To Treat the Dead

In the article To Treat the Dead, Newsweek highlights the implications of research that shows that cells don't die after a mere 5 minutes without oxygen. Cells will continue to live for hours without oxygen. The reason that 5-minutes (approximately) of oxygen deprivation usually leads to cell death is that, after about 5 minutes, oxygen actually becomes toxic to the cells.

It's the reperfusion with oxygen-carrying blood that causes cell death, not the 5-minute lack of oxygen itself.

One implication is that it may be possible to develop drugs and/or treatment protocols that will allow the revival of heart attack, stroke or trauma patients after an hour or more without blood flow, instead of the current 5-minute limit. Another implication is that cryonic suspension is far more likely to work than most would have believed.

---

• Chronos blog home page
• Chronos Date/Time Library web site