On the whole I think he did very well. I was surprised with some of the equipment he had with him.

The program highlighted the mental and physical aspects of a trip like this very well. It also highlighted how difficult it is to feed oneself from a wilderness environment.

Something that some people that I have talked or read of forums have neglected to consider is the process of starvation. Some of the most in depth and up to date medical research carried out on starvation was done on the IRA hunger strikers in the Maze prison, Northern Ireland. After 56 days the heart rate dropped to dangerous levels, the body started to shut down and eyesight is lost. This drop of function was seen in all of the hunger strikers at the same rate.

An interesting fact about this case was the fact that the hunger strikers were doing it to force a political change and not as an attempt to commit suicide. This is an important fact because these people had not given up their will to live; they were being driven on by their cause.

I hear you ask what the hell has the effects of starvation in an isolated prison population that are laid on their beds got to do with a guy on TV in the middle of the wilderness?

It all has to do with energy expenditure. The prisoners after the initial unrest just sat around and laid in their beds and didn’t expend much energy. Ed didn’t have that luxury, despite having some food and some very good equipment. His energy expenditure well exceeded his calorific intake over the 50 days. His workload significantly sped up the downward spiral towards starvation; despite having some food available. Watching how he lost weight was exactly the same as what I have seen in populations in famine areas in Africa.

It was extremely interesting to watch Ed’s mental side go down, just the way it is reported in real survival or long turn high stress situations. The physiological effects of this sort are numerous but they are all recognised and recorded. Each effect is normally recorded in every scenario but at different levels. In this case it was fear of his surrounding, the unknown and bears as well as the chronic effects of loneliness and the need of contact with other people especially his loved ones. All this compounded by the anxiety of watching yourself waste away with the lack of food and knowing your body is not functioning as it should. Similar experiences have been report so many times by people that have been in real situations.

I think this program was an excellent look into the physical and mental stresses of a man driven to the edge.