# Death from Exhaustion
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 1, 2003, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031 "2003-01-01T11:26:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2003, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031/1 "2003-01-01T11:26:12Z")
I’ve wondered about this for a while…
Can you work yourself so hard, tire yourself out so much that you run a significant risk of never waking up once you fall asleep?
This assumes no extremes of tempreture involved,and you aren’t starving. Just Exhaustion.
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### Author:  [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2003, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031/2 "2003-01-01T11:31:33Z")
Yes you can, exhaustion is a well-recognised cause of death.
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### Author:  [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2003, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031/3 "2003-01-01T11:36:57Z")
**MC Master of Cermonies** , cite please? Or do you mean via heat stroke or heart attack?
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### Author:  [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2003, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031/4 "2003-01-01T11:44:40Z")
Here’s something from the US airforce on the dangers of stress and fatigue when flying (death by exhaustion highlighted using google)
[http://216.239.57.100/search?q=cache:Bg1yIfY9njkC:usasam.amedd.army.mil/ARMS/downloadable/StudentHandouts/Strs%26F\_HO.html+“Death+by+exhaustion”&hl=en&lr=lang\_en&ie=UTF-8](http://216.239.57.100/search?q=cache:Bg1yIfY9njkC:usasam.amedd.army.mil/ARMS/downloadable/StudentHandouts/Strs%26F_HO.html+%22Death+by+exhaustion%22&hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UTF-8)
Finding cases where exhaustion is the only factor is difficult (though there was definitely a recent case during the Tokoyo stock market crash when someone literally worked themselves to death).
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### Author:  [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2003, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031/5 "2003-01-01T12:16:00Z")
Sorry, **MC Master of Cermonies** , cite for the stock market crash death?
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### Author:  [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2003, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031/6 "2003-01-01T12:28:34Z")
I’m having a hard time imagining a person working themselves to death. Small animals can die of exhaustion simply bcause they are so small, although the actual death is a combination of starvation and problems caused by stress hormone overload. Humans are just too big to suffer from those sorts of problems.
Really, death has to be caused by something, a person can’t just die. The only way I can think of exhaustion killing (as distinct from a heat attack or hyperthemia/dehydration) is through hypothermia due to all the bodies energy reserves being depleted. Essentially death from exhaustion, but not strictly so.
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### Author:  [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2003, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031/7 "2003-01-01T12:32:47Z")
> **[WebMD - Better information. Better health.](https://www.webmd.com)**
>
> The leading source for trustworthy and timely health and medical news and information. Providing credible health information, supportive community, and educational services by blending award-winning expertise in content, community services, expert...
> **[WebMD - Better information. Better health.](https://www.webmd.com)**
>
> The leading source for trustworthy and timely health and medical news and information. Providing credible health information, supportive community, and educational services by blending award-winning expertise in content, community services, expert...
Extreme physical exertion can cause sudden heart failure and death. I doubt, though, that in those cases, ‘exhaustion’ would be given as the official cause of death. It was the heart failing that does them in.
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### Author:  [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)
#### Post date: [January 1, 2003, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031/8 "2003-01-01T13:08:37Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Desmostylus \*
> \*\*Sorry, **MC Master of Cermonies** , cite for the stock market crash death? \*\*
Sorry, I don’t have one. It was in several news stories of the time and also featured in one of the Fortean Times book of bizarre deaths.
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### Author:  [@brainchild876](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brainchild876)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2003, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031/9 "2003-01-03T04:18:13Z")
I’m a bio major and my opinion on this idea is that you can’t die from exhaustion. Your body goes through several cycles for cellular respiration. It goes through glycolysis, krebs cycle, and electron transport. All of these processes require oxygen to create ATP which activates motor proteins to move your muscles. Without oxygen the pyruvate created after glycolysis cannot enter the mitochondria. Thus, the krebs cycle and ETS cannot continue and ATP production slows to almost nothing. (Krebs cycle produces small amount, ETS produces great amount of ATP) With your major producers of ATP shut down you would think you would die. However, this is not the case. Glycolysis does produce a small amount of ATP, however it has to use it’s product (pyruvate) to continue the cycle(pyruvate is needed for it’s electrons to make NAD+ which is also needed for glycolysis) In the end Glycolysis ends up producing a lactic acid. This acid starts to burn your muscles and the pain will become so bad that you collapse (not die) before your body runs out of ATP to continue respiration. In short, you will collapse before you ever run out of ATP for body funtions. Once you collapse your oxygen levels go back up and you being all the normal cycles again.
Sorry so long, hope it makes sense
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### Author:  [@Slugworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slugworth)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2003, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031/10 "2003-01-03T04:58:31Z")
I’m not a bio major, so brainchild just broke my brain. Before reading that however, I seem to recall having an idea that basically speculated that death to starvation is the exact same as death to exhaustion. Aren’t both deaths essentially due to your body running out of gas?
The OP says that his version of exhaustion doesn’t include starvation, but wouldn’t exhaustion simply be using up all of your energy? If you work incredibly hard, spend ridiculous amounts of energy, even if you’re eating regularly, you’ll still essentially starve to death. Seems the two are really, by definition, interchangeable to me, they just look different from all outside appearances. It’d be strange to say that a well-fed man died of starvation, but…
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### Author:  [@Gleena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gleena)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2003, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031/11 "2003-01-03T07:29:23Z")
The Japanese recognize the concept of karoshi - death from overwork. Literally working oneself to death.
Here’s a link. [http://www.apmforum.com/columns/boye51.htm](http://www.apmforum.com/columns/boye51.htm)
**According to Labor Ministry statistics there had been only twenty-one case of karoshi in 1987, twenty-nine cases in 1988 and thirty cases in 1989. But a liaison council of attorneys established in 1988 to monitor deaths from overwork estimated in 1990 that over 10,000 people were dying each year from karoshi.**
Is that close enough to the OP’s question?
Grace
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### Author:  [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2003, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031/12 "2003-01-03T08:46:14Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Liquid Grace \*
> **Is that close enough to the OP’s question?**
Probably not. From [here:](http://www.workhealth.org/whatsnew/lpkarosh.html)
> [@](#):
>
> The major medical causes of _karoshi_-deaths are heart attack and stroke, including subarachnoidal hemorrhage (18.4%), cerebral hemorrhage (17.2%), cerebral thrombosis or infarction (6.8%), myocardial infarction (9.8%), heart failure (18.7%), and other causes (29.1%)
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### Author:  [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2003, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031/13 "2003-01-03T10:50:27Z")
Yes. So while exhaustion can lead to death (via some flavor of organ failure), exhaustion alone doesn’t appear to be fatal.
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### Author:  [@vasyachkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vasyachkin)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2003, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031/14 "2003-01-03T11:01:06Z")
i think you will not die if you are in good health.
i think you will just go unconscious when you overwork yourself to that point. then hopefully when you come to you will know to stop. but if your body does not work as supposed - who knows.
when i was on a swimming team in high school i used to swim 50 yards (two laps) under water on a single breath. anyway one day after being on a diet for some time, and after sitting in a sauna for 20 minutes i got into the pool to do it again. since i had done it before i was pretty sure i would be able to do it again (wrong), i pushed myself a bit too far when i decided to finish the second lap even as i was feeling tingling all over my body from lack of oxygen … i went unconscious UNDER WATER 🙂 i was lucky enough to be pulled out still with a pulse and they had managed somehow to make me breathe. i felt a little “stoned” for the rest of the day but was fine the next morning.
apparently my heart was in better shape than my brain 🙂 so the brain went first … however for you the result may be quite different 🙂
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### Author:  [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2003, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031/15 "2003-01-03T11:17:03Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by AudreyK \*
> So while exhaustion can lead to death (via some flavor of organ failure), exhaustion alone doesn’t appear to be fatal.
Well isn’t that a bit of semantics? You could argue that the bullet in someone’s heart isn’t what killed them, but rather the heart failing as a result.
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### Author:  [@yakboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yakboy)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2003, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031/16 "2003-01-03T11:57:15Z")
IANAD but as part of Wilderness First Responder training I learned that there are fundamentally three mechanisms for death: shock, elevated intra-cranial pressure, and respiratory arrest.
Can exhaustion cause one of these problems?
Shock (unlike the depictions you see on TV) is the inability of the body to deliver oxygenated blood to tissues. Shock is caused by problems with your heart (cardiac shock), blood volume (volume shock), or arteries (vascular shock). Could exhaustion cause any of these situations? Your efforts might cause you to have a heart attack in your sleep and die of cardiac shock, or perhaps you became extremely dehydrated. Dehydration can lead to loss of blood volume, shock and death.
Elevated intra-cranial pressure? Probably not unless you got exhausted, fell down and smacked your head.
Reparatory arrest? Very possibly. Even of the lungs and airways are intact you can die of respiratory arrest if your brain decided to stop telling your body to breathe. Various things including lack of oxygen, sugar imbalance, toxins and electrocution can cause this. For example if you were exhausted and hypoglycemic (perhaps diabetic and you did not eat enough before crashing) you might stop breathing in your sleep.
I think in all these cases exhaustion would be considered a contributing factor but not the cause of death.
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### Author:  [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2003, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031/17 "2003-01-03T14:53:24Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Achernar \*
> \*\*Well isn’t that a bit of semantics? You could argue that the bullet in someone’s heart isn’t what killed them, but rather the heart failing as a result. \*\*
I suppose. But don’t they specify secondary factors? In your example, wouldn’t they say something along the lines of, “The official cause of death was blood loss from a gunshot wound”?
I have no idea if the terminology in cause of death descriptions are standardized or governed by any rules.
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### Author:  [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2003, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031/18 "2003-01-03T14:59:24Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by AudreyK \*
> \*\*I have no idea if the terminology in cause of death descriptions are standardized or governed by any rules. \*\*
There are standards, but they vary with jurisdiction. [For example.](http://www.tdh.state.tx.us/phpep/asp/Dcfinaltest.asp)
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### Author:  [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2003, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031/19 "2003-01-04T09:22:58Z")
Thanks for the link.
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### Author:  [@JungleLove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JungleLove)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2003, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-from-exhaustion/146031/20 "2003-01-05T01:30:13Z")
I heard several health professionals mention that death by exhaustion is possible for people suffering from bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness) and in the midst of a prolonged manic episode. This may be possible because people in a manic state can sleep and eat very little for continuous weeks or even months.
Citations:
Several websites mention the threat of death by exhaustion in bipolar disorder, but give little details.
Link #1 [http://www.psychologynet.org/bipolar1.html](http://www.psychologynet.org/bipolar1.html)
Link #2 [http://author.emedicine.com/NEURO/topic708.htm](http://author.emedicine.com/NEURO/topic708.htm)
In the 1840’s and 50’s sudden death for people in a manic state was sometimes called “manic-depressive exhaustion death” or “lethal catatonia”. Some professionals currently believe that sudden death while in a prolonged manic state may be attributed to neuroleptic malignant syndrome or organic causes like substance abuse.
Here’s a peer-reviewed journal article that reviews lethal catalonia in some length:
Mann M.D., Stephan C., Stanley N. Caroff, M.D., Henry R. Bleier, M.D., et al. _Lethal Catatonia_ American Journal of Psychiatry, Nov. 1986, 143: 1374-1381.
They note that 262 cases have been reported since 1960.
They conclude that over a period of days manic excitement and motor agitation is followed by exhaustion with symptoms of severe hyperthermia, then “coma, cardiovascular collapse, and death.”
This is also discussed in:
Farnham, Frank R. and Henry G. Kennedy. _Acute excited states and sudden death._ British Medical Journal, Nov 1, 1997 v315 n7116 p1107(2)
Kay Redfield Jamison mentions in a 1995 article _Manic-Depressive Illness and Creativity_ in Scientific American: “His brother Edward [Tennyson] was confined to an asylum for nearly 60 years before he died from manic exhaustion.”
Scientific American, Feb95, Vol. 272 Issue 2, p62, 6p
IIRC, Redfield also mentions death by exhaustion in the seminal work on bipolar disorder: \*\*Manic-Depressive Illness \*\* coauthored with Frederick K. Goodwin, M.D. in 1990.