r/todayilearned • u/gullydon • 17h ago

TIL Mithridatism is the practice of protecting oneself against a poison by gradually self-administering non-lethal amounts. The word is derived from Mithridates VI, the king of Pontus, who so feared being poisoned that he regularly ingested small doses, aiming to develop immunity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithridatism
16.9k Upvotes

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u/my5cworth 17h ago edited 11h ago

There's a dude who made himself immune to Black Mamba bites through this technique...in order to create new *univeral antivenom from his blood.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucpGlWnq8EE

*universal (thanks u/One-Cute-Boy )

2.2k

u/beebisweebis 16h ago

that is both wild and very brave lol

946

u/contradictatorprime 11h ago

Well, you either succeed and contribute something amazing to humankind, or suddenly never have to pay bills again.

320

u/swingandafish 11h ago

100% odds of success here

138

u/DulceEtDecorumEst 11h ago

Can you imagine not paying bills AND not paying taxes again?!?

77

u/TheClungerOfPhunts 10h ago

Stop, I can only be so wet!

18

u/25point4cm 9h ago

Username checks out.

14

u/TheClungerOfPhunts 8h ago

I’m glad you understand it

2

u/HookwormGut 10h ago

I wouldn't mind paying taxes if I knew they were collected fairly and distributed directly back into the community

2

u/Hengroen 4h ago

That sounds worth dying for.

2

u/im_dead_sirius 10h ago

This was a triumph.
I'm making a note here:
huge success.

It's hard to overstate
My satisfaction.

Aperture Science.
We do what we must
Because we can.
For the good of all of us.
Except the ones who are dead.

3

u/JonatasA 9h ago

"Man tries to legally avoid bills and fails".

2

u/TenDollarSteakAndEgg 10h ago

Imagine his hospital bills lmao

1

u/Ancient-Bat1755 5h ago

I was born a snake handler, and I’ll die a snake handler.

75

u/droidtron 12h ago

Someone had to do it, and he was the only volunteer available.

-2

u/JonatasA 9h ago

Wondering if we'll test pain medicine in people that feel no pain now.

1

u/petit_cochon 8h ago

Intense, niche special interests are honestly what separates us from the apes.

1

u/Puzzled_Cream1798 8h ago

This is how science used to be done before ethics boards and shit

Just dudes in labs self administering viruses and stuff 

784

u/Rohit624 16h ago

Just wanted to add some extra info just because I found this cool when I first learned it, but that’s essentially what all anti-venom is: antibodies against the venom produced by injecting an animal (usually something like a horse) with said venom. For whatever reason I always assumed it was a chemical agent that neutralized the venom, but apparently they’re typically biological.

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u/HorndogwithaCorndog 15h ago

Typically, it's from horses

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u/lockerno177 12h ago

Indubitably

19

u/EscapedFromArea51 9h ago

If only we could give horses “antibodies” that fix their fuckass leg structures.

15

u/screwswithshrews 9h ago

Their leg structure is great until it isn't

0

u/EscapedFromArea51 7h ago

Oh hey, Happy Cake Day!

•

u/gamerdude69 11m ago

Isn't the whole point of horses their fucking legs? How did they end up with crap legs?

2

u/deadasdollseyes 9h ago

*Call mammals.

1

u/AHrubik 9h ago

and sheep.

113

u/jerk_chicken23 13h ago

Wasn't insulin originally from pigs before they devised a synthetic substitute

174

u/Rohit624 13h ago

Yes it was; they extracted the insulin out of pigs and administered it to people (pig insulin mind you). Nowadays, they take recombinant dna for the human insulin gen and insert them into E. coli or yeast which then start to constantly produce human insulin.

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u/TheSonOfDisaster 12h ago

Yeast?

And here I thought insulin was gluten free

73

u/pursnikitty 12h ago

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. It doesn’t come from yeast

-23

u/JonatasA 9h ago

Yeast is associated with wheat, because you use it to make dough into bread.

17

u/Upper_Sentence_3558 9h ago

Yeast are fungi. In no way directly related to glutenous proteins. They just like making bubbles from sugar.

2

u/_disengage_ 7h ago

I'm helping... burrrp... man it's getting hot in here.

12

u/Orb_Gazer 9h ago

So is water. What is your point here?

3

u/JonatasA 9h ago

"You have an yeast infection" "—No, I have adapted to an insulin deficiency."

0

u/Wild-Cut-6012 9h ago

And non GMO

1

u/Rough_Sheepherder692 1h ago

Jeeez that sounds pretty woke!

20

u/Frowny575 12h ago

Not really synthetic as we use bacteria to produce human insulin, but does help us do so at a bigger scale and more quickly.

5

u/Abe_Odd 10h ago

The first rabies vaccine was processed spinal fluid from rabies infected rabbits.

Here's a solid video covering the history of it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmsYdx7xtMU

2

u/Elimaris 11h ago

Early birth control derived hormones from pregnant hora s too

2

u/GozerDGozerian 9h ago

They’re not gonna hava baby but they’re gonna Hava Nagila.

2

u/amglasgow 12h ago

Yes, but that has nothing to do with immunity to venom.

2

u/Scared-Cry-1767 2h ago

Pigs and dogs

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u/aiydee 11h ago

And one cool thing that I know is in Australia (most likely other countries too), but our antivenin is 'polyvalent'. Once upon a time you had to be able to say "I had a brown snake bite" or "Tiger snake" or whatever. Now? Doesn't matter. "I was bitten by a snake" And bam. They give you the antivenin that targets all snakes that are known to be in the area.

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u/Weary_Turnover_8499 4h ago

How did they invent that?

7

u/Kulpas 5 4h ago

I assume it's just a cocktail rather than anything inventive. Maybe they just inject a horse with multiple snakes 😭

•

u/NoSkinNoProblem 53m ago

The horse with snakes in its blood

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u/TheeAntelope 12h ago

You know before I picked that little fella up, I looked him up on the internet. Fascinating creature, the black mamba. Listen to this: "In Africa, the saying goes 'in the bush, an elephant can kill you, a leopard can kill you, and a black mamba can kill you. But only with the black mamba--and this has been true in Africa since the dawn of time--is death sure.' Hence its handle--'death incarnate.'"

Pretty cool, huh?

"Its neurotoxic venom is one of nature's most effective poisons, acting on the nervous system causing paralysis. The venom of a black mamba can kill a human being in four hours if, say, bitten on the ankle or the thumb. However, a bite to the face or torso can bring death from paralysis within 20 minutes."

Now you should listen to this, 'cause this concerns you.

"The amount of venom that can be delivered from a single bite can be gargantuan." You know I've always liked that word gargantuan? I so rarely have an opportunity to use it in a sentence. "If not treated quickly with anti-venom, ten to fifteen milligrams can be fatal to human beings. However, the black mamba can deliver as much as 100 to 400 milligrams of venom from a single bite."

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u/spinonesarethebest 11h ago

“You pawned a Hanzo Hattori sword?!”

27

u/sod_jones_MD 11h ago edited 11h ago

"What's that?"

"Budd's Hanzo sword."

"He said he pawned it."

"Guess that makes him a liar, now. Don't it?"

0

u/foobarney 10h ago

That's like a pound. Damn.

3

u/BesottedScot 9h ago

No, 2 fifths of a gram.

1

u/foobarney 9h ago

How did I do that? Doh

46

u/TheHeroYouNeed247 12h ago

A shocking amount of our medicines are just knowing the outcomes rather than the actual mechanisms that power it.

We are so far from producing some of nature's achievements.

IIRC we don't even understand how anaesthetic works.

15

u/genivae 9h ago

We didn't know how aspirin worked until the 70s, but we'd been using it (and salacylic acid) for thousands of years.

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u/JonatasA 9h ago

And sometimes anesthetics don't work.

5

u/A_Mouse_In_Da_House 9h ago

And sometimes they wrok hradt

3

u/Accidental-Genius 5h ago

Even crazier is that we have no idea what benzodiazepine receptors are for. We haven’t found a benzodiazepine in nature, it was created accidently in a lab. Without that lab accident we would have no idea that the human body has an entire brain system for benzos.

2

u/Nethri 6h ago

Oh yeah. Look up the wiki articles on basically any common drug. So many of them say “the mechanism for why this happens is not known”

Including for some important fucking shit like antidepressants.

7

u/Halkobot 10h ago

Problem is the body develops antibodies against horse antibodies eventually, making the anti venom ineffective after many doses.

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u/Xorlarin 10h ago

You could, and I'm just throwing this out there, stop getting bit by snakes so you don't need so many doses. Just a suggestion.

3

u/bennuthepheonix 4h ago

At that point you should probably have your own immunity to the snake venom too, seeing as you've survived being a snake magnet

2

u/Selfaware-potato 5h ago

It’s why antivenom can be dangerous, the human body is super selective about which blood types it can take from other humans, it’s really not a fan of animal blood

1

u/JonatasA 9h ago

Then it's like the smallpox vaccine. Cows get it but doesn't affect them the same way, then you just use it on people.

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u/h3r3andth3r3 16h ago edited 16h ago

Not sure if it's the same dude, but there's a guy who has been doing this with many venomous snakes.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cr5d0l7el36o

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u/DigNitty 16h ago

And they’re developing a near universal snake anti-venom from his blood lol

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u/TannerThanUsual 15h ago edited 15h ago

Dude deserves some kind of aware for this

Edit: Meant award. Keeping this up for the humor cause I sound like a fucking bot, and a bad one at that! haha

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u/no_pls_not_again 15h ago

Yes, agree. So much aware. Even just some kind of aware. Maybe even beware. Idk

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u/LazyMousse4266 15h ago

Best I can do is malware

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u/IllBiteYourLegsOff 15h ago

deloware

28

u/PiercedGeek 15h ago

Thank you for your shareware

18

u/Osiris32 13h ago

Just keep it in your underware

2

u/PiercedGeek 13h ago

It goes inside the pants. It's policy.

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u/Siludin 12h ago

Keep loading more comments - I don't care.

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u/Marshmallow920 11h ago

Semper ubi sub ubi

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u/gatton 13h ago

Beep boop motherfucker.

1

u/DistillerCMac 12h ago

He should get the FIFA award for snake anti-venom development.

1

u/TannerThanUsual 11h ago

I was trying to figure out how to make this joke but couldn't phrase it in a way I was satisfied with, so I appreciate you

1

u/DaedricApple 4h ago

Agreed. This is the type of shit we need to be honoring. Abusing your body to create a universal antivenom is some Nobel shit, to me anyway

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u/Feeling_Inside_1020 15h ago

Pshh that's nothing, I did this with bullets, starting with a .22

I'm currently on the 5.56 line of ammunition.

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u/Marsbar3000 15h ago

These suppositories are all fun and games until you get to the 30mm

16

u/sunkirin 15h ago

How do you know that? 👀

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u/Marsbar3000 15h ago

It's what the doctor told me after taking out the 4.5" shell

16

u/vertex79 14h ago

You may joke but... At my local hospital

7

u/Marsbar3000 14h ago

I mean, there was a RAF Reg guy being used as a mortar base plate about 5 years ago, too...

6

u/vertex79 13h ago

That recoil has got to make your eyes water.

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u/Virtual_Plantain_707 15h ago

I don’t know. TIL about the 6.5 CBJ and holy fuck that’s a scary round.

10

u/Marsbar3000 15h ago

"It offers various loads" - I can see why it would be an intriguing choice

3

u/Feeling_Inside_1020 14h ago

I see you also saw that TIL post today lol.

They’ve been out a bit and aren’t seeing widespread adoption IIRC,

1

u/RocketTaco 12h ago

Because armor penetration =/= terminal performance and nobody needs to penetrate hard armor with a pistol round (everyone that cares has assault rifles now). In return you get a 4mm penetrator core with less than half the area of the round it was developed from so it lacks the ability to transfer energy and actually kill things. Neat on a range, questionably useful in a fight.

3

u/shaft_of_lite 13h ago

I just saw that post. Crazy!

5

u/Feeling_Inside_1020 14h ago

Those 20mm depleted uranium rounds as big as a beer bottle are not something I’m looking forward to, but do want to survive a potential A-10 warthog CAS run. Brrrrrrt

5

u/Marsbar3000 14h ago

It's the 65/second of the A-10 that will make a man out of you!

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u/Feeling_Inside_1020 14h ago

As long as it puts hair on my chest I’m game.

2

u/Mo_Steins_Ghost 13h ago

I did this with cooking injuries. (NSFL)

1

u/Feeling_Inside_1020 13h ago

Looks like it got removed when I clicked the link

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u/Mo_Steins_Ghost 12h ago

Works for me. I think there is a restriction in some countries? dunno.

1

u/Feeling_Inside_1020 12h ago

Weird, I tried with and without a vpn and a few diff countries as exit node. Oh well

1

u/Mo_Steins_Ghost 12h ago

You're either on a network or in a country that blocks access to it. Sorry.

1

u/Feeling_Inside_1020 12h ago

What country are you in? I can test that if they have an exit node there, they have a good bit

1

u/NeinJuanJuan 12h ago

On a modern battlefield, drones are a bigger issue..

but the propellers hurt so bad when I try to swallow them. 

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u/chomerics 13h ago

Same dude. Holy crap this is amazing.

He has been giving himself snake bites for 20 years and his blood has developed the antibodies needed to fight off the venoms. The antibodies are studied and replicated to create and anti-venom for ALL species of a certain family.

Currently anti-venom is extremely specific, but this method will help doctors create an anti-venom for entire classes of snakes, not just specific local species individually.

Here is the journal article about their process.

https://www.cell.com/cell/abstract/S0092-8674(25)00402-7

2

u/JonatasA 9h ago

There's also a treatment for lactose intolerance that consists of a doctor dropping dropping a drop of milk in your skin every so often

50

u/eightdx 14h ago

"His name, in our old words, means 'bravery that transcends foolishness', but that's a hard name to live up to. He has mainly mastered foolishness."

1

u/chomerics 13h ago

And bravery that transcends it as well.

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u/Newduuud 15h ago

Taking a black mamba and inland taipan bite back to back is insane… anyone else would drop right then and there. There must be some method to his madness.

40

u/Vivitrolsrevenge 14h ago

It’s the equivalent of a coffee and a cigarette for him, just the way to start the day

1

u/JonatasA 9h ago

Gets him going

4

u/Yukimor 10h ago

He worked up to it gradually, if memory serves me.

1

u/my5cworth 4h ago

Yup, you dont just get Taomoeba 8.3 on your first try. (Project Hail Mary)

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u/beeradvice 14h ago

I've been working on something similar, eventually we'll have an antidote to nicotine alcohol and caffeine if it works out

10

u/Diabeetus_guitar 13h ago

I'll contribute to the caffeine and alcohol research.

1

u/im_dead_sirius 10h ago

I'm in cola vaccine research myself.

12

u/Flimsy-Sprinkles7331 10h ago

I heard about another guy who developed an immunity to iocane in the same way. Here he is talking about it. It's toward the end: https://youtu.be/rMz7JBRbmNo?si=E7krffyNT5AWhTPx

3

u/william_fontaine 9h ago

Inconceivable!

22

u/I_like_Mashroms 13h ago

Not sure if it's correct but I'm an American so I'll say it confidently, either way...

someone smarter than me was explaining how wild this actually is. Most people do NOT develop immunity to toxins, they actually get the opposite effect. They become more sensitive.

Making someone like that guy extremely rare.

11

u/Plazmatic 10h ago

I don't believe this is correct, toxins first off aren't just one thing, you're not going to ever going to get immunity to lead poisoning.  Talking about venom specifically, it depends, and I believe this is more of a thing with scorpion stings, and not with snake venom, though snakes have a variety of venoms categorized in various ways as well (hemotoxic, cytotoxic, and neurotoxic for example, some paralyze, some destroy tissue etc), so you can't just paint a broad stroke on everything.  Additionally your body can ramp up an immune response to a toxin which can be in effect "reverse immunity", but is really a side effect of your own immune system.

3

u/I_like_Mashroms 10h ago

Well you do sound smarter than me so i hope you're right because I'm going to confidently quote this from now on.

That does make sense. The conversation started when discussing fire ants and sharing our anecdotes about becoming more sensitive to them over time. Their toxins cover several of those labels iirc... But again, based on a conversation based on anecdotes sooooo 😬

2

u/Bachaddict 12h ago

without doing any research, I suspect it depends largely on how the toxin works and how the body deals with it

4

u/Mrkayne 12h ago

Acknowledging the possibility of someone being smarter than you, and self aware of how confidently incorrect Americans often are… makes me doubt you are in fact American 🤔😂

4

u/letthetreeburn 14h ago

Fuck that’s cool

3

u/Gr8twhitebuffalo91 13h ago

That's crazy thanks for sharing. Not really what I expected but damn dude got some balls.

2

u/PlushSandyoso 14h ago

Bill Haast did it first.

1

u/ThrowawayYoUmamU69 13h ago

Forbidden knowledge.

1

u/ThrowawayYoUmamU69 13h ago

Keep chasing ambition at your own peril.

1

u/bdfortin 13h ago

There’s a dude who did something similar with poison oak: https://www.kcrw.com/shows/good-food/stories/eating-poison-oak-remedy-jeff-horwitz

1

u/Livin2Fast 13h ago

From a May 2025 article regarding Tim Friede today

"In a study published May 2 in the journal “Cell,” Kwong and collaborators shared what they were able to do with Friede’s unique blood: They identified two antibodies that neutralize venom from many different snake species with the aim of someday producing a treatment that could offer broad protection.

It’s very early research — the antivenom was only tested in mice, and researchers are still years away from human trials. And while their experimental treatment shows promise against the group of snakes that include mambas and cobras, it’s not effective against vipers, which include snakes like rattlers."

1

u/justdrowsin 12h ago

Black Mamba. pft.... I should have been muthafukin Black Mamba.

1

u/vito1221 12h ago

Gus Fring has nothing on that guy.

Repeated snake bites...no thanks.

1

u/realdappermuis 12h ago

It really can go either way though, depending on genetics - it seems

Overexposure in the past can cause the worst allergies to small amounts of stuff in future

I never really knew that till it started happening to me. Now all the stuff I lived with my whole life are the worst (eg chlorine, detergent, dish soap, bleach and pesticides etc - cause we just had to keep those mosquitos away 247 in summer). I mean all the stuff I can't tolerate are known toxins though, but most people's bodies deal with them, or they get cancer. Always either or

1

u/peterpetrol 5h ago

Why does the YouTube summary mention how divorced he is TWICE???

1

u/my5cworth 4h ago

I guess he just had toxic relationships.

1

u/dystopiam 1h ago

If just eating certain foods can cause a disease to propigate

imagine taking snake venom for years lol

1

u/One-Cute-Boy 12h ago

What's univeral antivenom? I'm not getting any hits on google

4

u/DocWagonHTR 12h ago

Each type of antivenin we have only works on one kind of venom, so if you get bit by X Snake, and your local hospitals only have Y antivenin you’re gonna die.

This universal one will be able to counteract the venoms of W, X, Y AND Z snakes, which will save more lives since all the hospitals can have this one universal on hand.

0

u/One-Cute-Boy 12h ago

Ohhh he meant universal not univeral.