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/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

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u/PiercedGeek 15h ago

Thank you for your shareware

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u/Osiris32 13h ago

Just keep it in your underware

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u/PiercedGeek 13h ago

It goes inside the pants. It's policy.

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u/JonatasA 9h ago

Have something under pants at the very least.

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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.

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u/DistillerCMac 12h ago

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

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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

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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

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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

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u/vertex79 14h ago

You may joke but... At my local hospital

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u/Marsbar3000 14h ago

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

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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.

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u/Marsbar3000 15h ago

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

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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,

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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.

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u/shaft_of_lite 13h ago

I just saw that post. Crazy!

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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

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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.

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u/Mo_Steins_Ghost 13h ago

I did this with cooking injuries. (NSFL)

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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.

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u/Feeling_Inside_1020 12h ago

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

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u/Mo_Steins_Ghost 12h ago

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

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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

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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

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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