Survival myths can will *probably get you killed

https://youtu.be/Gs26bZTRkdU (source)

Say you are stuck in a blizzard or in a desert and your car stalls, your phone is dead and you have no food in your car, well first you are screwed. Not really actually but most of the normal survival tips are not really tips.

Water

Normally you would want to get water, as it is necessary to live as a human, so how about all the ice or snow that is around you in a blizzard. Well, do you eat the snow as a watercourse, well no, don't do that, bad idea? Very bad idea. Snow can be safe to eat, but it is been on the ground for a long time, and it might be harmful to digest. The reason why it is bad to eat is that the snow needs to be melted, so you are using your own body heat to melt the snow, and putting it on your arm and chest does even worse because that will make you even colder, do just don't do that.

So if you are in the desert, well don't eat cactus juice, "Unlike Sokka from Avatar the last Airbender, you will not get high on eating cactus juice", If you drink cactus juice, it is mainly toxins, and or toxic chemicals, which could make you even more thirsty or making you feel worse. First cacti use a different type of photosynthesis named CAM, which uses way less water than other kinds of photosynthesis, so using less water in the desert is very useful, but if you eat them it will not give you lots of water in return. CAM photosynthesis, makes a side product named Oxalic acid, which binds to calcium and will mess up your body. It can also build up in your kidneys, which makes Calcium Oxalate,  which is what kidney stones are made of, "so my recommendation is don't do that". The flesh of the cactus is made of Alkaloids, which are harmful if you do eat the cactus, you will have diarrhea and vomit. Although fishhook barrel, and pink prickly pear, do have fewer toxins than most but do not taste that good, it is good if you need something to eat and are in a tough situation. 

Urine or blood

Don't drink this either even though it is fluids, it may not be healthy fluids.

The reason why you don't do this is that when you remove waste the waste is well, waste, and putting it back into your body is unhealthy, to say the least, if you add the waste back into your system it basically makes your kidneys work harder to clean it which in turn could cause systems like kidney failure.

What about blood, also no, you can drink blood, but only in small doses, because blood contains iron and too much iron can be toxic, and then your body will try to store the extra iron in your heart and liver, and that makes organ failure, so that's not good either unless you want to die, don't do that, that will be more harmful than helpful.

Moss

Moss does not work like a compass, and moss does not lead north, so you can't use it for navigation, moss likes wet surfaces because they lack the indoor plumbing that most plants have, and they have to rely on the moisture in the air, and on the object, they are on to get some water if a large patch of moss is on somewhere, it is most likely from just it being damp and wet, things that moss likes very much.

Alcohol 

Alcohol although it does feel like you are warm, alcohol makes you warm because it gets a rush of warmth to your face and cheeks, but it is the complete opposite of what you want.

Because alcohol opens your blood vessels near the surface of your face, and it can make you warm when it transports the blood near the surface all heat although it feels nice, for a while, the heat will soon dissipate which is bad.

If you are trying to retain your body heat, that would not be easy if all your warmth goes into the air.

Frostbite

If you have frostbite, don't rub the frostbitten parts, frostbite makes microscopic crystals in your skin tissues, and if you rub them you will effectively use the ice crystals to cut your skin tissue.

So don't do that, and don't rub it because it will hurt more, also if you try to thaw the frostbitten toes also have the danger of refreezing, if they do have the danger of refreezing then it could cause more crystals from forming, which is bad.

If you have you also have Hypothermia, meaning your body drops below 35 degrees, the thing that is important is that you must introduce warmth in a slow way, and not quickly, 

Snake Bites

Do not suck venom from a snake bite, it is not good, the effects vary from snake to snake some give tissue damage or internal bleeding, and some are neurotoxins.

If you do try this, as in sucking venom, it will increase the risk of getting the bite infected (which is worse), and to add to all the bad side effects it will not remove that much poison.

Instead, health experts recommend you keep the wound below the level of the heart, keep the victim warm, and get to the hospital as fast as possible.

If you do get to the hospital, they can administer Antivenom, different Anivenom works for different kinds of poison, so if you can try to remember the color or the defining features of the snake that the hospital can give the right treatment to the right poisons.

Jellyfish stings

Contrary to popular belief if you pee on a Jellyfish sting it will most likely make it worse, jellyfish tentacles have stinging cells called Cnidocytes which are like harpoons and those harpoons will have poison, and that poison can poke holes in cells (and that's bad), the trick is that you must get most of the Cnidocytes off your body without triggering others.

The myth is that if you pee it will neutralize the stinging, in practice it can trigger the Cnidocytes to go off, funnily enough, vinegar is a good way to help as that will neutralise the ones that have not gotten set off yet.

I would not recommend doing anything above. Tq.