During the hardest of times, like in natural disasters and plane crashes, people go to extremes to survive. We’ve all heard stories of people eating all sorts of things like even human flesh to get by a few more days and try to survive what can only be called an impossible situation. When the brain gets into survival mode all it can think of is methods to extend its lifespan a little more even if it’s just a few more minutes.
Now, the most important thing to survive is to have water sources available. Even more than food since you’d die faster without water. Your body would collapse in about 3 days without water. That’s why it would so important for you to worry about having enough water if you ever find yourself stranded somewhere for a long time. People have gone as far as drinking urine or animal blood.
All those possibilities got me thinking, can drinking animal blood hydrate you? Drinking animal blood can hydrate you, but the risks outweigh the benefits. Still, if you’re in a situation that you desperately need to hydrate your body and needs that extra push to have the energy to find real water sources, drinking blood can be a viable idea.
Still, you have to think about all the variables that would involve in doing something like that. After all, you have to consider what animal it’d be, mammal, reptile, or birds. You also have to consider what type of place you’re in and what happened.
So, if you read this article ‘til the end, you’ll find out everything you need to know before you do something like this. This will ensure that you don’t put your health in jeopardy while making sure that you survive.
The Risks Outweigh The Benefits
When you drink another animal’s blood, you put yourself into a very dangerous situation. There a lot of pathogens and parasites that can harm your body. A lot of viruses, bacteria, and parasites are transmittable through an animal’s blood. This is the main risk you’d expose yourself to, and it might not be worth it.
Now, let’s say that you’re lost in the woods for days or at the top of a mountain not knowing when rescue will come. Then, drinking an animal’s blood with the chance of contracting a disease may still be better than imminent death. Especially, if you’re in SHTF situation where you need to buy yourself some time.
So, the animal blood will help you gain a few extra hours or day. In this scenario, you still have to be aware that you’re putting yourself in great danger, but it might be worth since it’ll help get by.
It Can Hydrate You
So, yes you will get exposed to possible pathogens. Now, the good thing is that drinking the animal’s blood will hydrate your body. Your body does have the capacity to break down the blood and extract the water that is in it. This is great because it then turns the blood in a source of water for you.
If you can be certain that the animal is healthy, you know that you won’t get any diseases. Still, there might be other problems that you can read below. The point is that the blood will hydrate your body, unlike salty water that will actually make you die faster if you’re in the middle of the ocean or on an island.
Now, it’s important to understand that the blood should not be a long-term or even medium-term solution. This would be the kind of extreme situation where you don’t have another choice. Then, it might be a viable option to find a way to hydrate your body and keep crucial functions of your organs working.
Breaking Fast Is Dangerous
Now, it’s important to understand that if you’re without eating and drinking something for days, breaking fast is dangerous. When you’re body goes on forced fasting, your organs don’t work the way they should. This means that your kidney and other organs are retaining things that they should be releasing.
So, when you break the fasting, you release those toxins. This can poison you. This would take you to your imminent death. This happens a lot to soldiers and war survivals. They walk for days and break the fasting too quickly.
This is important to remember that you should be careful about this. You could potentially drink the blood but do so while being careful to not break the fast too rapidly. This way the toxins wouldn’t kill you. Of course, the best way to make sure that nothing of this happens is when you have access to a hospital and doctors to help you out.
If There’s Life, There Might Be Water
Before you decide that drinking an animal’s blood is a great choice for you, you could also think that this animal is a form of life. As a form of life, it needs water to survive. This means that there might be a water source around. It could potentially be near you. Obviously, the animal might have traveled a long distance.
This would mean that the water source is far away. Now, it’s not likely that the water source is that far away even if it’s a tree. So, you should consider if you can walk more to find the water source. You can also drink the blood just to have the strength to find the water source.
So, make sure to consider that there could be a water source nearby. This would eliminate the need to drink the blood in the first place. Still, if you don’t have the strength to walk more to find the water source, you can drink the blood to help you with that.
Beware Of Iron Poisoning
Drinking blood could potentially lead you to iron poisoning. This means that if you drink too much blood, it could increase the iron levels in your system and make it collapse. This would be more likely to happen if you drank blood for a long time. Now, as much as it isn’t likely to happen in the first time, it could still happen since your body would already be weak.
The main thing that iron poisoning would have to be considered. It’d be a real possibility that you could end up with something worse than you already had. The point is that drinking blood could lead to something like this that could be worse the dehydration.
So, as you can see, drinking animal’s blood should be the last option thing. It’s too dangerous considering the diseases and the poisoning that could happen from this.
Meat Can Be A Water Source
Now, this is a great thing to talk about. Meat can be a great water source for you. You likely think about water and liquid as a way to stay hydrated, but meat also has water in it.
This means that you could hydrate your body by eating meat. There would be enough in it to keep you alive for a few more days. In certain known stories, people have survived by eating fish due to the water in the meat as well.
So, you should consider that if you have access to edible meat, you could have access to a water source until you find the next best thing. The important thing is that you look for other non-obvious sources of water for you.
Final Thoughts
This is it. You can drink animal blood, but you must be aware that the chances of you contracting a disease are real. The animal could be carrying pathogens that could lead you to your death. Now, depending on your situation, it might be a risk worth taking. Just make sure that you do look for other water sources before you decide what to do.