Embracing the Venom

It is a strange twist to think that something that can kill you may also save you or alleviate your suffering. American states that have the death penalty by lethal injection are being asked to furnish those drugs for use in COVID-19 Coronavirus patients. In a similar way, venomous creatures can help us.

Cottonmouth snake image credit: Wikimedia Commons / Chinmay7 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

If you take a stroll and get yourself bitten by a timber rattler, you'll probably need some antivenom right quick. Where do medical personnel get antivenom to treat snake bites, scorpion stings, and other dangerous poisons? From the critters that cause the problem in the first place! This article on antivenom is very interesting.

Folks have used venoms for a variety of applications for millennia, and people nowadays are getting more interested in natural remedies and treatments in place of built-from-the-ground-up chemistry. Applications are being developed for cancer treatments, pain relief and more using things that could kill us when administered by a snake or something that is on the prod.

Remember, when God created the world, everything was very good. Creationists have some speculations on what changed when, and most agree that this happened at the Fall of Man back in Genesis. Some consider the possibility that our Creator "front-loaded" creatures with the provisions for predation and defense to be active after the Fall. Also, it has been noted that some venoms were not originally lethal, but had other functions, including digestion. Meanwhile, evolutionists are left without plausible explanations or models.

Researchers are looking into possible cures for pain, diabetes and cancer in natural toxins.

Folk medicine has used the bites and stings of nasty animals for centuries. Science is just catching up with that. For too long, pharmacy companies have thought they had to design healing molecules from scratch. But in a News Feature in PNAS, Amy McDermott writes, “Venom [is] back in vogue as a wellspring for drug candidates.” After telling a remarkable story of cancer treatment using scorpion venom at Children’s Hospital in Seattle, McDermott backs into her theme: there is a natural pharmacy store out in the world.

You can sink your teeth into the rest of the article by clicking on "Venom for Good". For further examples, take a look at "Painkillers from Poisons". The video below is also fascinating.



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