Sea snail saliva may become new treatment for most severe pain

American Chemical Society ^ | July 28, 2010 | Unknown

[decimon]

By the seashore ping.

[brooklyn dave]

Stick some of that in my gin and tonic and surely I’ll be feeling no pain.

[linear]

Potent painkiller and escargo. Sounds like a good recipe for happy hour.

[JPG]

All well and good but the people usually in the most severe pain are in a terminal condition and the last thing that should be of concern is “addiction.”

[Deb]

If its ever discovered that Mastiff saliva is good for anything...I’m in!

[ClearCase_guy]

The magic of sea snails has been unknown to me. But the flesh of the fugu fish makes me tingly all over.

[sauropod]

home

[dforest]

Perfect for us whiteys on Obamamedicare.

Do you want the red pill or do you want snail spit?

[decimon]

If its ever discovered that Mastiff saliva is good for anything...I’m in!

It's good for warning you that mastiff breath is coming.

[Olog-hai]

Okay . . . now why did the story call it "saliva" when it's actually venom? Even snake venom is a form of saliva.

[NavyCanDo]

Next time my son skins his knee, instead of grabbing a can of Bactine spray, I'll just reach into our Reef Aquarium and pull out a Sea Snail, or better a Sea Slug and rub its slime all over the wound. I like it!

[halfright]

because Venom sounds so violent. We don’t want to upset the poor snails so we just call it snail spit.

/s/s/s/s

[decimon]

Next time my son skins his knee, instead of grabbing a can of Bactine spray, I'll just reach into our Reef Aquarium and pull out a Sea Snail, or better a Sea Slug and rub its slime all over the wound. I like it!

Could be the last time he skins his knee. Or the last time he lets you know he did.

[aruanan]

Conotoxin. We had some of that in our lab, along with bungarotoxin, epibatidine, and a few others.

[loungitude]

bungarotoxin

I don’t even want to know where that one comes from.

[NavyCanDo]

“Could be the last time he skins his knee. Or the last time he lets you know he did.”

My thinking as well....
Seriously, my wife and I both have scars on our arms from things we came in contact with when reaching into our tank. A few of those things have been known to send some aquariumist to the emergency ward.

[decimon]

bungarotoxin

I don’t even want to know where that one comes from.

Or how it's administered.

[Minn]

If only Squidward had known this when Gary slimed him.

[doesnt suffer fools gladly]

All well and good but the people usually in the most severe pain are in a terminal condition and the last thing that should be of concern is “addiction.”

Not true. I know most terminal patients are in pain, but not all. Both of my parents died from cancer, but the morphine kept their pain under control. I have spinal pain, and other pain, that without pain meds, would be totally unbearable. It’s not addiction, but dependence. I depend on pain medication the same way my husband depends on his diabetes and high blood pressure medication.