put it on your skin, so that when it evaporates,
it cools you down. It might not smell great,
but you'll survive. Come on, Bear. - And if I just peed on the ground, that's all those fluids wasted. - They're not wasted
because fluid management within your body is not just fluids. It's fluids plus-minus electrolytes, and what your body does in urine is, it gets rid of those
electrolytes that it doesn't need and it keeps a very careful balance. When you drink your urine, you're essentially throwing that off further and further each time. So, like, no. Do not drink urine. I'm gonna eat some Thrive seaweed while he drinks that urine. Also salty. Much tastier. - Not, not my favorite. - No? That's not the
Gatorade flavor you go for? - [Bear] Urine is actually 95% water, and it's sterile when fresh. - It's not, because it has
to go through your pee-hole, which sometimes has bacteria in it. - [Bear] And drink it
sooner rather than later, as it's a breeding ground for bacteria. - How does Bear Grylls say
that his urine is sterile, meaning it has no bacteria, then say it's a breeding
ground for bacteria? Where does the bacteria come from? - One thing you can do
if you're stuck out here with no water source at all-- - Is not to drink your own urine. - Is actually drink the fluid
from a fresh elephant dung. - Oh, my God! Does he just try and find
liquid anywhere he can? - Pretty disgusting--
- Yeah, it is! - But it could save your life. - It's not, All of this is so
temporary, it's incredible. There is so much bacteria in that water that it will give you diarrhea,
thereby dehydrate you. This makes no sense. - Wow, I tell you what, these are the biggest
grubs I've ever seen. Look. And this is just the sort
of place that they like. They feed off all this rotting, soft interior of the palm tree. - Just think about that. Do you want to eat a bug that was just eating the
rotten interior of a palm tree? - And actually, the
locals eat a lot of these. They're like a delicacy. They're full of good protein. - When he says &amp;quot;good
protein,&amp;quot; does he mean it? - [Bear] It'll be worth every
one of its 140 calories. - Cook it, my guy. - Holy smoke. That is just horrible.
- Yeah! - Do you know what? They can keep their delicacies. - Like, I've seen people eat insects, and crickets, and stuff before. They do have protein. But, like, the cooking
part is just mandatory. Is that a camel? - What I'm looking for is the stomach. - How does he know the anatomy of animals? - It's in three parts, so it can separate the
liquids from the solids. - Wow. - And the bit I want is called the rumen. - I see the fascia there. - [Bear] This rumen water
is just like a reservoir. - What? (laughs) Oh, my God. I can't imagine that
that is safe to drink. - And a nomad told me once how his uncle, in the 1950s, was lost
in a sandstorm out here, and he actually ended up killing his camel to get at the rumen and all this fluid inside. - Oh! - And that actually saved his life. - As an evidence-based physician, I don't like hearing anecdotes like that, that some guy, one time, 200 years ago, saved his life by killing his camel. That, like, proves nothing to me. That story could've been made up. It could've been embellished. It doesn't mean that everyone
should be killing camels and drinking their rumen water. I don't know, it just,
it sounds so extreme. - [Bear] And look inside. You can see everything it's been eating. - Which is what? - And that is just--
- Grass? - Sort of, partially digested. And the fluid in this,
again, is dripping-- - No! He's gonna drink the
gastric juices of a camel? No. Come on. Oh, my God! Bear Grylls is the type of guy, five million years ago,
to see a cow udder, - You can eat these things straight out of the river like that. - Oh, my God, what is he, it's like he does it on purpose. - [Bear] Just what my
body needs to keep moving. I'm gonna take full
advantage of this feast. - It's kinda weird to me that,
as a survival specialist, he makes no use of fire here. Fire was invented for a reason, to cook things, to prevent infections, because one of the leading
killers before fire, before the use of cooking our food, storing our food correctly, was diarrhea. It would dehydrate you. Electrolyte imbalance. Your heart would stop. Acute kidney failure. - [Bear] I've noticed a
lot of bees in the area, so I'm heading through the scrub to get to the hive and find some honey. - You know I'm a honey fan. Like, I love honey. Honey works as good, or better, than over-the-counter cough suppressants in the pediatric population. (tense music)
(bees buzzing) Oh, that looks fresh. Fresh honeycomb. - [Bear] Leaving my forehead
exposed was a real oversight. - If you get a really bad sting, and you happen to be an individual who is severely allergic to a bee sting, you go into anaphylactic shock, where your throat closes up,
your blood pressure drops. That could be lethal very, very quickly. That's why if you know
you have an allergy, you should have an EpiPen, like
that, on hand at all times, and not necessarily an EpiPen, any kind of epinephrine autoinjector. Oh, he's swelling. - The bee sting has made all of, you know, this part of me swell up. Allergic reactions can be fatal. - That's serious edema right there. - I'm worried about anaphylactic shock, the first signs of
swelling around the eyes, followed by difficulty breathing
and loss of consciousness. - These type of large
reactions are really treated with supportive care if it's
not true anaphylactic shock. You wanna think cold compresses, steroids in serious cases, and really just making sure that the patient's
airway's not compromised, their blood pressure remains stable. Once that's okay, that usually
does pass in a few days. But swelling on its own, if
it's not over the airway, is not intrinsically dangerous. - [Bear] I'm on a raft
in the Pacific Ocean. I've collected some fresh water, but it's full of bird
droppings and it's rancid. Drink this, and you'd probably vomit, and risk worsening dehydration. But there is a way of using it to gain life-giving fluids, but only as a last resort. - I don't even know what he's about to do, but the fact that it has
bird droppings makes me think that there's so much E. coli in it, that if it makes any contact
with the inside of your body, whether it's through a
cut or you drinking it, you're just gonna get a massive infection. And a massive infection, when you're stranded
and you're surviving is, like, the worst case scenario. - [Bear] I'm gonna give myself an enema. - (laughs) Oh, my God! He doesn't try and survive. He's gotta think, &amp;quot;What is the most ridiculous,
extreme thing I can do in order to make this show?&amp;quot; Could you absorb fluids from your rectum? Yes, there are small blood vessels there. We do give suppositories there, so there are absorptive qualities there. Oh, my God, I can't believe
I'm even thinking about this. There's also a lot of bacteria
that lives in your rectum, including E. coli, which
doesn't enter your bloodstream. So, it could be an okay
place to have some bacteria. There's just so much that could go wrong. I think it's, like, a 50/50 shot. Will you survive, or will
you kill yourself further? - Now, that's placenta. - Oh, my God. - Did somebody have a baby?
- Is that Shaq? - What's rare, though,
is find it so fresh. That, for me, is good news. - Is it good news? - [Bear] It looks, actually, like dinner. - Shaq, don't do it, buddy. I've seen you three-peat. - And this is a first
for me, to eat placenta. - Yeah, it should be a last. (placenta sizzles) Like, there are some
cultures that do this, because the placenta is,
like, it has the nutrients, and it does the oxygen distribution for the baby through the umbilical cord, and there's some cultures
that think about doing this. But, like, the CDC has put
out a specific warning, like, do not do this. If you get a group B strep
infection in your placenta, and then you eat it, and then you pass it to your
baby through breast milk, that's deadly. That's lethal to a newborn. I give him props. I wouldn't do it. (Shaq spits)
- (laughs) Shaq is my man. - [Bear] It's traditional for Berber men to eat goats' testicles. They're thought to enhance fertility, and it's certainly gonna
be a test of my manhood. - Look, I'm respective of all cultures. The line I draw is medical misinformation. If you're gonna tell
me eating a goat's nut is gonna help you get fertile, I'm not gonna buy it. I need evidence-based medicine for that. Why raw? Just put it over a flame. - [Bear] Well, that's
definitely a first for me. (Bear retching)
- See, he's throwing up, because there's bacteria and it's gross. - And what this stuff
is, is like sunblock. - Oh, wow. - And the coral, itself,
we use, it's at low tide. When it's exposed to the sun, it will secrete this as a
way of protecting itself. Just amazing.
- Wow. - Scientists have actually
reckoned this stuff is as good as factor 50. - Wow, an SPF 50's
pretty great protection. I mean, I always say get
the highest SPF possible, even though once you get above
50, not much is changing. That's only if you're
following the exact guidelines, and I don't know about
this whole mushroom thing, but just get the one from the store. - [Bear] If it's got tentacles like that, those are stingers. But--
- So you can't eat it? - Jellyfish scare me. - You can eat the body of it.
- Right. - Foil it out. And it's a bit like, tastes a little bit like gelatine. It's pure protein. - I don't know what the deal
is with eating jellyfish. I missed that day in
residency in a medical school. Folks, today, we're learning
about eating jellyfish. It's like peanut butter
and jelly, but with fish. - And those are the, those, (Bear yelps) - It got you?
- Yeah. - So he got stung by a jellyfish, - Oh! He put it in his mouth? - I've seen movies before where if somebody gets
stung by a jellyfish, you have to pee on them. - The whole thing with
peeing on a jellyfish sting, really comes from preventing
the discharge of more toxin, and creating more inflammation. The general consensus has
been to use sea water, and not to use fresh water, especially, 'cause it can cause more of
that toxin to be released. - If you just relax, then I'll relax, now I've got stage fright. - I can't relax. - To pee on demand when
somebody is in pain is very difficult. - Peeing is actually a
complex, neurologic process. It's very easy to throw that off. If, for example, you've had a stroke, if you've had an injury to that area, it's very easy to develop
urinary incontinence, or urinary retention, and sometimes, the treatment for that,
is actually biofeedback, and understanding how to
control different muscles in the area. - I've been in water this cold before. - Oh, he's going swimming in cold water. - It's plain horrible. - Yeah, it's horrible
just getting undressed. - Chilly Perkins. Okay. Well, I'm hooked up to
this transmitter, as well, and that should show you my heart rate, but also, my breathing rate. - Generally what happens is, when you hit really cold
temperatures like that, or go under water, lot of times you'll
have this diving reflex, where your body will
automatically send you into a bradycardic rhythm, where the electrical
activity of your heart actually slows down,
to allow you to survive longer under water. We actually used to use
this type of treatment for supraventricular tachycardia, where we actually got patients to perform this diving reflex, vagal maneuver, and it would reset their
heart rhythm, slow it down. Obviously needs to be
very carefully monitored. And now, with the new medications
that we have on board, we generally don't have to do this. (water splashes)
Oh! I'm cold for him. I'm cold for him! - [Bear] Watch, as my heart rate drops from 160 beats per minute to 55. - Yep, diving reflex. - It's known as a mammalian dive reflex. It gives you vital, extra
seconds to make it for surface. - He did it! See, it worked, his survival mechanism kicked in. We also actually use hypothermia
treatment in patients who are undergoing
prolonged cardiac arrest, where we realize that
if we put them through a hypothermia protocol, very controlled, we actually decrease the
oxygen demand on the body, on certain organs, therefore we give them a little
bit longer survival time. Bear Grylls certainly
does a lot of cool stuff on the ground, but I just flew an F-16 in the sky, here's what happens to your
body when you're flying in an F-16 and experiencing a lot of G's. As always, stay happy and healthy. (upbeat music)

Dr.

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