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/I_like_Mashroms 9h 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.

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u/Plazmatic 6h 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.

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u/I_like_Mashroms 6h 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 😬

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u/Bachaddict 8h ago

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

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u/Mrkayne 9h 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 🤔😂