Imagine being trapped under a sheet of ice in frigid water.photo courtesy of Iowa DNR
Q. What do Russian peasants and a Swedish radiologist have in common?
A. They have experienced reversible metabolic hibernation.
In the case of the peasants, they self-induce a hibernated state throughout the winter on an annual basis to avoid starving to death. If not now, they did for generations.
In the case of the radiologist, she was trapped in icy water for 1 hour and 40 minutes during a 1999 skiing accident. But she didn’t die of hypothermia. She was revived and is completely cognizant and healthy today. Similar kinds of accidents, leading to apparent death, and miraculous revival have also been told by mountain climbers.
[To read more of Kalynn Brower’s discovery of human hibernation, go to GeekMom!]
