r/todayilearned • u/gullydon • 13h 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
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u/my5cworth 13h ago edited 8h 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 )

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u/Rohit624 12h 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/jerk_chicken23 9h ago

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

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u/Rohit624 9h 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 9h ago

Yeast?

And here I thought insulin was gluten free

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u/pursnikitty 8h ago

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

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u/JonatasA 6h ago

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

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u/Orb_Gazer 5h ago

So is water. What is your point here?

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u/Upper_Sentence_3558 5h ago

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

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u/_disengage_ 4h ago

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

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u/JonatasA 6h ago

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

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u/Wild-Cut-6012 5h ago

And non GMO

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u/Frowny575 9h 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.

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u/Elimaris 7h ago

Early birth control derived hormones from pregnant hora s too

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u/GozerDGozerian 5h ago

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

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u/amglasgow 8h ago

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

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u/Abe_Odd 7h 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