Yeah, there are certain producers that like to get the details correct. While there may be some fudging in the methodology to prevent copycats, Breaking Bad is pretty true to the actual science. I always appreciate that extra effort. 99% of the audience won't know any better, but to those who do, it's a real treat when TV gets something correct.
The great thing about Breaking Bad is that, where they did deviate from reality, they did so knowingly and consciously. Mostly just minor discrepancies with some of the chemistry science in order to benefit the plot.
I’m always amazed at how many specialists insider can get to do these specials. From naval warfare to survival experts to poison experts. It’s incredible
I disagree with the FRIENDS score. While it might not be a good science to pee on a jellyfish sting, your idiot friend volunteering to do so is 100% accurate.
That's like saying The Godfather III is the greatest one of the series simply because the one family member (the whiny brat in the first one) grows up in that one. That's like saying Prometheus is a great movie because it's got Charlize Theron in it. That's like saying the last season of Game of Thrones is the best one because of the Clegane brothers fighting towards the end.
Breaking Bad heavily invested in the science, writing and everything. They nailed almost every detail, from chemistry, money laundering… What a legendary show!
This comment pissed me off! There is a lot of inconsistencies with the science on Breaking Bad! Example is the fact they struggled with the difference between Red Phosphorous and white phosphorous in the RV Gas scene! - An Actual Scientist
@@El1society They also get paid to do exactly that. Not saying some aren't giddy or excited, I am just not american, but I see what America is all about when it comes to camera and "portrayal"
Shame he sucked at it. Realism score? No, he doesn't know about acting, because how can you judge an in-world character doing what they believe in, with an out of world realism score. If Joey believed in-world that peeing on Monica's leg would help her; whether it was himself or Chandler that actually did it, how does that make it not realistic? This video was a mistake. Well, his realism score was a joke. It should have been a survivability score.
@@kanedaku realism as in realistically effective. Cmon dude. Seriously? How can you or anyone dictate on how people actually think collectively? People change their minds and opinions all the time
I know the intention of the ricin was that it killed Lydia (which was confirmed in the sequel movie) but I really love the idea that Walter, in his ego, wanted to taunt her with his win before he died so badly that he accidentally gave her a chance to get to a hospital and get ahead of it.
Didn't the radio report that the "woman in hospital is not _expected_ to survive" but never reported dead? Lydia was such a rotten person/villain, I love to hate that character.
i thought that lydia couldnt make it to hospital because she knew she could be in trouble when she mentioned about ricin thinking her alignment with meth operation as fbi or something got jesse into interrogation after he mentioned about it in brocks case
@@dantepr1566 Yeah, I also remember Walt pretty much telling her his intention about it. Yeah she COULD get help in time and survive, her life would still be over. Everything she was involved in would be dug up and she'd never be able to recover.
@@Knights_of_the_Nine AND, vomiting, excessive sweating, diarrhea, burns, diuretic use, and kidney failure doesn't have anything to do with exsanguination.
I give the Hunger Games scene a bit more of a pass since the books and movies make it clear that The Capital genetically engineered most of the hazards in the games to be much more deadly than a natural counterpart
loved listening to Dr. Rangan, his passion for this is so visible! never seen anyone as happy as him talking about deadly poisons. would absolutely love to see more episodes with him.
I'm a relatively old guy, 61 (at 25 I would have considered this old AF, not so much now. Anyway, I try to keep abreast of current trends, tech, etc. I'm genuinely curious why some people conciously choose not to capitalize the first word of a sentence. Have I missed something and this is considered cool now? I know when using a laptop/desktop with a dedicated keyboard, there's an extra step involved to push the shift key. But mobile devices generally do this automatically, leading to an extra step to remove the capitalization. Just wondering why this has become a "thing" is all.
@@snakedoktor6020 in my case it was actually just me being lazy (which is funny since i'm german and in german all nouns are capitalized, so you'd assume i'm used to it). unless i'm writing something official, want to emphasize something or are in the mood, i allow myself this. i still make a point of using correct spelling and grammar otherwise, though, so it's not total anarchy. i doubt it's a "trend" or cool; it's probably really just people being lazy.
Exactly. How this clown is judging in-character reactions rather than only the actual chance of survival is a joke. His realism score is a joke. If people think peeing on someone would help reduce the pain; then the scene is 100% real. And people do still believe that the trace ammonia helps. How he can score it so low means he doesn't know about pop culture influence. If you got stung by a jellyfish, and I walked past you in the 90s, I'd pee on you. In case you were stung by a jellyfish in the future.
@@kanedaku Um. We've known for a very, very, very long time that peeing on a jellyfish sting doesn't work. "And people do still believe" blah blah; people believe that Christopher Columbus went out, from Europe to find America (and wasn't a horrifyingly evil monster.) People believe that the moon landing was faked. People believe that Marie Antoinette said, "Let them eat cake." People believe that climate change is a myth. People believe the Earth is flat. If you believe something dumb, believing it really really hard doesn't make it any less dumb.
@@ChristophBrinkmann Mate, you're gonna feel silly when you read the comment again, but let me point out what I said. _In the show, that's the belief the characters had, so WITHIN THE SHOW, that why they did it._ I was using that scene as one example of judging people by a standard outside of the world they are existing in. They believed it would help, which IS WHY they did it. At no point did I say I believe ammonia in pee brings relief to jellyfish stings (which is how people who try to defend it, describe it). I hope I've brought clarification to you on this hiccup.
For the Hunger Games Nightlock, it would be worth mentioning that it could be a genetically altered berry to have that effect. We see that with Tracker Jackers and Mockingjays. It's highly likely that they spread the berries in order to kill those who would forage for food.
I mean a hybrid of hemlock and nightshade would be a nightmare to try and treat. if you have a berry that's a combination of both plants fruits then eating it would be nasty. Usually 4-6 leaves from a hemlock plant is enough deliver a lethal dose of coniine, and the berries, have a significantly higher concentration. Pretty sure mixing the respiratory paralysis from hemlock with the tachycardia, loss of balance, staggering, headache, rash, confusion, hallucinations, delirium, and convulsions that are part of the symptoms from nightshade poisoning would make treatment near impossible.
@@FirstIsa That may have been the intent behind Nightlock. Something that looks good to eat and kills the unsuspecting and can't be cured. It would also prevent people from foraging to get more food than the capital wants them to have.
It's weird. I keep smiling because this guy is so incredibly likable - and then I remember he is talking about something as morbid as death by poisoning.
@@Amenomihashira I'm well aware that scientific analyses can be interesting, thank you. But I was commenting on this particular individual's likability.
My perspective is that he specializes in expert problem solving and prevention. He seems to delight in unlocking the enigma of poisons. Bet his I. Q. is really up there.
I got stung in my eyebrow at night by a scorpion that had crawled on my face. The pain from the sting wasn't bad, and I fell back asleep. Around 4 hours later I woke up with a brutal migraine, vomiting, my face was drooping and burned and ached at the same time, and my joints felt like someone was hitting them all at the same time with a sledgehammer. I wound up going to he hospital, and had a rough time that day, but felt better the following day.
Wow. I’m so sorry that happened to you Hannah. That sounds horrible! If you feel comfortable, do you mind sharing where you live? Curious if you live in Arizona. I do, and we have A TON of Scorpions in Arizona, and my biggest fear is being stung by one.
I would have love an analysis of the scene where Gus Fring poisonned the cartel in Breaking Bad. Pretty much all the elements of that scene are analysed in others from this video (self poisonning yourself, induced vomiting to slow down a poison, etc) but some as the blood transfusion and the use of dyalisis were not. The toxin used in that scene was never mentionned but given how Vince Gilligan like to mirror things I think Gus probably used a concentrate form of one of the many toxins in the lily of the valley (another plant used by Walter to poison people). Anyway I would have loved to see if that scene would have permitted for BB to keep their 8/10 or slightly (or significantly) lower that score. Also what's cool with ricin is that they found out a real antidote for it (aside from maintaining the person alive while waiting for the symptoms to subside) in 2010...wich is when Lydia was poisonned by Walt in the BB timeline so I kind of agree that by revealing what he gave her Walt probably saved her life even more...but since he had been living as an hermit from quite a while he probably did'nt know about the new antidote.
Are you sure there is an antidote for ricin? I mean, I had a lecture about ribosomal toxins (one of which is ricin) like a week ago and I was told that up to this day the only treatment is just supportive care, so... do you have a source of that information? From a quick check, CDC and mayo clinic sites also state that there is no antidote, but maybe it's more experimental kind of treatment, not approved yet? I am genuinely curious.
@@bagniacz3264 There's no official treatment. There's a successful porcine model using equine-derived anti-ricin F(ab’)2 antibodies, which was published a couple of years ago, but it's not even available as an experimental therapy in humans at this point, unless the military have rushed hush hush human trials. I know they had concerns about ricin because of it's toxicity and lack of antitoxins, so it's possible it's being pushed through back channels or within govt sponsored private industry, but it's not something that affects a large amount of people in day to day life in the western world. As long as you get treatment in a timely manner it's not super lethal with good clinical support, though it'll wring you out for sure!
@@Si74l0rd Hm, this is interesting. So they tried to use the same approach as with some snake and spider venoms or tenatus and botulinum toxins. Sounds quite reasonable. My guess is that no further research was done because ricin poisonings are fairly rare, we have developed sufficient algoritims for supportive care and most of poisonings are accidental or suicidal ingestion anyway (I assume that it would be quite troubling to administer antibodies to intestine in an effective way - antibodies would be usefull in cases of more systemic toxicity, like injections) And you are probably right, if any further research is done, military is presumably most interested.
I'm an emergency medicine clinical pharmacist and in my humble opinion the cartel poisoning scenes looked plausible, although maybe not entirely accurate. I'm not sure about what specific substances could have been involved. You'll notice he took pills after drinking the tequila, which I presume would be to delay gastric emptying (whatever it was probably should have been taken prior to ingesting the toxin, if possible). Sitting so calmly probably wasn't a great idea because digestion and GI tract blood flow tend to increase when physically inactive. Inducing vomiting also generally isn't recommended (as mentioned in the video), although there are circumstances where it could be helpful. The toxin appeared to somewhat rapidly induce paralysis when taken orally, and while I'm not familiar with such a toxin, it does seem possible. The timeframe of symptom onset fits a lot better than what you see in most Hollywood productions. Dialysis certainly can remove a variety of toxic substances, and could potentially be indicated as treatment for whatever was ingested. There was no sign that Gus received a transfusion if I recall correctly; the blood may have been reserved for treating trauma/blood loss.
Wesley's tolerance to the iocane powder always reminds me of Edmond Dantes' and his tolerance to many poisons. That scene has one of the best conversations, one line of which is (in my own words) Posions can be medicine and medicine can be poison, it all depends on the dose.
The difference between medicine and poison is the dose. Warfarin is a blood thinner given to people who have had a heart attack or stroke. But in a large enough dose it can make you bleed out internally. It’s the primary ingredient in D-Con.
@@dr.floridamanphd I guess that is true of any chemical. As a kid, nitroglicerin for me was something they made bombs with (from cheap b movies and cartoons). Imagine my bewilderment in learning it can be used in medicines for the heart (if I remember correctly).
What about Mithridates, the Poison King? He had gradually made himself so immune to so many poisons that when he was forced to commit suicide, he tried to overdose but it didn't work. He had to have his bodyguard run him through with a sword That is a reasonably famous, verified scholarly authentic account and remains taught to this day in a historical context..
@@J3diMindTrix It really depends on the poison. Some poisons are chronic - eg asbestos, lead, and mercury. These are things that slowly claw away at your health over the decades, and is not something you become immune to.
Great video but one flaw: Dr. Rangan said that ComboPen is a made up word. Its actually the brand of an auto-injector syringe. We have/had these in the Swiss army and they look quite similar to what Mr. Bond was using. Although the application instructions were quite different: thigh muscle not neck 🙂
Well - it just looks more dramatic pushing something in your neck.... And I kinda get the feeling that when the James Bond franchise has to decide between realistic and dramatic... well you can see a certain pattern :D
He rates films based on how effective the treatments would be. That's an interesting criteria... and a difficult one here, because the other question is, how realistic was the scene? That the woman cut the boy's wrist and sucked stuff out might have been ineffective, but it's not unrealistic that someone would have tried. Still, I get the impression his reason for being there is to at least help people make smarter decisions than those in the films did. And that's admirable, especially when it regards things that could kill you.
Well, he still gave Friends 6/10 despite the fact urine is not a good treatment for jellyfish sting. I've never watched Snakes on a Plane, but maybe the movie depicts the mother's treatment as effective?
No treatment for snakebites except to get to hospital huh? Not what we beleive in Australia! Of the top 10 most venomous land snakes in the world, all are Australian, yet the death rate/percentage from bites in Australia is the same as the US, where you have only 1 snake that even makes the top 20 list. Pressure Immobilisation & then get medical aid to come to you is how we do it
Unlike Asia and Africa averaging between 80,000 to well over 100,000 deaths per year, not to mention amputations and severe life changing disabilities from Envenomation... Australia has around four of the most venomous snakes in the World. The Saw Scaled Viper, Black Mamba, King Cobra, Russel's Viper, and Fer De Lance being the worlds deadliest through human interaction and deaths recorded.
@@monsterforge1763 most venomous are all Aussie, but yes, most deadly are without a doubt in other countries! Very few people have any idea just how many people actually die from snake bites in the world every year! It's a major cause of death & health issue that should be addressed far better than it is. The numbers tell the tale though don't they, first world nations aren't impacted, so there's no money put into fixing this problem, cause it's only poor people dying, so they don't matter right? (wrong, but I'm saying that's sadly the thinking) I'm not actually aware of it pressure immobilisation or any other treatments have any significant impacts on any of those snakes you mentioned, if you are, please share, I'd be interested to learn
Actually I have a potential explanation for the Game of Thrones one. Mushroom poisons can take days to even weeks before signs of poisoning occur and pretty much the only cure by then is an organ transplant (which probably wasn't available with their level of technology). However if you've just eaten poisonous mushrooms, activated charcoal can limit or even prevent damage from them. I know it's a bit far fetched, but I imagine organ failure is quite painful way to die. 🤔
@@pierrecurie Plus, do we even suggest using activated charcoal anymore? I always thought that was just to induce upset stomach and perhaps vomiting, which we no longer think is the right course of action in poisonings.
@@Cyrribrae There are several poisons that kill like the Long Goodbye. However, few of them you could just put on your lips and then being able to drink a shot of something to fix.
One of my neighbours actually had tick paralysis. I don't know what exactly happened afterwards, but he recovered. Although he has suffered some minor brain damage. He isn't full on disabled, he can care for himself, but he has become very... weird when interacting with people. Behaving similarly to someone with autism.
I've always been taught that the only reason why we don't encourage induced emesis anymore is in cases where the toxin in unknown. If the patient ingested some form of caustic poison, then emesis could cause more damage to their oropharynx on the way up. In the case with Casino Royale, digitalis is not a caustic, so he really has nothing to lose by inducing emesis - especially if it is a recent ingestion.
For snake bites, as I understand it they travel through the lymphatic system. No amount of blood sucking will help. Key thing to do is immobilise the limb to stop the venom from spreading to your organs and get to a hospital. Also, a bite looks nothing like that. The limb will puff up and you might get bruising (depends on the snake). If you are unlucky you will get necrosis which is where the flesh dies, that's when you might need amputation. (Source: first hand experience and talking to an envenoming expert)
Snake venom travels through the bloodstream. That’s how it’s able to spread so quickly. Your lymph nodes probably play a role in trying to draw some of it out but that’s not how venom travels through the body. And the best thing to do is apply a tourniquet if possible, remain calm, and seek immediate medical attention. And if you know what type of snake bit you (eastern diamondback versus a copperhead) they can administer the proper antivenin as quickly as possible. Despite popular belief, at least here in the US, venomous snake bites aren’t usually deadly unless you’re allergic to the venom. The reason for the antivenin is to kill off the effects of the venom so you don’t lose your hand, foot, etc.
Princess Bride always gets me because the villain willingly breathe in what Wesley handed him not knowing what it was. He also handled the container with his bare hands while Wesley did so wearing gloves. The container that Wesley handed him could have itself been laced with some poisonous compound that penetrated the skin. Whatever was contained, that he took a whiff of without protest, could have been poisonous. For someone that fancied himself a genius, he was trusting and idiotic from the very beginning.
Having used a Game of Thrones scene and not including Joffrey's death is an utter wasted opportunity. This might have been a good example of what cyanide poisoning at least remotely could look like as far as I know
7:27 - In case of snake bites - try taking photo of the snake (if you can, and it's safe of course!), or at least try memorising it's apperance. Hospital workers usually know what kind of snakes are in the area, but providing them details about the snake may make treatment easier for them.
@@bagniacz3264 yikes! Do NOT raise the bitten limb above the heart!!!!!! Venom's in the lymph, NOT blood & gravity will operate taht & speed it's progress! VERY bad advice! Limb must be kept as low as possible (but still, don't lower if it needs to then be raised again) Please don't take wild guesses as to how you think you should treat them, you're totally wrong!
So Australia is where all the world's most venomous snakes are, yet death rate from snakes is extremely low, cause Aussies all know how to treat snake bites correctly. Correct treatment is pressure immobilisation. Pressure = Firm bandage about the same tightness as for a sprain, applied from the bottom of the bitten limb to the top, then mark on the bandage where the bite is & on arrival at hospital, they will cut that bit of bandage off & use the test kits to test the venom still on the skin to see what type of snake bit & what antvenom is needed. Do NOT wash the bite, as this removes the venom & prevents positive identification & correct treatment & venom on the skin won't get into the lymph from there anyway once the pressure immobilsation is done. Same with anything else in the bite, it's either deep inside the puncture wound already, inaccesible to surface disinfection, or it's not a problem of note when managing a venomous snake bite & every minute counts in getting that bandage on! Additionally, venom remains toxic dried or wet & on any surface if it can make it inside a human body, so you do not want to be doing anything that could bring you in contact with the venom! Snake handlers have been envenomated in handling their snake equipment with dried venom on it & getting it into cuts in their skin, despite no snakes being present at the time! Immobilisation - limb should be strapped to another limb or body if nessesary to ensure it stays totally still. If they will lie still & if possible, put the limb low instead. Person should only be moved lying down on a stretcher. Emergency number should be called & medical aid to go to the person if a stretcher is not available to move them person without any muscle movement. Do NOT walk the person to medical aid! If pressure & immobilisation is used immediately & are maintained, time to death will not be under 24 hours & there is a significant chance of survival even without anti-venom or other medical care if that treatment is maintained for long enough for the body to be able to manage the venom as it very slowely seeps from the limb into the core of the body. 1-2 snake bite deaths a year in Australia from 3000 bites, NO DEATHS when Pressure immobilisation is used in a timely manner - ever!
@@mehere8038 I gotta admitt, it seems you are right. Venom being spread mainly via lymphatic system makes more sense then it being transposted with blood. I feel kinda stupid for not thinking about it, it seems quite obvious. What's even worse, I am fairly sure that dude, with whom I had BLS course, told us to hold limb aboive the heart... perhaps he slipped his tongue, or maybe I misunderstood. Anyway, much thanks for correcting me.
@UCwLFD_3JpMAFut8Aa0hfZng One good reason to take a picture is that in most countries the majority of snakes are not venomous. You can't always tell from the bite if it came from a venomous snake. And many harmless snakes resemble venomous ones. A picture might save you having to undergo unnecessary and potentially dangerous treatment. Although tourniquets should not be used for venomous snake bites, a bite to a limb should get a compression wrap as soon as possible, starting from well below the bite and extending above the bite. Resting is probably the best advice you gave.
A second and even a third part would definitely be welcome, Dr. Rangan is just _awesome_ ! Very knowledgeable, clear, passionate, humble, one of your best guests of all time, and there have been plenty of great ones, to be sure.
The most unrealistic part of Casino Royale isn't the poisoning, but rather that he was still able to James Bond the ladies after his James Balls got busted repeatedly.
Well what he has said about Walt telling Lydia it opens up a whole new idea for a movie or series based on the premise of her getting treatment and recovering.
Love how he never said "this is impossible" "this could never happen" but always said "in most circumstances" or "usually". They guy has a future in politics :D
The standard answer for basically anything in science (especially life sciences) is "it depends" so yeah, "in most circumstances" and "usually" are words that I'd expect a scientist to say
@@julianakarasawa315 Especially with medicine. there is a remarkable amount of variation between humans, and sometimes you get people that aren't so much statistical outliers as needing to be on their own graph. At 33 I'm hypermetabolic to the point that my BASE metabolic rate is around 5000 calories just working a desk job, with my current job where I'm regularly hitting 14K steps a day plus physically intense hobbies like blacksmithing I need around 7000 calories to maintain weight. I also can't take medications like Advil and Tylenol as they trigger rebound migraines, and because my metabolism is so screwed up every doctor I deal with starts me out with the "max" recommended dose of a medication and then gradually steps it up past that. At one point I was going through a 90-day supply of topiramate in two months and was having to split pills in half to get the dose I needed.
When you talk to real experts, their answers are often nuanced and shaded, because they understand that reality is complex. It's the amateurs who are extremely confident.
I would say Friends got it accurate - in that they were playing on the urban legend about it instead of the science of it. :) But had no idea about the fresh water making it worse...have to try to remember that if ever in that situation!
The snake bite part got me. People have got to stop sucking venom. It doesn't work. But him saying there's not much first aid on the situation. There's a few things, bandaging the limb, stable body to lower blood pressure, apply splint, time of bite. First aid is actually quite important for snake bites.
Another Aussie in the comments lol always easy to pick the Aussies in these videos :) They always explain why Australia's snake bite death rates are so low besides having so many deadly snakes. I think Aussies are the only ones that actually know how to treat snake bites (gussing you're an Aussie from this anyway, I don't actually know)
Jellyfish stings are a B*TCH 🤣 i had one wrap around my entire arm once. It was a weird feeling, at first it just felt warm and numbing, then the shock and burning sensation came in kicking high gear. Luckily the lifeguard was prepared, and applied a lot of vinegar, or it smelled like vinegar. At the end, the smell of liquid ended being worse than the sting itself lol but it worked well, scarring went away after a few weeks
This man is out-of-date about not being able to do much about snake bites before getting to hospital. The standard procedure is now to bid the limb tightly from the bite up to the shoulder or hip, but not cut off blood, in order to slow the spread of venom through both the lymphatic and blood system.
Love how you punish bad advice in the score. I live in Australia, snakes, jellyfish and ticks are around but rare to be bitten by yet education is out there on what to do.
I feel like “don’t cut into your snake bite wound” is something that people should already know, yet I would not be surprised at the possibility that someone has done it lol
@@Rystefn My parents have a first aid manual from the 60s with INSANE amounts of bad advice, like cutting into snake bites, sucking the poison out, and placing a tourniquet; feeding someone who ingested poison milk and charcoal (like regular charcoal, not activated charcoal, they advise to burn bread if you're in a pinch) or induce vomiting...
@@joeyteter9383 it's an only in America thing :) Australia's NEVER used that, current treatment in Australia's been in widespread use & education for 100 years
@@julianakarasawa315 activated charcoal works better, but charcoal IS better than nothing Correct treatment nowadays is to call for posions info, but they absolutely could still advise to give charcoal if it's available & medical aid it not & milk is used for corrosive burning poisons, because it neutralises them. That's why milk is used for acid reflux, it neutralises acid Inducing vomiting is now out, cause syrup of ipecac is unreliable in time it takes to work & other methods don't really work & the body naturally vomits with poisons where vomitting's recomended anyway, so no need to try to induce it. charcoal, milk etc are still recomended by poisons lines though & their advice should be followed
I'm rather surprised to hear him dismiss the concept of immunity right after describing tolerance.. those two concepts can overlap. For example, a person who has been dependent on opioids for years would definitely be more likely to survive a scenario in which a drug like fentanyl is weaponized, compared to a person who was never been exposed to opioids. and it's not a hypothetical, there have been cases of opioids being used to poison people to the extent of respiratory depression and death
What you're describing is still opioid tolerance - immunity is, as the name suggests, more of an immunological term. However, what wasn't mentioned is that you can theoretically gain an "immunity" to snake venoms as most of these are peptide or protein based. Whilst nowhere near practical, you could "vaccinate" with antibodies ahead of time in case of an envenomation.
@@Lihiro Yeah that's fair. I work in pharmacology myself and I frequently hear the term immunity being used in the manner I described, but I can understand that from the perspective of an immunologist (who should probably have the final say on this matter, given the prefix of their field) that makes no sense. However, in this video, the scene depicted when this topic is discussed, is one in which the character intentionally builds up tolerance to a substance to shield themselves from the effects. And that is how the general public will often use the term 'immune'. So, considering that the audience of this video is the general public, I guess the interviewee could've seized the opportunity to explain the difference between the layterminology and the lingo actually used by biochemists.
@@Lihiro When I was a kid in the 1960s I was going to be a herpetologist. Probably the most famous herpetologist alive back then was Ross Allen, who ran the Reptile Institute in Florida. He was bitten by so many pit vipers that he developed very high tolerance, and was essentially immune. Other herpetologists have also become as good as immune, some by injecting increasing doses of venom over time.
He could have explained the part about tolerance better and what an antivenom is. BTW, I'm a Chemist and not a dedicated toxicologist, but here we go: Tolerance: the human body does recognize a vast number of deviations from the equilibrium and does everything to restore it. It does mean that the human body can become better at decomposing and excreting a poison! Similarly, the body can adapt to being out of balance. Alcohol is the best-studied example. Some people can still walk with 2 promille alcohol in their blood whereas others would fall over and die! If I'm not mistaken, you can become tolerant to some degree to lead and arsenic poisoning, BUT and that's a fat BUT, you trade the ability to survive an acute intoxication with being chronically poisoned! Some substances will stay in the human body for nearly all your life and thus, there's no safe dose, as over time even minuscule amounts can have disastrous consequences. Similarly, there's no safe concentration for a carcinogen... Lastly, I did hear that you can become actually immune against snake venoms and possibly even the really dangerous toxins such as botulinus toxin and ricin. The reason is that they are based on proteins that are so big that they can trigger a response of the immune system, which in turn means that they can be blocked by antibodies and disposed of before they cause damage. Antivenom: There are two distinct ways you could treat poisoning by injecting an antivenom. The first one was already hinted at in the last paragraph. If you had antibodies that you could inject (and they don't cause an allergic reaction), then you could combat the toxin. The other and more difficult way of administering help is using another poison that does the opposite to your body, such as after you ate something that lowers your heart rate, you take medicaments to rise the heart rate. This does not work with every poison as some will irreversibly damage their target so that all help will be too late. However, if it works, you have to go through several hours of checking the body function and administering more of the medicament until the body is able to repair the damage or excrete the poison. This requires trained professionals and a lab environment and can not be done in the field (except for first aid). The most famous example would be nerve agents based on organo phosphoric acid esters. PS: I'm really annoyed at how even actual news depicts prussic acid. They still sell fairy tales of the cold war that have no basis on chemistry or toxicology.
I really love how there's the expert here explaining how things should work...and there are still opinionated folk deciding to tell him how he's wrong. Lmao
@@fish5671 when someone who knows nothing about something think they know more than the person that knows more than they do about something, there's the issue. Then again, thats everyone circa 2022.
”making somebody vomit after ingesting a poison is not well supported scientifically or a practice still done” Me, a veterinarian that has seen numbers of animals saved by induced emesis within a few hours of ingesting poisonous compounds and been thaught to consider it as a really common treatment : 🤔🤨… Mr, respectfully, thats not actually true, at least not in veterinary medicine…
I think it matters what amount of poisonous stuff you ingested. If you drank 2 drops of poison, I don't think washing your stomach would do much. But if you drank bleach, it might have some effect.
I always understood that it depended on the poison - you don’t vomit bleach or other caustics because you don’t want it to travel through your esophagus twice. ??
The theory behind the change in vomiting in human patients is that syrup of ipecac is unreliable in time it takes to work, so person can be unconscious before it does & other methods are not considered reliable & people tend to induce injuries in their panicked state, so now it's just call the poisons info number & only induce vomiting if they say so & if they say to, follow their advice as to how to do it. Additionally the human body tends to naturally vomit the stuff it should & certainly nothing should be done to try to stop that Re bleach, correct treatment is to call the poisons info line & follow their advice, but that will be to give milk to dilute the caustic element in it & not attempt to induce vomitting, as they won't have much in their stomach anyway, cause it started burning them as soon as they started swallowing it, so they wouldn't have had the ability to get a lot into their body, the key injury is the damage to the throat & you do NOT want to be sticking fingers down a damaged, bleeding throat to try to induce vomitting for something that's not even in their stomach, but just their throat
I love these videos but I've always wondered how they get their experts. Did Dr Rangan just get a phone call one day from someone saying. "Hi, you don't know me but we make RU-vid videos about the realism in movies and we need a poison expert next"?
I don't think it went that different. A researcher in that area with free time probably wouldn't refuse the idea of nerd out about it even more if they paid him well to show up 😆
He was very pleasant and informative, I liked how clear he was with his explanations. But c'mon Insider, there were scenes there that were venom and not poison, it's basic stuff. Just edit the title.
the irukanji jellyfish is unique in that its pretty much invisible, in fact to catch one a professor had to let himself get stung. but they are one of the nastiest stings around. add tachocardia, hypertension and a sense of impending doom to the list of symptoms.
11:40 Digitals would most definitely not cause ventricular tachycardia. In fact it would be the opposite, bradycardia and heart block slowing the heart rate possibly to the point of arrest.
Have to disagree with you on 2 points 1) there is more first aid than just get to care for a snake bite, it’s keep pt immobile and apply compression bandage to slow the absorption and then get pt to hospital 2) you are right that you don’t urinate on a jellyfish sting but you do use vinegar for Irukandji and box jellyfish. Hot salt water is for blue bottles and ice for minor jellyfish
For Hunger Games I noticed that they didn't mention/consider how many other creatures/toxins were artificially augmented for the hunger games. ex. those deadly wasps??? Stands to reason that Snow who's so fond of poisons would definitely augment the poison and deadliness of the berries in the games.
They've done this in two movies I can remember - using one poison to slow heartbeat and another to lower body temperature (to evade thermal scans) and another film where one poison was used to keep the user unconscious and another to reduce breathing to allow for a safe "buried alive" period. Two poisons could effectively bring you 'up' and then down, but you'd still be sick from the effects of both. For example there are known poisons that drastically reduce heart rate or increase, so that could be used in movie magic to 'save' someone. The only medical equivalents that spring to mind are gargling with iodine when swimming in potentially toxic water, or injecting someone with adrenaline to save their life during a medical event - since too much adrenaline can absolutely kill someone
I think the script writers chose well with ricin, in breaking bad. It's one of relatively few really dangerous toxins that can be available to all walks of life, but was little known in the wider community before that episode aired. It's believable from a scientific perspective. Not many of the others were really. Out of curiosity, if anyone knows, I'm unaffected by the application of lidocaine and lignocaine as a local anaesthetic, it just doesn't work on me to numb an area. Would it be effective in a case of VT if used intravenously, or would it be just as ineffective as it is on my skin? I know it affects sodium channels, and therefore nervous response, but does it use a novel method intravenously, as opposed to the method of action with direct application to the dermis? The most likely reason for my lack of response to local anaesthetics is that I have a genetic abnormality in my collagen production, which also seems to affect any medication that needs to cross the blood brain barrier. It's as if the additional elasticity of my skin makes it less permeable, and thus less crosses the threshold, and I require considerably higher doses for medication to take effect.
Yeah, that part never made sense to me. How long would they have to train to not bite accidentally down on that tooth? Can they only eat applesauce and oatmeal so they don't actually have to chew which could accidentally break the poison tooth? What if they're a grinder someone who grinds their teeth at night?
He said that there was nothing you can do to first aid a snake bite. If you tie up the limb that got bit won't that help it prevent to circulate the venom slower?
