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For nearly 30 years, London-based reptile enthusiast and musician Steve Ludwin has been injecting snake venom—a practice that has almost killed him.
It may now help save thousands of lives, as researchers search for a new antidote based on his body's response to the toxic fluids.
"It sounds very crazy what I am doing but it turns out that it potentially has lots of health benefits," Ludwin, the tattooed 51-year-old told AFP in the living room of his home in the British capital.
Ludwin demonstrated his decades-old habit by firmly holding the head of a green Pope's tree viper—Trimeresurus popeiorum—and extracting a few drops of its venom.
Minutes later, he has injected the fluid into his arm using a syringe.
The scientists hope to produce cheaper anti-venom from the antibodies in his blood.
[Please note that this is very dangerous and Mr. Ludwin has almost died a number of times. Don't try this at home! - Ed]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 11 2017, @09:15PM (2 children)
No one knows anything about why poison ivy/oak causes the reaction it does and why they seem to only affect humans. It is another one of those extremely commonplace and interesting phenomena that researchers don't care to study, or funding agencies don't care to fund, for some reason.
Supposedly the best way to become temporarily "immune" (actually non-immune since the rash is an immune response...) is to let goats feed on the stuff then drink their milk. Watch out for the goat scams if you go looking to buy/sell//rent any goats though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 12 2017, @05:08PM (1 child)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urushiol-induced_contact_dermatitis [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 12 2017, @09:54PM
Yes? Please quote the part you think relevant.