‘Outlast’ Cast Members Lost Feeling in Their Fingers and Toes After Filming
Viewers watched multiple Outlast cast members quit because of health issues. However, even the winners had lasting effects on their bodies after the Netflix show, like losing sensation.
‘Outlast’ cast had to survive in dangerous temperatures
The cast was in Alaska right before winter. They survived with minimal tools. To keep warm, they had their outfits and a tarp to help build their shelter.
Their first day was 38 degrees; at night, it dropped to 33 degrees. Some of the camps spent the night without a fire in that weather.
Throughout the show, the narrator reminds viewers of the threat of hypothermia. Justin Court went as far as to swim in the river without clothes because his raft was ruined.
“I just feel the blood coursing through my veins in that 36 or 37-degree temperature water,” he said. Fans later saw him warming up by the fire at Camp Alpha.
Paul Preece and Justin Court lost feeling in their fingers and toes
The cast continues to update fans on their lives. Paul Preece, Seth Lueker, and Court talked about how much their bodies changed surviving on minimal food in a YouTube video.
Preece said he lost 42 pounds. Lueker lost a pound a day, which totaled 35 pounds. Court said he should have “carbed up” before filming to reach 165 pounds. He said that it was “a shock” to his system that he gained his weight back in a short amount of time.
Preece said he couldn’t do his usual physical activities like hunting after the show. “I had to let that go and slowly try to build the weight back that I lost,” he explained. “I had they call it socks and mittens syndrome. I came back and couldn’t feel the tips of my fingers or my toes.”
Court said he lost the same sensation. “I went through something very similar about the socks and mittens,” he said. “I never heard of that. But what I was dealing with was very similar, and to me, it was a form of neuropathy where I had no feeling in my fingertips for a long time.”
“Mainly my toes and I felt like the frostbite, which was a mild version of it over a long period of time,” he continued. “I mean even to this day I have something with my left big toe that still does not–hasn’t healed all the way. So you know there’s the aftermath of that.”
Court did return to his usual activities
The good news is that Court said he could return to his everyday life after the show. He did some blacksmith work and worked with horses.
However, he did need a break to transition. “What really helped me was to get back on the mat and start training jiu-itsu because that’s kind of an area where I can just let everything go,” he said. “The mats don’t lie. So exercise is very therapeutic.”
It looks like Court gets along with members of Camp Charlie even though they didn’t work together in the came. The same thing can’t be said about him and Jill Ashock.
