Can you die from staying in water?

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asked Jul 13, 2022 in Other- Health by JaredMCQ (3,760 points)
Can you die from staying in water?

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answered Jul 17, 2022 by Sugothedog (1,570 points)
You can die from staying in water for too long.

When you stay in water for too long your skin can begin to break down.

The human skin starts to break down after continuous immersion in water of a few days.

You'd suffer open sores and be liable to fungal and bacterial infections just from the spores on your skin, even if the water itself was perfectly sterile.

And if the water is too cold then you could die of hypothermia but it's still possible to die from being submerged in the water for too long as your skin breaks down.

It would likely take around a week or longer before you died from being submerged in water though.

Humans cannot live in water as they don't have the ability to breathe in water and also the water would degrade and wrinkle the persons skin.

Also the temperature of the water can cause hypothermia to set in and eventually kill the human.

If someone is in 40 F degree water the person could survive for between 1 to 3 hours before death occurred.

Lower temperatures of the water the person could die in 20 minutes to 30 minutes or less depending on the temperature of the water.

In 6 F degree water a person can survive around 15 to 20 minutes.

A person who is in 6 F degree water can usually survive for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Even in 41 F water or 32 F water you cannot usually survive long than 15 to 20 minutes and the colder it gets the less time you have of surviving in the cold water.

Generally, a person can survive in 41-degree F (5-degree C) water for 10, 15 or 20 minutes before the muscles get weak, you lose coordination and strength, which happens because the blood moves away from the extremities and toward the center, or core, of the body.

A water temperature of a seemingly warm 79 degrees (F) can lead to death after prolonged exposure, a water temperature of 50 degrees can lead to death in around an hour, and a water temperature of 32 degrees – like the ocean water on the night the Titanic sank – can lead to death in as few as 15 minutes.

In water that is around the freezing point, a person is likely to survive only 15 to 45 minutes with flotation and possibly up to an hour or so with flotation and protective gear before the brain and heart stop.

The surface temperature of Lake Superior in early to mid-summer is about 40 to 50 F.

What is the lowest temperature a human being can survive?

05 Kelvin, or about —471° Fahrenheit, which is the temperature of deep space.

This can be survived for brief moments due to our bodies being poor radiators of heat, outside of an atmosphere, we don't shed heat as quickly as we normally do.

Being too cold or stuck in cold waters too long can lead to hypothermia which can be life threatening.

Hypothermia is caused by prolonged exposures to very cold temperatures.

When exposed to cold temperatures, your body begins to lose heat faster than it's produced.

Lengthy exposures will eventually use up your body's stored energy, which leads to lower body temperature.

Hypothermia is a medical emergency that occurs when your body loses heat faster than it can produce heat, causing a dangerously low body temperature. Normal body temperature is around 98.6 F (37 C).

Hypothermia occurs as your body temperature falls below 95 F (35 C).

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