People Explain Which Everyday Things Are Actually Deadly That Most Folks Don't Know About
Every time we wake up... it's a MIRACLE!!
Nothing is promised.
Not one day.
Not one breath.
The hazards are everywhere.
There are foods we shouldn't eat.
People we should avoid.
And health regimes we may really need to try.
Life is booby-trapped.
It's time to make a survivor's how to list.
Redditor gaudiergash wanted to warn everyone about all the simple things that threaten our lives on the daily, so they asked:
"What are some everyday things that kill people because most don't know about it?"
Danger is all around.
Be alert!
Don't Forget
Warning Sign GIFGiphy"Carbon Monoxide is something everyone knows about but everyone also seems to forget about."
bottomless-bs
"Knew a girl from school, she and her family were all killed from carbon monoxide poisoning while staying at a cabin on New Year's weekend 2017. Her husband and two young kids. I still think about them going to bed, never to awaken."
hookersince06
Reach the Brain
"Poor dental hygiene and gum infections hit the brain fairly quickly and can be fatal before you even knew something was happening. So brush your teeth and talk to a dentist, most will try to work with you on the money side if you don't have insurance. If not try contacting a dental school near you, they are often looking for test subjects, I mean patients to work on for training."
SomeRandomUser00
"True stuff... this just killed my cousin."
FLAMES
"I know of a few things, all fire-related..."
"1. Pinched electrical wires - having, for example, a table leg or something on top of a wire creates a hot spot that can eventually start a fire."
"2. Toasters under cabinets - if you have a toaster on your countertop, and have cabinets mounted above that countertop, leaving the toaster directly under the cabinets while in use is also a fire hazard. be sure to pull it out from beneath the cabinets before use."
"3. Not sure if this one is still unknown by most people, but I'll add it just in case - water does not put out a grease fire, it makes it worse because the grease/oil is less dense and floats on top of the water and continues to burn, so pouring water on a grease fire is likely to just spread the grease and fire around. baking soda, a lid/cover of some kind, or of course a fire extinguisher will all smother the fire without spreading it around."
designer_sheets
In Defense
"Stress. Stress is a state when your body feels threatened and produces a hormone to defend yourself, which will typically boost your muscle and reduce to minimum other functions, like digestion, your kidneys, and overall all organs that aren't involved in fighting off a bear."
"If you're always stressed (Chronic stress), you will damage your organs. All of them. At once. Chronic stress is a poison, you must avoid it."
"Note that 'normal, episodic' stress like you're taking an exam today or you have 13 missed calls from mom isn't going to kill you. Well, not the stress at least."
Dahns
Drink Up
Season 7 Nbc GIF by The OfficeGiphy"Once read about someone who died when they had the flu - they were medicating with over-the-counter cold and flu medicine and drinking multiple cups of lemsip, one after the other, not realizing lemsip also contained painkillers. they died of an overdose."
StrikeOk9626
I never knew the flu was so dangerous until COVID.
It only takes a sneeze.
The BIG Bullet!
Driving Action Movie GIF by James Bond 007Giphy"People are not nearly careful enough driving vehicles. you are operating a 2,000lb bullet, please stop texting and pay attention."
BigMoney5594
No Bleach
"Mixing cleaning supplies. Cleaners are usually dangerous chemicals, mixing certain chemicals can create dangerous gases. One of the common cleaner mistakes people make is dish soap and bleach, a lot of dish soaps have ammonia in them, and you don’t want to be around the gas that ammonia and chlorine make. Also, don’t clean your kitty litter with bleach, use chlorine-free disinfectants instead. Cat pee naturally has ammonia in it and can cause a reaction too."
SegaNaLeqa
Too High
"High blood pressure."
Ultimatelee
"High BP also presents as just a headache for some. I had preeclampsia and after the baby was born I kept getting these headaches, to be honest, they weren't that painful but I felt foggy and just, off. Come to find out my BP was so high I needed 3 rounds of magnesium to bring it back to normal."
deckpumps_n_deldos
Small Evils
"Bites from the wrong flea/mosquito/tick have been decimating mankind since forever."
Midas_Artflower
"If your tick bite gets a bullseye shape around it, go to the doctor, possible Lyme disease."
"If your spider bite gets raised and white, go to the doctor, possible necrotic lesions from recluse."
"Don't live in fear of these things and squash everything with crawly legs. Do some research (tons of bug info online free from many universities, tons of insect/spider/etc subreddits), and be smart. Wear tall socks in long grass and check yourself and your pets."
BirdsLikeSka
Red Puke
season 9 berries GIFGiphy"Elderberries are poisonous until you boil them. My mom works at a school where a teacher lets some kids eat them because she didn’t know they were poisonous. Red puke everywhere. I also had a friend post a picture on Facebook of her son eating them."
CoffeeCactus92
Why are berries so dangerous?
I love them. Darn it!
While we don't think about them all constantly, we encounter several grave threats to our health and safety every single day.
And it makes sense that we don't think about them constantly. If we obsessed over the statistics of car accidents every time we got in a car, we'd never go anywhere. We'd never do anything.
So we have to compartmentalize.
And yet, a recent Reddit thread asked users, just for a few moments, to carve out a space in time to recognize all those dangers. It's nothing think about too hard or consistently, but it's worth doing once in awhile.
Redditor ILikeIceCreamSoMuch asked:
"What is far deadlier than most people realize?"
Many people talked about the medicinal products we deem relatively harmless. They may be relatively safe, but that doesn't mean they're totally safe no matter what you do with them.
Keep It In Check
"Tylenol. Its actually a lot easier to overdose on than most people realize, and it slowly destroys your liver over a period of days. Not a fun way to die to put it lightly."
Not a Toy
"Visine."
"People seem to have this idea that a few drops of visine in someone's drink will give them diarrhea, and do it to prank each other, or get some sort of satisfaction with petty revenge."
"People are sitting in prison for murder for doing this. The main active ingredient is called tetrahydrozoline. Once it enters your gastrointestinal tract, it can be absorbed by your intestines and end up in your blood, causing your blood pressure and heart rate to drop to potentially life-threatening levels."
"It really makes me wonder how many people have died due to people copycatting that scene in Wedding Crashers."
Not for Your Belly
"Essential oils. Do NOT put them in your food, they are not made to be food safe" -- willowdove01
"Some of them are capable of burning a hole in your esophagus. Why people think they're food safe I'll never know" -- jellybeansean3648
A Surprising Reaction
"Grapefruit in combination with many -- MANY -- prescription drugs. Basically, grapefruit can affect the way your medications work. With some meds, adding grapefruit screws up the way your body metabolizes the drug, so you end up with far more than the prescribed dosage."
"It can also work in the opposite way with other drugs, leaving you with less than the prescribed dosage. This is especially bad if you have high blood pressure or arrhythmia."
-- A-RovinIGo
Other people discussed the internal medical emergencies that might be going on without us even knowing. Often, these come as a result of us downplaying our own needs.
Keep the Legs Moving
"Trucker here. I've had two blood clots in my legs from driving long distances and having my leg pressed against the corner of the seat for hours on end. One almost killed me. Apparently it's very common with truckers. You're supposed to stop and walk around every hour and a half to keep things circulating (which almost nobody does due to time constraints)."
"The same thing happens in gaming chairs apparently - people forget to move their legs because they're so focused on the game. You don't need to worry so much if you're younger, but if you're a gamer who's a little older, please be aware."
-- tjfergusen
So Small, So Important
"Abscessed teeth can kill you." -- my_name_is_bobbi
"I had an abscess at 21 that I didn't get treated until I was 28 due to a fear of the dentist, by that point it was a root canal and an extraction and I now have a section of my jaw missing. Get it early and avoid this sh**." -- nighttimehamster
Not to Be Taken Lightly
"Infections can still mess you up easily if you don't seek medication attention in time" -- Humidhotness68
"I lost my brother a few days ago to this exact thing. Turned septic from an untreated UTI & spent about a week in the hospital, but it was too late by then."
"Infections aren't anything to fu** around with or ignore." -- Aurzyerne
And others shared advice about how to avoid tragic accidents and injuries.
Keep Breathing
"Holding your breath while scuba diving. To most people who don't scuba dive it may sound harmless but if you hold your breath and ascend even a little over a meter you can suffer major lung damage as a result of the gas in your lungs expanding from the lessening pressure."
-- Alone-Monk
Zing
"Touching sh** inside a guitar amp can fu** you up really bad. It holds a charge."
"And it all comes out at once if you touch the wrong spot."
-- Pei-toss
Unseen Until Too Late
"Going for runs on the roads at night without wearing lights or reflectors. Often times people even wear black. They think that just because they can see the car that the car can see them."
"It only takes one accident to change someone's life completely."
-- chubky
But before we consider this list as merely gratuitous and morbid, try to keep these in mind. It might help prevent a disaster some day.
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