# Would hanging upside down be fatal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 7, 2003, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-hanging-upside-down-be-fatal/200128 "2003-09-07T18:00:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-hanging-upside-down-be-fatal/200128/1 "2003-09-07T18:00:11Z")
In movies occasionally I’ll see people being hung upside down, the implication being that this is worse than the regular way. Assuming the person is fed and given water, would death eventually result as a result of being pointed downwards? Why? ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-hanging-upside-down-be-fatal/200128/2 "2003-09-07T18:12:32Z")
I’d imagine drinking would be difficult. ---
**Author:** ![Horseflesh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horseflesh/32/7502_2.png) [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-hanging-upside-down-be-fatal/200128/3 "2003-09-07T18:18:53Z")
Drinking wouldn’t be that difficult, though it’s not as easy as being upright. The hanging upside down thing disorients the person and makes it much harder to escape (provided you have their hands tied also). Though I’m assuming when you say “the regular way” you mean by the hands and not the neck. I’d guess that with all the blood rushing to your head you would black out after a while. Even with someone providing food and drink I don’t think you’d last long in this position because of improper blood flow. ---
**Author:** ![gluteus\_maximus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f17d59/32.png) [@gluteus\_maximus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gluteus_maximus)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-hanging-upside-down-be-fatal/200128/4 "2003-09-07T19:37:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sam Hell \* > \*\*In movies occasionally I’ll see people being hung upside down, the implication being that this is worse than the regular way. \*\* Well, I’ve never heard a movie judge read out a sentence of “to be hung by the ankles until dead.”, so I’d guess it’s meant to be more of a form of torture rather than execution. Probably produces a bit of a headache after a while. I remember seeing a news photo of folks on a roller-coaster that was stuck for several hours upside-down at the top of a vertical loop a couple of years ago… caption said they later required hospital treatment. They didn’t look like they were enjoying the “ride”. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-hanging-upside-down-be-fatal/200128/5 "2003-09-07T20:24:27Z")
> [@](#): > > _originally posted by_ **Horseflesh** > > I’d guess that with all the blood rushing to your head you would black out after a while. Even with someone providing food and drink I don’t think you’d last long in this position because of improper blood flow. Now now. This is GQ; Let’s try to answer factually. I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember, but a big fad in th 80’s was “gravity inversion boots”. I don’t think people were passing out and dying for hanging upside down too long. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-hanging-upside-down-be-fatal/200128/6 "2003-09-07T20:28:19Z")
I don’t think you’d die, but wouldn’t you be awfully uncomfortable? At the very least, I think it would make you dizzy and nauseaous? ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-hanging-upside-down-be-fatal/200128/7 "2003-09-07T20:50:02Z")
A google search on _“upside down” health effects_ turns up folks, such as the [Sun & Moon Yoga Studio](http://www.sunandmoonstudio.com/headstand.html), who think getting inverted is good for you. I don’t know about that, though. And yeah, where’d all the gravity boots go? ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-hanging-upside-down-be-fatal/200128/8 "2003-09-07T21:04:07Z")
I saw a cheesy Robert Culp horror flick on cable a couple of months ago that featured a half-naked woman spreadeagled at wrists and ankled and hanging upside down while laughing manically. I offer this merely as proof that such movie scenes exist. She didn’t seem to be there as torture but more to provide atmosphere for a demonic ritual. ---
**Author:** ![Horseflesh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horseflesh/32/7502_2.png) [@Horseflesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horseflesh)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2003, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-hanging-upside-down-be-fatal/200128/9 "2003-09-07T21:07:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by x-ray vision \* > \*\*Now now. This is GQ; Let’s try to answer factually. I don’t know if you’re old enough to remember, but a big fad in th 80’s was “gravity inversion boots”. I don’t think people were passing out and dying for hanging upside down too long. \*\* Well, by “last long” I meant for weeks at a time. Surely people didn’t stay in their gravity inversion boots that long did they? ---
**Author:** ![gluteus\_maximus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f17d59/32.png) [@gluteus\_maximus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gluteus_maximus)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-hanging-upside-down-be-fatal/200128/10 "2003-09-08T16:02:24Z")
OK, one type of torture involving hanging the victim upside-down is intensified by beating the soles of the victim’s feet. St. Peter was crucified upside-down, at his own request, so, apparently, if the person is suspended just right, they can drown in their own fluids, just as when crucified upright. I guess their lungs would fill from the top “down”, instead of from the bottom up. ---
**Author:** ![Shrinking\_Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@Shrinking\_Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shrinking_Violet)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-hanging-upside-down-be-fatal/200128/11 "2003-09-08T17:58:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gluteus maximus \* > \*\*… they can drown in their own fluids, just as when crucified upright. \*\* Would you mind expounding on this? I’ve never heard this before. Julie ---
**Author:** ![alimarx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@alimarx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alimarx)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2003, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-hanging-upside-down-be-fatal/200128/12 "2003-09-08T18:09:51Z")
I read somewhere (i.e. no cite) that some people (specifically, homosexuals) during the middle ages were punished and executed by being sawed in half (groin to neck) while being hung upside down. They were hung upside down specifically so that the blood would rush to the head and they would retain consciousness for a longer period of time during said sawing. ---
**Author:** ![gluteus\_maximus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f17d59/32.png) [@gluteus\_maximus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gluteus_maximus)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-hanging-upside-down-be-fatal/200128/13 "2003-09-09T18:48:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Shrinking Violet \* > \*\*Would you mind expounding on this? I’ve never heard this before. > > Julie \*\* Well… While searching for a cite, I discovered that the cause of death from crucifixion I had heard of ( that of the lungs filling with fluid (pulmonary edema ) is only one possibility out of several… > [@](#): > > _[from here](http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000140.htm):_ \*\*Pulmonary edema is usually caused by heart failure that results in increased pressure in the pulmonary (lung) veins. However, problems within the lungs themselves can also result in fluid accumulation. > > Pulmonary edema can be a complication of a heart attack, leaking or narrowed heart valves (mitral or aortic valves), or any disease of the heart that either results in weakening and/or stiffening of the heart muscle (cardiomyopathy). The failing heart transmits its increased pressure to the lung veins. As pressure in the lung veins rises, fluid is pushed into the air spaces (alveoli). This fluid then becomes a barrier to normal oxygen exchange, resulting in shortness of breath. > > Pulmonary edema can also be caused by direct lung injury from toxins including heat and poisonous gas, severe infection, or an excess of body fluid as seen in kidney failure.\*\* … and it seems that there may be several separate and/or combined fatal effects of being hung up by one’s arms on a cross… whether perpendicular (T) or diagonal (X)… > [@](#): > > _from the site du [cite](http://www.crucifixion-1.com/):_ > **Ultimately, the mechanism of death in crucifixion was suffocation. To breathe, the victim was forced to push up on his feet to allow for inflation of the lungs. As the body weakened and pain in the feet and legs became unbearable, the victim was forced to trade breathing for pain and exhaustion. Eventually, the victim would succumb in this way, becoming utterly exhausted or lapsing into unconsciousness so that he could no longer lift his body off the stipes and inflate his lungs. Due to the shallow breathing, the victim’s lungs would begin to collapse in areas, probably causing hypoxia. Due to the loss of blood from the scourging, the victim probably formed a respiratory acidosis, resulting in an increased strain on the heart, which beats faster to compensate. Fluid would also build up in the lungs. Under the stress of hypoxia and acidosis, the heart would eventually fail. There are several different theories on the actual cause of death for Jesus. One theory is that there was a filling of the pericardium with fluid, which put a fatal strain on the ability of His heart to pump blood. Another theory states that Jesus died of cardiac rupture. Another theory is that Jesus’ death was “multifactorial and related primarily to hypovolemic shock, exhaustion asphyxia and perhaps acute heart failure.”** … of course, this has little or nothing to do with the OP question… which also had no mention of being sawed in half while upside-down, either. ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2003, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-hanging-upside-down-be-fatal/200128/14 "2003-09-09T20:19:39Z")
Boy, I don’t know about fatal, but when I’ve been upside down my head hurts and I get broken capillaries all around my eyes. But that’s peculiar to me (may not be rare, but not everyone has this outcome)