Medical Topic of the Day: I'm tired, we're talking about something weird cause I've been to the aquarium. Platypus venom. And, no, I am not making this up.
Off the Top of My Head: A platypus is nature's grab bag. It has a bill, hair, a beaver tail, and lays eggs in riverbanks. It also has venomous spikes in it's hind legs. I know that platypus venom is not well understood, I would imagine this is due to very few people getting close enough to one to be injured by it.
My Research Today: A platypus, despite what you may think is technically a mammal. And yes, it does produce venom which it can distribute through barbs in it's hind legs. Well, the male ones anyhow, females don't have the barbs. The platypus does not use this barb to hunt or catch food. It seems to be a purely defensive mechanism.
The venom is produced in their crural glands and is a wonderful cocktail of poisons that is exceptionally painful but usually not deadly. What is a crural gland? I do not know. This mixture of poisons consist of some 19 or more different peptides and much like the platypus itself appear to be a grab bag of random toxins. Anything from hemolytic agents to coagulation agents and everything in between. It is unknown exactly how the venom effects humans but it seems to be engineered to cause both extreme pain and partial paralysis.
The pain it causes lasts for weeks or sometimes even months. This type of long-lasting pain is called hyperalgesia. At least one of the peptides in the venom is thought to act directly on pain receptors and appears to make you resistant to morphine. I guess that is what you get for tackling God's Play-Doh creation.
Welp, that is all for tonight. I tried to include a pic of a platypus barb. We'll see how well it worked.
Quest to 180: Still no way to weigh myself. 12K steps today walking though airports with a 3 hour layover. No time for a proper workout so that will have to do.
The MAN: I dunno, I need to figure out a way to improve my confidence. I am still trying to figure out how to do that. Will keep trying. Maybe I can try faking confidence and see how well that works.
Don't forget to drop me a line and suggest a topic. dudaday@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment