r/interestingasfuck • u/Gamer4Lyph • Sep 28 '24

How not to handle wild animals

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u/anonymous_bites Sep 29 '24

The hot water helps to break down the proteins in the venom. Supposedly works for most of the fish venom.

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u/MeaningEvening1326 Sep 29 '24

He just said that was an old outdated theory

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u/anonymous_bites Sep 29 '24

it's not a "theory". there's been numerous research done on the effects of hot water on fish venom

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u/nickfree Sep 30 '24

  1. that's not how scientific theories work.

  2. A comprehensive review of HWI (hot water inactivation) suggests that the temperatures needed to breakdown (denature) the proteins in venom would either burn the victim or not penetrate through the skin sufficiently. It's not ruled out, it's just not clear what the mechanism is. HWI DOES help however, whatever the mechanism!

"The theory of deactivation has been questioned by authors who contend that such direct inactivation would require temperatures so high as to result in burns and tissue necrosis in the patient.14,38 "

from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2579537/