10 People Who Survived Against Nature

The day is beautiful and the sun is shining. You decide to go on a short hike to more fully enjoy this warm day. You know a great spot that many people don’t know about. You pack lightly as you don’t plan to be out for too long. A few bottles of water, snacks, cell phone, and MP3 player is with you as you arrive at your desolate location.

Time passes by quickly as you are enjoying your time and it is almost dark. You decide it’s time to leave but on the way, you trip and fall down a 50 foot cliff, resulting in a broken leg and immobility.

You try to call for help with your cell phone but it is not getting a signal. Your water and food is almost out and you won’t survive long out here. What do you do? How badly do you want to live?

10

Yossi Ghinsberg

“The toughest moment was after a few days, when I realized that I was completely alone.”

Yossi Ghinsberg and three other men went to the Amazon jungle. They ventured out to find a hidden tribe. The environment was harsh and tensions built up between the group. The group eventually broke up. Ghinsberg remained with Kevin, while the other two, Marcus and Karl, stuck together. Ghinsberg and Kevin took a raft but lost control of it as it came towards a mighty waterfall. Kevin made it to shore but Ghinsberg floated downstream and over the waterfall, narrowly escaping a watery death.

The following 19 days were full of challenges for Ghinsberg. He survived a late night encounter with a jaguar by setting fire to an insect repellent spray – spewing fire like a flamethrower. Swarms of termites feasted on patches of his skin and clothes when he urinated on himself out of exhaustion. He ate fruit and raw eggs from chicken nests in the jungle. He almost drowned by a flood and almost sank in a bog.

He was finally found by Kevin, who had formed a search party with the locals. Marcus and Karl were never found.

Modern Myths – Busted

We still use stories and believe in completely wrong urban legends about everyday things. At the time of our grandmothers, and maybe they were the only true, but now they are disproved and explained once and for all. 

9. Muscles turn into fat when you stop exercising 

This is impossible because the fat and muscle cells are composed of very different cells. When you exercise, you do not produce more cells (hyperplasia), but only increase the existing (hypertrophy). When you give up the practice, they just relax. Maintaining muscle mass requires very little energy, 13 calories per kilogram per day. Those who exercise regularly make thier body used to more food intake so that the muscles can maintain or even evolve, and when they suddenly stop, so does the need for food to mantain muscle. So, people stop exercising and developing muscles, but all entries from the food turns to fat because they are not active, and certainly not true that the cells of muscles magically convert to fat.