By FMT’s Lifestyle Desk
Venomous animals tend to get a bad rap (but Donald Trump deserves his). Sure, this could be partly deserved, since their toxins can make you a gonner in a matter of minutes. But the same qualities that make venom dangerous can also make it a powerful resource – especially in medicine. In other words, the same animals you think will kill you may also save your life one day (just hope it’s not TODAY).
Snakes
Venom from Malayan pit vipers can also serve as a life-saving coagulant. Snake venom is probably the most understood of all animal toxins and is used to treat heart attacks, blood disorders, high blood pressure, minor heart attacks, blood clots, brain injuries and more. Medical snake venom use can be traced back thousands of years to when Indian and Chinese cultures used cobra venom. Then in the 1960s, Hugh Alistair Reid made a breakthrough. He was a doctor in Malaya when he discovered that the venom from Malayan pit vipers could help with blood clotting. This eureka moment led to many more discoveries by others.
Scorpions
Scorpion venom may aid the fight against cancer. Researchers are currently studying how venom from several different animals could help with the treatment and cure of cancer, and scorpion venom has emerged as being a key component of this work. The toxins are believed to help shrink tumors and slow their growth. While scientists test the toxic effects of the venom on cancer cells, there’s hope for what they might learn next.
Spiders
Despite its ominous name and appearance, the black widow’s venom has proven beneficial to medical science. It’s hard to convince arachnophobes to (figuratively) embrace these eight-legged crawlers, but they deserve some props. Spider venom has been proven to fight pain, cancer, muscular dystrophy and other diseases. The black widow has some of the most beneficial venom, but other spiders with beneficial venom include the brown recluse, parson spider and the sac spider. Even if you can’t learn to love spiders, you can at least appreciate them from a distance.
Bees
Provided you’re not allergic to it, it’s possible to build an immunity to bee sting venom. Most people don’t realize that a bee sting is a form of venom, but it is. No one likes to get stung by a bee, but evidence shows that it can help you in the long run, because it can build up a natural immunity to future stings. (This isn’t the case for those who are allergic to bee stings; for them, the stings can be deadly.) Bee venom therapy (BVT) is also catching on in popularity and being used to treat a variety of diseases and ailments, including arthritis, Lyme disease, eczema, asthma, tumours and more.
Snails
The cone snail has been responsible for several human deaths. You might not think of snails as being venomous – and don’t worry, most aren’t – but cone snails are some of the most toxic animals in the world. Cone snails have a small range in the reefs of the Indo-Pacific area. Anyone who gets stung by one of them will die in minutes. The venom of this 4- to 6-inch creature is said to be hundreds of times more powerful than morphine. Scientists are still trying to figure out the best ways to harness it.
* First published in www.petfinder.my