Myth: Drinking Alcohol Will Warm You Up

• Survival Situation: Freezing, Possible Hypothermia

We cannot really blame people for being confused about this one, as it is one of the survival myths that technically makes sense. Yet alcohol does not exactly warm you up the way you think. There have been cases where rescue teams bring some type of alcoholic drink with them, but their use of the drink actually makes sense. Why does it not in other situations? It comes down to how blood operates in the human body. Alcohol makes you “feel” warmer as you drink it because your brain cells are telling your blood vessels to expand in an effort to get rid of the “extra heat.”

The expanding blood vessels allow you to feel warmer as blood flow is increasing beneath your skin. This is the same sort of thing that happens when you get too hot and begin to sweat. Since your skin-surface blood vessels are dilating to cool you down, you feel warmer because that blood feels like an extra layer. Sadly, this will not last for long. Your body is trying to cool itself and the alcohol will cool your core body temperature much faster after short-term warmth. Rescuers can give it because you’re being taken back to a warm place anyway, so it does not matter if your body temp cools down then. It WILL be an issue in a survival situation.

Myth: Swimming Parallel To Shore When Caught In A Rip Current

• Survival Situation: Caught In Rip Current

We’ve discussed the power of rip currents on Science Sensei before. They are certainly a huge issue that could end your life if you’re not careful. Many have likely referenced their specific “tricks” to get out of a rip current. These tricks have made sense in theory, but it might depend on your positioning, size, or how bad the rip current might be at the time. However, one of the biggest methods people have claimed is that you should swim directly parallel to shore if the current is going directly out to the sea. This method can work in certain situations, but it is not universal. That is why we classify it as one of the survival myths to be careful following.

Rather, one of the best ways to get out of a rip current according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) is actually to swim perpendicular to the current itself. Swim at an angle away from the current and toward land as most rip currents come in at an angle, which is why the perpendicular method works more often than not. Another thing to remember is that one should “commit” to one direction to swim. This is for several reasons, but the biggest is to keep a grasp of how far you’ve gotten. If you’re only going upstream then it could be that the direction you chose was wrong and that is when you start over.

Myth: Cactus Water Will Save You From Dehydrating

• Survival Situation: Dehydration

Likely one of the worst ways to go to the great beyond is passing away via dehydration. It is such a miserable way to go, and we’d never wish it on our worst enemy. It makes sense, then, to think that if you can get any water into your system, you want to do it before dehydrating. However, certain water can be problematic and actually cause you to be dehydrated faster. Many assume if water is from plants, it’s fine to drink as their water has been protected from harmful bacteria. This is one of the big survival myths that could actually end your life if you’re not careful. Some plants actually contain chemicals in their water that make humans sick.

You’ve likely seen movies or television shows where characters cut open a cactus to drink its water in an effort to avoid dehydrating. However, this is one of the biggest survival myths that desert survival experts want you to avoid. Experts know that most cactus fluid will actually make you feel sick. This is due to various acids and alkaloids that are difficult for humans to deal with, which causes us to vomit almost immediately and/or have diarrhea. Both will dehydrate you even faster, which isn’t helpful in a survival situation. There are even some cases of cactus liquid causing temporary paralysis too!

Myth: Taking Off Your Clothes and Snuggling With Hypothermia Victim

• Survival Situation: Hypothermia, Frostbite

This has been glorified by Hollywood and misses a lot of important context that is heavily needed. Yes, body heat between two people naked together can be helpful to both of you. As long as you are also sharing covering to go along with that to give more layers. However, it is important to remember that this method is only helpful at all when you do it BEFORE a person begins to reach hypothermic or frostbite conditions. You’ll also want to make sure there are layers covering you both. If a person has already reached hypothermic or frostbite conditions, they actually need to be getting close to a fire and drinking warm liquids.

If you take your clothes off to snuggle with them, not only will this not work well but your body heat might actually go down along with theirs. Therefore, you might now reach these same conditions as you put your life in jeopardy for one of the biggest survival myths. It has become such a huge problem that science developed a term for it called “paradoxical undressing.” This term came to be back in 1979 as scientists checked into 33 cases of hypothermia from November to January Swedish Police reports. They found the undressing took place as a last-minute thing between two victims, making its reasoning paradoxical as it wouldn’t have helped.

Myth: Build A Fire In A Cave For Warmth

• Survival Situation: Potential Cave-In

The Cavemen made “fire” and it changed the world, as our species was able to use a method of heat to keep them alive. Yet it also served as a major asset to cleaning water, cooking food, and many other things that might have negatively affected us before. Of course, when we reference the “Cavemen” and fire, it naturally makes one assume that if they are in a survival situation, finding a cave can help. This is somewhat true, as caves can be a great shelter source… as long as it is not also occupied by another animal like a family of bears, lions, or wolves. Yeah, they all had the same idea.

The Cavemen also made a fire in those caves, so that seems like a good idea to help you too, right? WRONG! This is one of the biggest survival myths that you need to be aware of. While making a fire near the opening of a cave is okay, making one inside the cave is a terrible idea. Caves are essentially huge rocks and heat causes these large rocks to expand and start to break. The worst part is that this breakage will happen overhead, causing a cave-in that could end your life. Unless you can ensure the heat has somewhere to go, never make one inside a cave.

Myth: Pulling Out Object You Were Stabbed With

• Survival Situation: Stabbing, Bleeding Out

If you have ever been stabbed before, you know how lucky you are to be alive. Yet not all stabbings are nefarious and have ill-intent. Sometimes, people can be stabbed accidentally. In fact, they might accidentally stab themselves; they could fall onto a sharp object. Nature is also a devil sometimes and can stab through you too. Ice is well known for falling off of trees and stabbing people, which is a huge issue. However, you might also run into something sharp in the middle of nowhere too. Truly, we could list numerous cases of how stabbings could take place randomly.

However, one of the big survival myths people tend to believe is that they need to pull out the object they were stabbed with. This is, yet again, probably something Hollywood over-glorifies. The tough guy who gets stabbed pulls out the object and keeps fighting can look cool. Yet in real-life, that character will have several problems afterward. Medical experts will tell you to leave the object inside your body and head to a hospital to remove it. This is because you could very well bleed out after removing it. The object is the only thing preventing that. Many stabbings also require stitches, which is not always accessible in a survival situation.

Myth: Reporting A Missing Person After 48 Hours

• Survival Situation: Person Lost

It has been widely referenced by Hollywood that a person can only be reported as missing after they have been gone for 48 hours. However, it is one of the biggest myths overall, not just among survival myths. Apparently, this was something police stations installed for specific situations and was then reported as universal for all missing person cases. In fact, it almost always is exclusive to adult missing person cases only. However, even then it is not universal for all cases. For all lost child cases, there is no such rule.

Police actually tell you to report a lost child as soon as you discover that they are lost. In fact, not doing so can make someone look potentially guilty for the child’s disappearance. Some people have actually been brought up on charges in the past because they failed to report their child as missing immediately. This is one of the biggest survival myths out there, as the sooner a missing person case is filed, the faster they could possibly be found. More importantly, the sooner it is reported, the higher chance the person is found alive.

Myth: Drinking/Eating Snow and Rain

• Survival Situation: Dehydration

It should be noted that the reasoning for not drinking rainwater and/or drinking/eating snow is similar but not completely. When it comes to rainwater, it should be noted that if any rainwater is going to be consumed, it needs to be collected at the time of the rain and not afterward in another location. Yet depending on where you are, the rainwater could be contaminated due to the environment. In both Russia and China, the environment is often subpar as corporations put horrible chemicals into the air. That goes into the clouds and thus, the rainwater too. Therefore, it could contain harmful pathogens, parasites, bacteria, acids, and even viruses.

This is less common in North America but rainwater is still somewhat acidic. The same issue is present for snowfall too, as the location can lead to problems. Yet snow can also dehydrate you too, but how is that the case? Unlike rainwater, snow has to be melted and turned into a liquid inside your body once you consume it. If you’re already dehydrated or in hypothermic conditions, your body might struggle with it as you might not contain enough energy to heat up the snow. Thus causing you to digest the snow but never benefit from its hydration. If you are going to utilize snow, do it as early as possible and/or try to boil it.

Myth: Follow Birds and You’ll Find Water

• Survival Situation: Lost & Dehydrated

Birds can be quite helpful, and sailers will tell you that if you see them, then it’s a safe bet you’re relatively close to land. Birds do not travel too far away from land that they cannot get back without getting too tired. Even for birds that fly south for the winter, they do so mostly over land or close to it. While they can be useful here, birds are not very reliable when it comes to finding water. This is one of the big survival myths that likely got lost in translation or we misremembered by assuming “water” when we meant “land.”

The myth usually surrounds watching for specific aquatic birds, which most people might not recognize. Even if they do, the myth often does not revolve around a specific bird type. It is true that some aquatic birds rarely leave the water’s edge, so if you see them, it is likely you’re close to water. However, if you actually get that close then you’d likely hear the water before then. Geese among other birds might fly toward water sources in the evening. Yet that is not always the case, and you might follow birds into a giant clearing. Far from any water source. Now you’re tired, spent up precious energy, and all for nothing.

Myth: Boiled Water Is Safe To Drink

• Survival Situation: Water-Based Illnesses

We want to make this very clear: you should boil most water that you collect, even if you assume it might be okay. Boiling it really does help to remove several harmful substances, such as bacteria that could give you things like cholera and dysentery. Even Typhoid can spread in a lot of water territories. However, boiling your water does not automatically make it “completely” safe to drink. Rather, it makes it “safer” to drink. There could likely still be a lot of issues with the water. Remember when we referenced how rain and snow could possibly be contaminated due to the environment they are in?

While some of this can be removed by boiling the two, it might not completely remove everything within the chemical listing inside the liquid. It should be noted that if water is contaminated with things like oil or radioactive material, boiling it will not make it safe. These two things will remain in the water, and could potentially cause some interesting interactions with your fire. On top of this, several other toxic chemicals will not go away from boiling either. This is why you should always try to avoid using water from areas anywhere close to waste or chemical run-offs. As that water will most certainly be unsafe to drink.

Myth: You Should Ration Food and Water

• Survival Situation: Lost

To be clear, if there are several people involved here, then you DO need to ration the supplies equally as best you can. At least until it becomes obvious one member is unable to carry on. However, as long as things are equally rationed, you should eat or drink as much as you’d like. There is actually no evidence that proves self-rationing helps people in survival situations, making it one of the biggest survival myths around. In fact, there are more cases of just the opposite actually. But wait, just chugging a bunch of water on your first day of survival? Does that not seem reckless and potentially problematic? Many assume that, but it’s not true.

You should hydrate your body as often as you can, whenever you can do so in a survival situation. By properly hydrating, your body will have most of its proper faculties and you’ll make far more “good” choices as opposed to bad ones. Among the first things to go is your decision-making and physical abilities when you’re reaching dehydration. The first choices you make in survival situations are so crucial, and some do not realize that. This is why many people found dead after being lost for a while tend to have one or more relatively full water bottles and even food on them. They were rationing unnecessarily, leading to the end of their life.

Myth: Drinking Urine

• Survival Situation: Dehydration

This should be obvious and we cannot believe we have to say it but do not drink urine. We cannot believe we’re actually having to write that in 2022, but you’d be surprised by how many people believe this is a good idea. In fact, there have been cases of amateur survivalists or campers going right for drinking their own urine before even searching for water first. How did this become such a popular concept? Originally, there were several military survival experts who taught this as a last resort method. If you were going to be getting out of a location and you knew that, you could technically drink your own urine to get an extra hydration boost.

The idea is that issues from urine would not happen immediately, so you could utilize the water portion of it. Then after you’re out, you can deal with the repercussions later. If your urine is very clear, then at best you’re getting 90% water and 10% waste. However, the darker your urine happens to be, the more waste is in it. If it’s really dark, always avoid it. Membrane distillation can allow you to remove 95% of bad urine waste, as distilling helps get only the water out of the urine. But drinking urine can still be problematic. Typhoid is spread through urine consumption along with urinary schistosomiasis, both of which can be life-threatening illnesses. We do not have to tell you that this goes against the whole “survival” thing.

Where do we Find this Stuff? Here are Our Sources:

United States National Parks Service (NPS)

Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC)

National Institutes of Health

National Oceanic & Atmospheric Association (NOAA)

United Kingdom Redcross

Mayo Clinic

New York Times

Discovery Communications