, who goes by "Doctor Mike" on social media, is a board-certified family medicine physician at the Atlantic Health System's Overlook Medical Center in Summit, New Jersey.
In this video, Varshavski takes a ride on an F-16. Not only does he get firsthand experience with high G-force, he also learns about G-LOC (passing out), flight surgeons, and why women are better suited for this kind of flying than men.
Following is a rough transcript (Note that errors are possible):
Mikhail "Mike" Varshavski, MD: The United States Air Force Thunderbirds reached out and asked if I was ready to fly in an F16. I reluctantly said yes. I'm going to pass out. I mean, there's no other way about it. I'm going to pass out.
L. Col. Noel Colls: The blood is just going to drain out of your skull.
Varshavski: I'm a little dizzy.
Pilot (Gator): OK.
Varshavski: If we can take a quick pause?
Colls: You feel like you have an elephant sitting on your chest. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three.
Varshavski: I had to wake up 4:00 a.m., so you can bet I didn't sleep much, even though the explicit instructions were, "Sleep a good night's sleep." They also said, "Have a heavy breakfast or at least a good breakfast." I had a protein bar. Oh, and a banana.
We're trying to enter the air force base, but apparently, they said, "We don't know who you are." Apparently, the Pentagon did not send our clearance through to this spot right here and because of that... oh my God, plane landing.
I was afraid to do this. What was I afraid of, you may ask? Well, the height for 1), the not knowing what it's going to feel like, 2 ), and 3) I was worried about G-LOC, G-force induced loss of consciousness. OK. First of all, what is G-Force?
"G-Force" is a poorly received 2009 Disney film about a team of secret agent guinea pigs. G-force is also a measurement of the force of gravity on our bodies. In everyday life, we have 1G of force on us. That's the Earth's standard force of gravity. Our bodies are well acclimated to this.
Colls: So we're going to get you up to 9Gs today. A really wicked rollercoaster is like 3 to 4Gs, give or take. At 1G, let's say you weigh 200 pounds. At 9Gs, you're going to weigh 1,800 pounds. Fluids do what gravity tells them to. In this case, the blood's just going to drain out of your skull.
Varshavski: As your heart beats, it's trying to have the blood move up, but there is way too much force pushing it down. As a result, you don't get enough circulation. You don't get enough oxygen going to the brain. You G-LOC, you pass out.
Male Speaker: Right. How you feeling, Sir?
Varshavski: The only way to fight that? 1) I'm going to be wearing a very special suit that helps squeeze my lower body in order to help push some of this blood back up into my body. The second thing is something known as the anti G-straining maneuver.
Colls: Ready, now. Good, good. Good clench, good clench.
Varshavski: Basically what I needed to do is learn to squeeze my entire lower body and try and keep my blood up here, and you're doing a breathing technique where you're exhaling very short breaths against a closed glottis.
Colls: One, two, three. One two three. One, two, three.
Varshavski: Because if you don't, if you, let's say, go [EXHALES] good luck taking a big, deep breath in.
Colls: Do you feel like you have an elephant sitting on your chest?
Staff Sgt. June Rice: This will be the t-shirt you wear underneath. This is going to be your flight suit, so it's like one big pajama onesie...
Varshavski: OK.
Rice: ... and then these are your boots. Size 11, correct?
Varshavski: OK. Yup.
Rice: All right.
Varshavski: They make it sound so easy, Sam. No, it's not.
Sam: He said you'll be giggling at 9Gs, I think.
Varshavski: I somehow don't think that's it.
Varshavski: Wait, didn't she say I can't have synthetics on? I think I'm wearing synthetic underwear. I haven't worn boots like this ever in my life. I would not make a good soldier.
Rice: Everyone who wears this patch, we have to work our way up to it, so it's an honor to wear this patch and today you get to wear it.
Varshavski: Wow. I am ready to not eject out of this aircraft.
Rice: OK, perfect. Good?
Varshavski: Good.
Rice: Do you feel like you have a good seal?
Varshavski: Yes.
Rice: Inhale. Hold. One, two, three, exhale. Yep, and take the helmet off. Perfect.
Varshavski: They taught me about the eject lever in between my legs, but they also consistently told me, "Do not pull it, unless you truly need to eject." Apparently someone in the past, they were so anxious being inside the cockpit that they just pulled it to escape out.
Next walks in Lt. Col. Kevin Difalco and he tells me everything we're about to do in this plane. I'm not going to lie, my anxiety was at an all-time high.
I'm going to pass out. I mean, there's no other way about it. I'm going to pass out.
Capt. Remoshay Nelson: You'll be fine. I promise. If I can do it, you can do it. I'm like 5'1", 150 pounds, something like that.
Varshavski: Yeah, but that makes it better for you.
Nelson: I know. That's true.
Varshavski: You're more protected from the G-Force.
Nelson: That's true, short and female.
Varshavski: To be honest, like they sound very reassuring when they talk to you, but I think that the reassurance may be one of those like, "Make him think he'll be OK, so he will be OK." I don't think I'm going to be OK, but I might be OK.
Pilot: Famous last words?
Varshavski: This was a bad idea.
Pilot: We're about ready now. There's 100 miles per hour. There's 150. We're going to take off here. Gear is coming up. There's 250 miles an hour. Good breath. Here come the Gs.
Air Traffic Control: Double Four Alpha Mike, cross Runway 27, right turn on Alpha. Hold short of 3, 4, and Alpha contact R. Ready for back-taxiing.
Pilot: All right. So yeah, if you look at the... we're going about 0.67 Machs, about 67% the speed of sound.
Varshavski: That's in the bottom left corner?
Pilot: Bottom left corner, yep. 303 knots and I can switch that to ground speed. We're going 395 miles per hour ground speed.
Varshavski: Wow.
Pilot: 1G currently. Ready to go?
Varshavski: Yup.
Pilot: All right. Good breath. Here come the Gs.
Varshavski: I'm starting to lose my vision. My heart is working in overdrive to try and bring the blood back from my lower body to my brain.
Pilot: All right, next we're going to go into a loop. You ready to go for the loop?
Varshavski: OK.
Pilot: Good breath. Hip squeeze. Here come the Gs.
Varshavski: Staring inside the cockpit was a really bad idea. It causes sensory conflict between what my eyes were seeing and what my inner equilibrium was feeling. As a result, I got really nauseous.
Pilot: Going to bring it all the way through. We're going to keep going. You can see our smoke. There's our smoke. Look up and you can see the smoke. There's our loop, how about that? Pretty cool.
Varshavski: I'm a little dizzy. If we can...
Pilot: OK.
Varshavski: ...take a quick pause...
Pilot: All right.
Varshavski: ... recalibrate here?
Pilot: Yeah. All right, we're going to get down here and we're going to do a knife-edge next, OK? Ready to go?
Varshavski: Yep.
Pilot: All right, here we go. We're just cruising along the clouds, 90-degree angle, nice and straight. 1G straight down now, left side, right?
Varshavski: Yep.
Pilot: Here we go, inverted to inverted. We're inverted. We'll hang here. All right, you ready to roll 360 degrees?
Varshavski: Yep.
Pilot: Here we go. Rolling it.
Varshavski: Woo.
Pilot: Here we go inverted again.
Varshavski: Woo.
Pilot: Take a look at the clouds, how fast they're moving.
Varshavski: Yeah.
Pilot: Good breath. Here come the Gs. He was a little nervous this morning about what the maneuvers were going to be like and how we were going to do, but I'll tell you, he got through the entire profile today. We did every maneuver.
Pilot: You guys are probably curious on what he did in terms of Gs. He did pull 9.2Gs.
Varshavski: It could not have been done without everyone here, so I have to give everyone a huge thank you for allowing me to participate. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I'm going to be telling my followers, my patients. Thank you again, and thank you, Gator, for getting me back safely.
Pilot: Yeah. Thanks for keeping everybody healthy and happy, and inspiring your followers to live a better life, and that's important to us too.
Varshavski: I was so nervous.
Nelson: I know. I was a little worried. You were so nervous during the briefings
Varshavski: I was nervous, but after that first one I knew I could handle it.
Nelson: Yeah.
Varshavski: I came close to graying out a couple of times, but I noticed as I adjusted my muscles and I wasn't squeezing, let's say, my abdomen enough or my glutes enough, once I adjusted, right away the vision came back.
Let's get this video to 100,000 likes. Let's continue our mission with the United States Air Force. Let's see some cool stuff. Let's see the medical side of it. Let's see what being a doctor in the Air Force is like.
Colls: I'm working and flying every day with my patients.
Varshavski: You want to do that, definitely hit like. Check out this video of me saving a life on an airplane or this video here where I actually fly a different airplane and hold some incredible animals, actually interact with the animal. Like, both are really good watches. Which one are you going to watch? As always, stay happy and healthy.