Some people like to live dangerously. They seek out adrenaline in everyday life and through extreme sports. Others prefer to stay safe and, preferably, on the ground. A study conducted in Britain found that 6 in 10 people think of themselves as 'risk-averse.' 69% of the respondents say they're afraid of the consequences those risks might have.
We all probably try to steer away from the things we know are dangerous. But how many unknown dangers are lurking around us? One Internet user was probably wondering the same when they decided to ask: "What's something most people don't realise will [unalive] you in seconds?"
People love morbid stuff on the Internet, so the thread quickly climbed to the top of Reddit's trending content and garnered over 16,000 replies. If you're prone to anxiety over your health, read at your own risk, Pandas!
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A family friend who taught me how to drive many many years ago told me you have to drive like everyone else on the road is an absolute idiot and has no idea what they're doing. I never forgot that.
Water. People often do not respect water and how it can quickly kill you.
As a canadian let me just warn ya
**moose** 🫎
they’re much, MUCH larger and wickedly stronger than people think. for some reason people just don’t realize that these baddies are MASSIVE. psa: they are nowhere even *remotely close* to a deer!!
Large herbivores. They've evolved defenses to make large predators rethink their life choices. They will mess you up.
Hey, that small invertebrate you found by the sea?
Please leave it alone.
Went snorkeling with a guide a long time ago in some coral reefs.
When we saw a shark, the guide was like "Nah, don't worry. They're chill." Then we saw a tiny purple jellyfish, and the guide was like "WHATEVER YOU DO, stay away from this thing, it'll paralyze you and then you'll drown."
Moving water.
It's freaking dangerous. Water is heavy so when it's moving it has a lot of energy. It might not feel too bad walking through knee deep flowing water but if you fall the water will have more area to push on. You may not be able to get yourself on your feet again.
Manipulations by chiropractors.
And if the manipulation doesn't kill you, it can certainly cause paraplegia or quadriplegia, vertebral dissections.
The sad part is that chiropractors will never own up to the fact and they'll actually claim that patients are coming in with an active stroke. Unfortunately a lot of their research is skewed. I would highly recommend looking into the American medical association, particularly neurologist to see the detrimental effects that a chiropractor can have. It's unfortunate how many people die secondary to a chiropractic manipulations - particularly in the neck and back.
For reference, I am a occupational therapist who has seen plenty of paraplegics and quadriplegics secondary to chiropractic injury.
My aunt is paralyzed from a chiropractor. It was about 20 years ago and he moved her spine incorrectly and it messed her nerve up. She’s been in a wheelchair since.
Also think twice about getting nerve ablation injection into the lumbar facet joint for arthritis. They can hit the wrong nerve and create permanent numbness in a leg. It takes much longer to get relief, but physical therapy and daily exercises will improve arthritis spinal pain.
Load More Replies...I got Bell's palsy from a chiropractor. First time ever seeing one, that evening I couldn't spit my toothpaste properly. The next morning, half my face was dead. It came back after a month but was hell.
Ummm, Bells Palsey is a result of a VIRAL INFECTION of your cranial nerve VII. Not a visit to a Chiropractor!
Load More Replies...Chirocrapracy is a pseudoscience, unless your foot, hand, or elbow needs adjusted because of some sleeping/other severe pain.
I've had one chiropractor my mom made me go to tell me I had to keep going and the pain means it's working. I was so sore, taking care of an infant and I knew that wasn't going to work well if I'm so incapacitated that I can't lift my baby and do simple tasks. I stopped going and then the soreness went away. Haven't been back since. I hated the neck cracking.
I've heard of people taking their newborns to chiropractors to be adjusted due to birth trauma. On certain mum groups, there are people telling mums to not take their children to the doctors because they are in league with big pharma, and to go to the chiropractor instead.
Same mum groups that recommend essential oils for bacterial infections
Load More Replies...There are good chiropractors and bad chiropractors, just like medical doctors. How many medical doctors have ruined or killed people? If you went by statistics people would never have surgery or take medications. It's all relative. Choose your chiropractors with the same prudence as choosing a doctor. Chiropractors extended my grandmothers life due to her problems with mobility. She would've been in a wheelchair had it not been for her chiropractor. My own mobility was at stake and my chiropractor helped so much. I've been going to her for 20yrs. Please don't invalidate an entire health practice that has helped so many people.
I am so grateful to my chiropractor. I was in agony from a car accident related neck injury and my chiropractor has made it so I can turn my head again and my migraines are gone. I go every 2 weeks and have done so for the last 4 years. He gave me my life back. I think it all depends on the chiropractor.
Load More Replies...I am also an occupational therapist who specialized in spinal cord injuries for 12 years, and I concur with the OP above.
My dad is a neurologist and I know if I ever even considered going to a chiropractor, he would disown me. When I was younger he told me many stories about patients he was trying to help after a chiropractor messed them up. Don’t know if it’s still the case, but at that time they could get a “degree” through correspondence school ffs.
Right. And as an ER physician I'd warn you to stay the hell away from cars. Do you have any idea how many people they kill or seriously hurt every year?
My chiro split my titanium plate supporting my fusion because she torqued me. You NEVER torque a fused patient.
Almost nothing they do that takes place strictly in their field stands up to medical scrutiny. Many of them will incorporate other, more scientifically accepted traits and procedures, into their care which can give off the veneer of actual medicine. Look into this if you regularly see a chiropractor. It is a pseudoscience not worth your time or money.
This! And even worse is people bringing their small kids to see one!
Personally seen paralysis caused by chiropractic manipulation. I'm in the medical field. Stay far away. Just get a n8ce massage.
I went a couple of times and suddenly realized they were 'cracking' my neck. It seemed like such a weird thing to allow and I never went back.
I have an aneurism that is small and not dangerous, unless I have my neck adjusted by a chiropractor. That could cause a major stroke
They shouldn’t be allowed to call themselves doctors! They have less schooling than massage therapists and they are ALL con artists. And that is seriously the nicest thing you can say about chiropractors…
You know, it takes less than 10 seconds to prove your statement is complete rubbish. It takes 2 years to become licensed as a massage therapist and, outside of the medical field, an undergraduate degree in a related field isn’t a prerequisite. In both the US and Canada minimum prerequisite is a 3 or 4 year degree in a medical discipline, followed by a doctorate that takes 3.5 to 5 years and an internship of minimum 4,200 hours supervised. I’m not saying there aren’t bad chiropractors but this nonsense about them having comparable education to a massage therapist is deliberate misinformation.
Load More Replies...I have a friend who *insists* her chiropractor can cure her headaches, cold, anxiety etc. There is no convincing her otherwise. She doesn't go to regular doctors anymore, just chiropractors 😭
One of my closest friends suffers with a lot of pain daily. She's been going to a chiropractor for years, and won't even consider a connection.
There is another side to this story - Chiropratic care WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May I ask you to site your sources! I just Googled it and it states it is VERY RARE to be injured or become paralyzed due to having a Chiropractor manipulate your spine. Though it does state that having neck manipulations done to your cervical spine there's a possibility of the procedure causing an arterial dissection, leading to a stroke. The numbers are all over the place as it's so uncommon that only a few unreviewed studies are available. One says 1 in 5,000 the other 1 in 100 million! My belief is if you've not seen a medical doctor to assess your spine and cervical issues than the fault lies with the patient! You gotta advocate for your own health, no one else is going to do it for you (unless you have a medical directive and an individual who will carry out your wishes)
This is typical medical propaganda. I was a chiropractor for almost 40 years and taught it at a university in Australia. Never had or knew of anything like this happening. It CAN happen, but 99% of the time, the patient has an existing, asymptomatic condition. Many cases of injuries or vertebro - basilar accidents have been caused by other health practitioners doing spinal manipulation for which they're not fully trained, and when it's reported ( without thorough investigation ) it's usually attributed to a chiropractor. The medical profession are always eager to put the blame on chiropractors. It's been this way since 1895.
I went once. He couldn't crack my left hip although he tried numerous times. Now I have a fake hip...I blame him.
My neck is permanently damaged because for years starting when I was 12 my parents sent me to a chiropractor for a neck injury that occurred in school.
I went to a chiropractor after straining my back while opening my garage door. My M.D. wanted to prescribe d***s, but I didn't want them. After one adjustment, I felt fine and the chiropractor gave me some exercises to do later on and told me to ice the area. I was back at work as a police officer in two days with no d***s.
After falling from a horse when I was 12, I used to get my neck manipulated. It wasn't until I had a CAT scan forty years later for an unrelated illness that I discovered my neck had been broken in the fall and the manipulation could have killed me.
Research "Internal decapitation". Yes, it can happen - particularly when someone 'manipulates' your neck. It's irreversible.
Oh for f**k sake!! The b******t the AMA (and big pharma) spews injures or kills far more people than chiropractic ever did or will. You're FOS!
Hippos. Put it this way: Steve freakin' Irwin was afraid of hippos! If something is so dangerous that the croc wrestler is scared of them you do not mess with it!
So I was trying to look up a DIY mixture to remove mold/mildew recently. A surprising number of sources (including an AI tool) suggested mixing bleach and vinegar.
Rule of thumb. Never mix anything for cleaning, there are far too many chemical weapons that can accidentally be made.
The Great Lakes. Just this past weekend 4 people decided to go in the water near my house even though the beach was under red flag warning and high waves. 3 got pulled out by a Good Samaritan when they got in trouble. Three days later and coast guard and fire department still hasn’t found the body of the 4th one. Rip tides are real. Weather kicks up fast. The Great Lakes are huge and dangerous. This is not your local pontoon lake.
Falling from regular standing height. My mom fell forward holding some groceries, got her arms out to brace her fall and still broke her wrist and jaw in multiple places. Grandma broke her hip just falling out of bed. Falling is dangerous
Horses
we've lived with them for so long that unless you spend regular time around them, you don't know just how unbelievably dangerous they are. It's a good thing they're so stupid or we'd be f****d.
Movies have people believing they're these docile creatures that live to serve humans. Those are the ones that have been trained *extensively*. They are otherwise 1500 pounds of dumb panicky hair-trigger muscle.
Do not f**k with koalas they are capable of ending you. Having held one at Lone Pines, those adorable bastards have steak knives for hands and get scared of falling really easily.
Things under huge amounts of tension. Boat lines, garage door springs, various other cables or springs used in industrial settings. These can send you back to the character select in an instant.
Capacitors. Maybe most people don't interact with them, but for those that do (DIY electronics repairs), a typical PSU in a home computer have capacitors that can kill you. Shocking, I know.
I stopped two German or Austrian tourists from touching a poisonous frog in Colombia. They had no idea. They were inches away with their phones.
I hadn't spoken German in years, but man my panic reaction brought those words to the tip of my tongue real fast.
Don't mess with wildlife, especially outside your own habitat.
A motorcycle. Crashed my Harley and have had 3 spinal surgeries, had 7 broken ribs, torn rotator cuffs....if I hadn't been wearing my helmet (which I didn't for years trying to be a tough guy/ idiot) I probably wouldn't be writing this. Helmet was scraped down to the inner layer.
Maternal hemorrhage. I am routinely shocked by expectant mothers who want to give birth at home, arguing that they can always transfer to the hospital "if there's a problem." No, no they can't. If the wrong type of bleeding begins, they'll be dead before the ambulance gets there.
Edit: as noted below, in some countries, certified nurse midwives attend home births with medications they can use to treat hemorrhage. However that is NOT the case in the US, where insurance requirements mean that most CNMs must be attached to hospitals. In many American states, "midwife" is not a restricted term, so self-described midwives with no qualifications at all get hired to attend home births. The results are a fairly predictable higher mortality rate for home births vs. hospital births in America.
Cat bites. Their teeth are very thin like needles, and oftentimes after a deep puncture, the top layer of skin closes leaving infection trapped inside from all the bacteria in their mouths. If you ever get bitten by a cat, go to urgent care asap for antibiotics. Even if it seems fine at first. Waiting even just a few days can lead to sepsis (blood infection) which can be deadly.
I work in veterinary medicine, and one of my coworkers almost lost her hand from a cat bite infection.
Inhaling too much helium.
I worked at a party store and we had someone rent a helium tank. We rented them by the week and then every week after there was a charge done to your card immediately. After 3 months we got a call from the renter's daughter asking if we could please stop charging her father's card. He had used the helium tank commit [self-harm] the day he rented the tank and we had charged him over $1,500 in the 3 months since.
It became a huge thing where we had to actively tell people once you fill your lungs completely with helium that the avioli can no longer process oxygen correctly. So while it's all fun and games to have that squeaky voice one super deep breath can end your life.
Pushing someone.
My friend’s father got into a verbal altercation with someone. They pushed him. He fell and hit his head on the pavement. Lights went out immediately and he was brain dead. They had to take him off life support not even 12 hours later. So sad every time I think about it. He was a good man.
Rust. If you run into a hole in the ground with rusty stuff inside, that does not get good ventilation. Dont go in. Rust is iron combined with oxygen. And it can eat all of the oxygen in the air. And fun fact, your body cant tell how much oxygen is in the air, but does sense carbon dioxide is there. So you dont know you are going until you are dead.
Running across the street and assuming the car sees you and will stop.
Just wait for the light.
Hi I’m in EMS.
Please wash your hands before you eat stuff, so many people come in contact with so many other people who have illnesses that can be contracted by eating with unclean fingers. Even if you’ve been around people you know all day you never know who they’ve been around, and sometimes it’s not even illnesses rather random germs AND I KNOW THIS IS OBVIOUS TO SOME PEOPLE but next time you see a local EMS crew eating food with their funny colored gloves on it’s because we’ve made a habit even if we hadn’t run any calls that day.
Of course if you aren’t in healthcare you’re not being exposed to as much but sometimes you need a reminder just how dirty the outside world really is lmao.
Garage door springs. let a pro fix it. Mine snapped a bunch of years ago and it tore a 3 foot long hole in my garage door in a fraction of a second.
Inhalents. I tried them once in high school. 2 weeks later a kid at another school died from using them THE FIRST TIME.
A couple weeks after that, I was offered them again. I told them f**k no and asked if they hadn't heard about the dead kid. They looked at me and seriously replied, "Oh yeah, it's okay. He used the wrong brand. He used the blue bottle, instead of the purple bottle.".
Carbon monoxide. well, minutes, but still.. it's odorless and colorless. most likely, you won't even know.
An allergic reaction to something you have been exposed to countless times before.
My mom was in her 40s when she suddenly had a reaction to a bee sting and almost died.
Entering or falling into a septic tank. Deaths are often not isolated to one person, but also the people who come in after in an attempt to rescue them.
Hitting your head against a wall.
There's a pretty famous story about a basketball player who missed a shot, got annoyed and headbutted (if I remember correctly) the post the hoop is attached to.
Didn't kill him but paralysed him from the neck down for life.
People do die from doing this, I've seen people get mad and headbut something 100 times, but do it wrong once and that's it, you're dead.
Edit: He made the shot but was called out got a foul so it didn't count, he died 13 years later. Someone has replied with a video link but... watch at your own discression, its not nice.
I would venture to say most people realize what can kill you instantly but less commonly discussed would be dehydration.
Yes you can die within seconds from it.
Heart failure is what gets you and if you are already primed for a heart attack due to either unhealthy habits or genetics, dehydration can kill you in seconds. Some drop dead of a widow maker right there on the spot.
Dehydration truly is a gamble so be cautious with it. Happens a lot in the summer months as people pick up alcohol and energy drinks instead of electrolytes. .
Those green transformer boxes found in people's yards. I've seen so many people sitting on them, climbing them, standing on them, playing on them. Those things transport thousands of volts of electricity and it only takes one second to receive the electric chair treatment.
A ruptured aneurysm can kill you in seconds. It's often sudden and without warning, making it extremely dangerous and usually fatal if not treated immediately.
Anyone who works in a shop (hopefully) knows this… but compressed air. Not an uncommon thing for you to use it to blow metal shavings or other debris off your clothes after you’re done working, but if you have even a small cut somewhere and you get the air gun too close you can put an air bubble in your blood stream which will kill you the moment it passes through your heart. From what I’ve been told it is very painful and only takes a few seconds.
Using a massage gun on your neck...
>*While handheld massage guns are generally safe to use on muscles, using them on the neck can be dangerous. The high vibrations produced by massage guns can injure unprotected areas of the neck, and in rare cases, can cause soft tissue damage or stroke-like symptoms.*.
Eating polar bear liver. You’ll die of vitamin A poisoning. Vitamin A is not water soluble and eating too much can lead to painful symptoms and death. One polar bear liver has enough to kill over 50 adults.
If you get hit in the chest at a specific part of the heart's cardiac rhythm, dead. If you accidentally massage your carotid and have a vagal sensitivity, dead. If you have a genetic predisposition for certain arrhythmias and get startled, dead. The heart is a tricksy thing
Eta this is very rare. However, if you have any family members who have died unexpectedly and young and have a history of fainting for no reason get an EKG asap. .
Scuba diving. You lose track of time. Stay down a minute too long. That's it.
Some of these things are so unlikely they may as well have mentioned ACME Branded Anvils falling from the sky
I bet Wile E. Coyote feels like quite the fool about now. 🥰🤣
Load More Replies...Hydraulics. In one of my first customer support calls, the customer told me that they now have color coded hoses with pressure ratings because a few years earlier a guy connected a hose with 1400 bar burst pressure into a 1500 bar pump. The hose ruptured and a thin jet of hydraulic fluid cut through his body, killing him instantly. Even if you get the injection injury in your hand, you need to go to the hospital or you are done for. If you havnt eaten in a while, and is not easily disturbed, look up hydraulic injuries.
Normally I’m the first off to Google stuff, but I’m just gonna take your word on this one. :p
Load More Replies...New Zealand. It's not an Eco-Disneyland for northern Hemisphere tourists. The water is cold enough to kill in minutes, the back country, the South Island and the alpine areas look nice, but wander along a trail without the right gear or knowing the weather and you WILL die of exposure.
Also, volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and uruk hai.
Load More Replies...Yep I see a crash every week because idiots do that a lot in SA (my country). Basically only red lights, in the day, with a pre-existing queue, are respected. Outside those criteria, a lot of people jump them.
Load More Replies...Dont ever ever try to run across the lanes of a freeway. You will not make it and it will traumatize more people than you think
do not load knives in the dishwasher pointy side up. If you grab them wrong you cut your hand. If you trip and fall on them, you become a cutlery block...
Stupid visiting Mother in Law using your toothbrush as it's the same colour as yours, even though I got her a separate container, severe tonsillitis and three days sick in bed. The cat 🐈 loved that I was running a high temperature and would wrap herself around my throat, then I'd move her back down to my stomach.
Well worn charger cables. A preteen girl in our community was charging her phone while taking a bath. Essentially dropped a toaster in the tub. Sad thing.
I haven’t seen an outlet in a bathroom that wasn’t a GFCI in a long long time.
Load More Replies...When I was a kid, my brother and I were playing on a shed next door to my grandmother's house in Mesa. She came over screaming for us to get off of it. Apparently it was infested with scorpions!
if you are using any kind of moving machinery, tie your hair back and out of the way. I saw a woman get scalped when a loose bunch of hair got pulled into a printing press. Don't ever take for granted that you can reach the emergency cut off switch in time.
So many of these sound to me like the person who gets involved with it deserves to meet their maker.
Fair. Like who looks at a polar bear liver and thinks mmmmm yummy
Load More Replies...Some of these things are so unlikely they may as well have mentioned ACME Branded Anvils falling from the sky
I bet Wile E. Coyote feels like quite the fool about now. 🥰🤣
Load More Replies...Hydraulics. In one of my first customer support calls, the customer told me that they now have color coded hoses with pressure ratings because a few years earlier a guy connected a hose with 1400 bar burst pressure into a 1500 bar pump. The hose ruptured and a thin jet of hydraulic fluid cut through his body, killing him instantly. Even if you get the injection injury in your hand, you need to go to the hospital or you are done for. If you havnt eaten in a while, and is not easily disturbed, look up hydraulic injuries.
Normally I’m the first off to Google stuff, but I’m just gonna take your word on this one. :p
Load More Replies...New Zealand. It's not an Eco-Disneyland for northern Hemisphere tourists. The water is cold enough to kill in minutes, the back country, the South Island and the alpine areas look nice, but wander along a trail without the right gear or knowing the weather and you WILL die of exposure.
Also, volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, and uruk hai.
Load More Replies...Yep I see a crash every week because idiots do that a lot in SA (my country). Basically only red lights, in the day, with a pre-existing queue, are respected. Outside those criteria, a lot of people jump them.
Load More Replies...Dont ever ever try to run across the lanes of a freeway. You will not make it and it will traumatize more people than you think
do not load knives in the dishwasher pointy side up. If you grab them wrong you cut your hand. If you trip and fall on them, you become a cutlery block...
Stupid visiting Mother in Law using your toothbrush as it's the same colour as yours, even though I got her a separate container, severe tonsillitis and three days sick in bed. The cat 🐈 loved that I was running a high temperature and would wrap herself around my throat, then I'd move her back down to my stomach.
Well worn charger cables. A preteen girl in our community was charging her phone while taking a bath. Essentially dropped a toaster in the tub. Sad thing.
I haven’t seen an outlet in a bathroom that wasn’t a GFCI in a long long time.
Load More Replies...When I was a kid, my brother and I were playing on a shed next door to my grandmother's house in Mesa. She came over screaming for us to get off of it. Apparently it was infested with scorpions!
if you are using any kind of moving machinery, tie your hair back and out of the way. I saw a woman get scalped when a loose bunch of hair got pulled into a printing press. Don't ever take for granted that you can reach the emergency cut off switch in time.
So many of these sound to me like the person who gets involved with it deserves to meet their maker.
Fair. Like who looks at a polar bear liver and thinks mmmmm yummy
Load More Replies...