Well, to answer the question, we need to approach this subject from a scientific perspective. While it may be theoretically possible to drink snake venom and live to tell the story, there are quite a few risks associated with such actions. Snake venom comprises largely of proteins, enzymes and polypeptides.
It is actually a type of saliva that can be lethal if it enters your bloodstream. It differs from poison that can kill you via touch, ingestion or injection. For venom to kill you, it must be injected in your soft tissue or bloodstream.
This is exactly what a poisonous snake does. However, the situation is different when someone drinks snake venom. Since the venom is largely proteins and polypeptides, it gets broken into simpler substances inside our stomach. Our saliva, stomach acids and other enzymes work quickly to convert venom into digestible compounds.
Can you actually drink that steaming mug of snake venom? The science comes down to the difference between poisons and venoms, and to the oral toxicity of the venom itself. Hosted by: Stefan Chin SciShow has a spinoff podcast!
It's called SciShow Tangents. Thanks to CuriosityStream for supporting this episode of SciShow. Go to CuriosityStream. The science pedants out there are right when they point out that venoms and poisons differ — namely, by the route of administration. But venoms get into you via wounds, like a snake bite, while poisons are either inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the skin.
And yes, this difference matters when it comes to how toxins affect you! So, venoms often contain big, somewhat delicate molecules that can be inactivated or destroyed by your digestive juices. And oral toxicities tend to be lower than injected ones. For instance, the venom of the blue-ringed octopus contains the potent paralytic tetrodotoxin, which is roughly 40 times less toxic when swallowed than when injected.
So if you did somehow manage to obtain a shot glass full of venom from these golf ball-sized octopuses, you definitely wouldn't want to drink it.
For instance, in a study published in , rats that ingested cobra venom ended up with damage to their livers reminiscent of what happens after a regular bite. He was admitted to the hospital because his blood had stopped clotting properly — a symptom often caused by snake venoms.
And he got better after receiving antivenom. Steve and I stayed together for seven mostly happy years and I remember it vividly — the gigs, stage-diving to Mudhoney and the Pixies and dancing at the Syndrome, an after-hours club on Oxford Street, hanging out with bands like Ride and Blur.
Months later, he auditioned for My Bloody Valentine. Inspired by the Beatles , REM and Black Flag , he started several semi-successful indie groups before landing a million-pound deal with Island Records with his band Carrie.
We instantly found an agent and a big publishing deal in , before Nevermind was released. As Steve and I were finding our way into adulthood — between the daily grind, drugs and groupies he had crazed Japanese fans showing up on our doorstep at all hours, leaving love notes and giant teddy bears that terrified our cat — our relationship ran its course.
But we remained friends long after breaking up. Steve was always insanely restless and curious and, in some ways, wilfully destructive. So I was hardly surprised when he had his venom overdose.
He initially refused to go to hospital, fearing his snakes would be taken away. This is what intrigues me about snake venom, that scientists say there are compounds in certain venoms that help its victims accept and relax into death. I felt that first-hand. The next morning the swelling had worsened. It was like something out of Evil Dead. Why do you think monkeys, dogs and everyone is instinctively scared of snakes?
When he finally went to hospital, the NHS doctors had never treated a snakebite victim, let alone someone with the venom of three different snakes coursing through their bloodstream. They gave him the anti-venom CroFab to target the rattlesnake venom that most likely caused all the problems.
After three days in intensive care with no improvement Steve, pulling out his IV, discharged himself. Contrary to all their dire predictions, his hand, aside from the bruising, was back to normal a week later. Convinced his miraculous recovery was down to his self-immunisation, Steve became more fervent. He cheerfully admits mixing black mamba , cobra and puff-adder venom like the ingredients of an exotic cocktail and then, dizzied on pain and adrenaline, skateboarding through London traffic.
He had literally turned himself into a science experiment, but there was a point to his madness. They drilled into my lower spine to take out bone marrow. It took me two months to recover. When I walked into one of those blood farms and saw about 60 horses with holes in their necks being injected with venom, and with massive bags draining out blood, I was very emotional, knowing what they were going through.
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