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!

#1

Enclosed spaces. Don’t assume it’s the air you’re used to down there.

Image credits: LittleMsSavoirFaire

#2

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.

Image credits: Maanzacorian

#3

Large herbivores. They’ve evolved defenses to make large predators rethink their life choices. They will mess you up.

Image credits: broccoli_octopus

#4

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

Image credits: bellebutterfield

#5

Water. People often do not respect water and how it can quickly kill you.

Image credits: el_monstruo

#6

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."

Image credits: SketchtheHunter

#7

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.

Image credits: breakthro444

#8

One simple wrong move on the highway.

Image credits: PolarBearChuck

#9

Texting while driving.

Image credits: Edward_the_Dog

#10

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.

Image credits: marblmf

#11

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.

Image credits: LucyVialli

#12

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.

Image credits: remes1234

#13

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.

Image credits: Bempet583

#14

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.

Image credits: SMG329

#15

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.

Image credits: straighttoplaid

#16

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.

Image credits: thefuzzybunny1

#17

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.

Image credits: UniqueBeauty29

#18

Fistfight. One wrong punch and you’re in prison for killing a dude.

Image credits: CanaDoug420

#19

Brake-checking a semi (you’d think it’d be obvious but nope).

Image credits: ohfuckthebeesescaped

#20

Carbon monoxide. well, minutes, but still.. it’s odorless and colorless. most likely, you won’t even know.

Image credits: TemperatureTop246

#21

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.

Image credits: Sea_Risk_2637

#22

A rogue brick on the highway.

Image credits: Due_Interest6251

#23

Scuba diving. You lose track of time. Stay down a minute too long. That’s it.

#24

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.

#25

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.

#26

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.

Image credits: leahmat

#27

Carbon Dioxide.

People have died playing with dry ice.

Image credits: clopticrp

#28

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.”.

Image credits: esoteric_enigma

#29

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.

Image credits: Lew3032

#30

Poorly designed and manufactured submarines. Milliseconds actually.

Image credits: Prestigious-Wall5616

#31

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.

Image credits: myspamhere

#32

Electricity, particularly involving overhead wires.

Image credits: GuyInTheLifestyle

#33

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.

Image credits: cvanaver

#34

Grapefruit. It interacts with a *ton* of medication.

#35

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.

#36

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.

#37

Though not many people have access to it, hydrogen fluoride or HF will kill you colder’n a mackerel of it gets into your bloodstream.

Flourosis of your bones is a nasty way to check out.

#38

Nitrogen poisoning. It is odorless and scentless.

Edit: it’s not exactly poisoning. More like asphyxiation.

#39

Topical Benadryl if you use too much. Or if you combine it with alcohol. I used it on vacation for mosquito bites and forgot. Had a drink of alcohol a while later. Fell asleep and was barely breathing.

#40

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!!

#41

Electricity. Most people respect it but don’t realize how they’re playing with their lives when doing things like taking off their nice shoes to check out the flooded basement. Or salvaging caps before properly discharging them. In 40 years I’ve known 2 people who’ve been electrocuted, and two others who were hospitalized.

#42

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.

#43

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.

#44

Working in oil and gas. More specifically in the field. Many workers forget the risks of their job and can become complacent. One thing goes wrong and you can be instantly dead. Whether that’s inhalation or a simple fire.

#45

Swimming in cold water. Even 15C or lower can kill in seconds due to shock.

#46

Selfies in high places.

#47

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.

#48

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. .

#49

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! 

#50

Running across the street and assuming the car sees you and will stop.

Just wait for the light.

#51

The heat, it is too damn hot.

#52

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.*.

#53

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.

#54

Air in the bloodstream.

Cut to the femoral artery in your leg. Though a lot of men have seen Band of Brothers.

#55

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.

#56

Not looking right and left when crossing a street.

#57

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. .

from Bored Panda https://ift.tt/LVxBCnl
via IFTTT source site : boredpanda