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Post by ironhold on May 25, 2015 1:49:29 GMT
There is, believe it or not, something in the film that can be directly evaluated by way of modern science.
In the film, the characters need to get from New York City to Paris as quickly as possible in order to avoid arrest. To do so, they use a teleportation chamber hidden beneath a television station.
Frank (George Clooney's character) warns Casey (the female lead) that the process of teleportation is pretty terrible to have to endure. Among the warnings he gives her is that she'll lose 90% of her blood sugar during the trip. He makes her consume a large quantity of an unknown powder to protect her before they begin, and she chugs two one-liter bottles of Coke as soon as she arrives; Frank was supposed to have one of the two, but she took his.
Wouldn't losing 90% of one's blood sugar in an instant be instantly fatal? Both individuals - even Frank - are depicted as being up and running moments later despite what happens to them.
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Post by the light works on May 25, 2015 2:57:51 GMT
It would, theoretically, result in both of them becoming unconscious. it could be that the unknown powder was powdered glucose, which would begin entering her bloodstream as soon as they arrived.
one of the diabetic issues we respond to is people who have injected insulin, and then delayed eating - which causes blood sugar to drop dramatically. typically the patient loses consciousness, but recovers on being administered some form of sugar.
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Post by mrfatso on May 25, 2015 4:30:37 GMT
If the person in the film had lost 90% of their blood sugar then they would be in a diabetic coma and unable to drink the coke. Normal blood sugar level is about 4 mmol/l and at about 2mmol/lyou start to get noticeable symptoms of Hypoglycemia, so that is 50% of normal levels of blood sugar. ( sorry I am using the units we use in the UK, those are the ones I learned in the Pre Insulin Awareness course, the U.S. Uses a different unit but the percentages are the same). At about 0.5 mmol/l the blood has insufficient sugar in it to allow the brain to function correctly and so you enter a comatose state, which is above the 0.4 mmol/l that 90% of normal would be.
LTW is right, you can bring someone out of hypogllycemia if you administer sugar in a reasonable amount of time or if they are already unconscious inject Glucagon as they will be unable to swallow( at least that is what we would do here). However In some cases when a person goes into a diabetic coma without it being noticed say in their sleep or if they are mistaken for someone that is drunk and disorderly put into a police cell and their condition worsens but police officers think they are sleeping it off, then they can die. The early stages of Hypoglycemia are often mistaken for drunkeness, slurred speech poor coordination etc, that is one of the reasons diabetic ID is a good idea.
It is possible as LTW says the unknown powder was a delayed release form of sugars that was perfectly timed to allow teleport and prevent coma, but in the real world then the characters in the film would be straight into a coma and heading for death unless someone helped them.
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Post by the light works on May 25, 2015 4:59:32 GMT
If the person in the film had lost 90% of their blood sugar then they would be in a diabetic coma and unable to drink the coke. Normal blood sugar level is about 4 mmol/l and at about 2mmol/lyou start to get noticeable symptoms of Hypoglycemia, so that is 50% of normal levels of blood sugar. ( sorry I am using the units we use in the UK, those are the ones I learned in the Pre Insulin Awareness course, the U.S. Uses a different unit but the percentages are the same). At about 0.5 mmol/l the blood has insufficient sugar in it to allow the brain to function correctly and so you enter a comatose state, which is above the 0.4 mmol/l that 90% of normal would be. LTW is right, you can bring someone out of hypogllycemia if you administer sugar in a reasonable amount of time or if they are already unconscious inject Glucagon as they will be unable to swallow( at least that is what we would do here). However In some cases when a person goes into a diabetic coma without it being noticed say in their sleep or if they are mistaken for someone that is drunk and disorderly put into a police cell and their condition worsens but police officers think they are sleeping it off, then they can die. The early stages of Hypoglycemia are often mistaken for drunkeness, slurred speech poor coordination etc, that is one of the reasons diabetic ID is a good idea. It is possible as LTW says the unknown powder was a delayed release form of sugars that was perfectly timed to allow teleport and prevent coma, but in the real world then the characters in the film would be straight into a coma and heading for death unless someone helped them. I don't know the units we measure blood glucose in. I do know it is part of the normal checks done on nearly any patient. a quick search shows we use mg/dl. www.joslin.org/info/conversion_table_for_blood_glucose_monitoring.html
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Post by silverdragon on May 25, 2015 14:33:05 GMT
Just a quick question... How?..
Being ripped apart atom by atom and beamed across space and time aside, Just what makes them think that will somehow remove all the blood sugars, and ONLY the blood sugars?...
And if you have to take me apart to get me there, then I dont want to go.... I am sure Douglas Adams and I have the same feelings on that.
Ending up diabetic as well?... Just how urgent is your trip, what, you cant telepresence and "skype" your way into the room?...
Yes. From what I know, from a diabetic I know, even a 20% drop is pretty serious, (I think he used that as a reference?.. I may be wrong...)and blood sugars are what give your heart the energy to work, so if you loose ALL the blood sugar in the "whole eight pints" in one go, by the time you had got enough sugar into the system, its already too late, the heart and other "important" organs are failing. You could try injecting in multiple points, and maybe even directly into certain important organs. You may even try over-dosing on sugar to force extra into the system... but that can also be fatal.. too much sugar may be as bad as too little.
Certainly trying to do that "on your own" with no on the spot medical team is playing with high explosives and an ignition source at the same time.... There are many people who have some symptoms of diabetes, but have not had a diagnosis. That would be fatal for them to try.
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Post by the light works on May 25, 2015 15:51:44 GMT
Just a quick question... How?.. Being ripped apart atom by atom and beamed across space and time aside, Just what makes them think that will somehow remove all the blood sugars, and ONLY the blood sugars?... And if you have to take me apart to get me there, then I dont want to go.... I am sure Douglas Adams and I have the same feelings on that. Ending up diabetic as well?... Just how urgent is your trip, what, you cant telepresence and "skype" your way into the room?... Yes. From what I know, from a diabetic I know, even a 20% drop is pretty serious, (I think he used that as a reference?.. I may be wrong...)and blood sugars are what give your heart the energy to work, so if you loose ALL the blood sugar in the "whole eight pints" in one go, by the time you had got enough sugar into the system, its already too late, the heart and other "important" organs are failing. You could try injecting in multiple points, and maybe even directly into certain important organs. You may even try over-dosing on sugar to force extra into the system... but that can also be fatal.. too much sugar may be as bad as too little. Certainly trying to do that "on your own" with no on the spot medical team is playing with high explosives and an ignition source at the same time.... There are many people who have some symptoms of diabetes, but have not had a diagnosis. That would be fatal for them to try. I don't know if it was thought out any further than an excuse for product placement, but the two possible explanations I see are that it may be such violent exercise, it causes your body to consume all its fuel; or that something about the sugar, makes it unable to make the trip. not having seen the movie, I don't know whether the teleportation is a common way for people to travel, or if it is usually used for materiel and human teleporting is a desperate measure.
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Post by mrfatso on May 25, 2015 21:50:47 GMT
Hypergylcemia can be bad, but not as bad as Hypoglycemia , the effects are typically more long term damage such as Retionopathy, Neuropathy, Kdney damage, Heart damage etc. these tend to be the result of long periods of high blood sugar levels rather than one event. People can be unaffected by systems of high blood sugar at several times the normal concentration and it would need a massive dose to cause immediate ill effects.
One reason why people have undiagnosed Diabetes is that Hypergylcemia is far more common and easier to go unnoticed than Hypoglcemia.
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Post by mrfatso on May 25, 2015 22:02:07 GMT
I don't know if it was thought out any further than an excuse for product placement, but the two possible explanations I see are that it may be such violent exercise, it causes your body to consume all its fuel; or that something about the sugar, makes it unable to make the trip. not having seen the movie, I don't know whether the teleportation is a common way for people to travel, or if it is usually used for materiel and human teleporting is a desperate measure. Product place,net seems a likely excuse, although in the bad old days they did used to advise drinking flat Cola if you felt ill. They now know that that is not a very good idea.
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Post by the light works on May 25, 2015 22:27:33 GMT
I don't know if it was thought out any further than an excuse for product placement, but the two possible explanations I see are that it may be such violent exercise, it causes your body to consume all its fuel; or that something about the sugar, makes it unable to make the trip. not having seen the movie, I don't know whether the teleportation is a common way for people to travel, or if it is usually used for materiel and human teleporting is a desperate measure. Product place,net seems a likely excuse, although in the bad old days they did used to advise drinking flat Cola if you felt ill. They now know that that is not a very good idea. my grandfather kept hard candy in case of a blood sugar drop.
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