A Real Life Tarzan??

As science nut and an anatomy nerd, one of the things I’ve always found fascinating is how the human body is able to adapt to its environment.  All of us who used to live up north but are now living in Florida can relate to this.  After spending several months in this warmer climate, our bodies got better at handling the heat, which made us less able to handle the cold.  This is why when we go up north during the winter, many of us may feel like “temperature wimps.” 

This is because our body can (even in just days), change its physiology to make itself more tolerable to its environment.  In fact, this same phenomenon is what drives physical changes from exercise.  If something in your environment (even if it’s a dumbbell or a treadmill) is placing a more intense physical demand on your body than what you are used to, your body will respond by making itself stronger and fitter so it can respond better to these challenges in the future.   

This is why it takes many, many rounds of exercise to achieve significant changes and it is also why “if you don’t use it, you lose it.” 

So, given my fascination with this topic, you can imagine how interesting it was to me to read the story about- “The Man Who Lived in the Jungle for 40 Years, Who Developed ‘Superhuman’ Survival Skills”. 

You can read that article by clicking the link above.  

His name is Ho Van Lang, and he and his father had been living in the jungles of Vietnam since Ho was a baby.  They were completely cut off from the outside world and had to rely purely on their bodies’ (and their minds’) ability to adapt to their environment so they could survive.  Ho and his father were found by the Vietnamese Army several years ago (when Ho was 42!) and they have been living in “normal society” ever since.  

Reporters that learned of Ho’s story called him a “real life Tarzan” and some even made a documentary about him called “The Vietnamese Tarzan” which you can see by clicking here- The Vietnamese Tarzan. It is a pretty cool story of human resilience and adaptation.  It also makes all lesser forms of “social distancing” not seem so bad! LOL! 

Enjoy! 

Chris