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The Venom Cure
Introduction

NATURE’s The Venom Cure reveals poisonous creatures that may one day save your life.

You know those beautiful little tropical frogs with electric blue or orange markings? A single touch of their skin could kill you.

Have you ever seen an elegant cone snail shell lying on the beach? Well, beware! It hides a poison harpoon that is deadly.

And watch out! Those snakes and lizards could be armed with venom and toxic saliva.

Amazingly, they may also hold cures to many human diseases. Scientists have discovered that natural poisons, toxins, and venoms contain chemicals that can be used to create an array of drugs for treating everything from chronic pain to cancer. For instance, the cone shell’s venom, packed with nerve-debilitating conotoxins, provides the basis for a new painkiller. Contortrostatin, a component found in copperhead venom, is being used to attack breast cancer cells and to prevent cancer from spreading.

Call it the poison paradox — or The Venom Cure.

To order a copy of The Venom Cure, please visit the NATURE Shop.

Online content for The Venom Cure was originally posted April 2005.

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Comments

11 comments

#1

11/29/2008 :: 12:13:59 AM
charley Says:

i was so sorry for that man and that wouman i am sorry for that man so much when he got bite by that snake.

#2

12/01/2008 :: 12:29:10 AM
Bruce Says:

I have a friend with brain cancer. He needs the venom cure if possible.

#3

12/01/2008 :: 01:23:58 AM
serena Says:

This show really grabed my attention, because my father is really sick too. He has cancer in his brain in two different areas and I was wondering if there is more information on this…so I can show him….

#4

12/06/2008 :: 08:55:09 PM
noob Says:

ahahahah losers

#5

12/09/2008 :: 12:27:44 PM
Sara Says:

I hope people start respecting animals now. It’s bull that you have to get something from them first though. Stop kill innocent snakes, just leave them be.

#6

12/09/2008 :: 08:04:54 PM
Anthony Says:

Hopefully this is just the first step for letting people truly apprectiate every being on the planet. Instead of hearing horror stories of how spiders and snakes are killing people, maybe we can hear some stories of how they are saving lives instead.\

#7

01/06/2009 :: 10:47:57 AM
annie Says:

so much curious of the sea snakes coz we captured 1 at samal island,philippines. we called it stripes as our pet but when my mother transferred it to another container she was bitten by the sea snake. what cure could be applied to prevent severe sickness? please answer back to my address
tnx very much!

#8

01/21/2009 :: 10:04:13 PM
felicity Says:

it truly upsets me that most “modernized” nations need to find instrumental value in other living creatures before seeing them as worth seeing. This anthropocentric worldview MUST change, and soon. We need to begin valuing animals for their INTRINSIC value, not what they can do to help us.
Very good film, at any rate.
<3
Fe

#9

01/28/2009 :: 11:27:22 AM
shanah rachel john Says:

well annie….thats soo sad that ur mom was bitten by a sea snake…i suggest that you ought to get ur mum treated as soon as possible because sea snakes are one of the deadliest snakes in our planet.infact more deadlier than the land one’s…if u know the species of the snake ,then u got to get mum treated with a monovalent antinenom or if you are not specific or not sure about the kind that bit ur mum then get her treated with a polyvalent antivenom….that will do annie…dont panic…ur mum will be fine….

#10

01/28/2009 :: 11:30:13 AM
shanah rachel john Says:

well annie….thats soo sad that ur mom was bitten by a sea snake…i suggest that you ought to get your mum treated as soon as possible because sea snakes are one of the deadliest snakes in our planet.infact more deadlier than the land one’s…if u know the species of the snake ,then u got to get mum treated with a monovalent antivenom or if you are not specific or not sure about the kind that bit ur mum then get her treated with a polyvalent antivenom….that will do annie…dont panic…ur mum will be fine….

#11

05/13/2009 :: 11:38:41 AM
Carlos Says:

What a challenge for sciences. There is so much out there we humans don’t know about. Our survival depends on the survival of all living creatures.

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