What Happens to Your Body When a Snake Bites You

uh oh you're having a bad day those two red dots on your ankle look really bad buddy looks like you've been bitten by a snake you have no idea if it was venomous or not so here's what might happen next if it wasn't venomous consider yourself lucky you're probably gonna be fine still any snakes fangs carry thousands of bacteria on them and when they penetrate the skin these little pests get into your blood to wreak havoc inside your body the most terrifying of them cause tetanus a severe condition that's incurable if you don't get medical help in advance or still you might be that unfortunate person to have an allergy to snake saliva like bees or peanuts oh yeah peanuts can be shady when enzymes in the saliva mix with your blood your body starts trying to get rid of them it doesn't realize it's basically fighting itself so the conflict quickly escalates and you begin feeling nauseous and weak eventually it becomes hard to breathe and you may even faint so even if you've been bitten by a non-venomous snake call for help pronto then there's a worse scenario the snake was indeed venomous every snake species has its own kind of venom that acts differently from others let's see ah it can affect either heart and nerves muscles or blood vessels it always starts with a sharp pain at the place of bite the snake opened its mouth wide punctured your flesh with its two upper face and injected its venom through the channels inside them the venom goes straight into your bloodstream and that's when the real black magic begins [Music] if the bite marks are clearly seen on the smooth skin and there's nothing else it might have been a crate if the bite starts swelling it was probably a cobra you start feeling dizzy hot and sweating right away but that's not venom yet it's you you're scared of seeing those bite marks and the hormones adrenaline and cortisol rush from your adrenal glands into your blood to make you blush and tremble your hearts beating faster now helping the venom spread more rapidly soon you'll start feeling stomach pain and cramps the toxic enzymes in the snake's venom are reacting with your blood getting to internal organs and muscles they're all close to each other so the toxic stuff hits them quickly and aggressively and when the venom has gone through your liver kidneys and heart which takes about 15 minutes it spreads to the nerve endings it's at this point you begin losing touch with reality literally at first your eyelids will become increasingly heavy eyelid muscles are some of the smallest in the body and have few nerves which makes them an easy target for venom then the toxins go on and on through your circulation filling your smaller blood vessels like a sponge and as they do nerves stop functioning from your head down because they're controlled by the brain it's just getting worse isn't it from your eyes the numbness spreads across your face your lips and cheeks become tight making you look as if you're annoyed with something within an hour or two you will lose the ability to speak and see the nerves in your face will have turned off completely but the effects of the bite will go further down short-circuiting your tongue lower jaw neck diaphragm oh boy when this happens unfortunately you're almost beyond rescue if the diaphragm stops responding your lungs can't function properly and you stop breathing and we really shouldn't do that if you're lucky enough though the bite could be light and then the numbness will not affect your vital systems it'll still spread from the head down your whole body but won't be able to get deep inside going through your top layers so to say you might lose feelings in your fingers and toes your skin and even be unable to move properly but if you can see and breathe the symptoms might go away by themselves in a few days don't bet on that though and call the ambulance as soon as you realize something's wrong finally all this may be completely irrelevant to you because what you feel is not numbness it's heartache both cobras and elapids have a type of venom that goes straight for your heart when it gets there and that's pretty soon it might make the main muscle of your body beat faster or slower as well as causing irregular beating this is a huge strain on your heart you know what to do other muscles can also be affected especially by sea snake venom it has special toxins that target muscles and as your eyes get heavy you might also feel cramps first in your stomach and then rapidly spreading to your arms legs and chest you will have trouble moving because your muscles will grow stiff and touching anything will become an ordeal because of the tenderness in the end the venom may make you lie in bed and wait until it goes away if it goes away boy let's just pile on shall we now if you look at the bite mark and see it's swelling and there's blood from the two punctures it means you've been bitten by a viper this venom acts differently and is even more terrifying oh gee its molecules are larger and can't spread so quickly in the bloodstream that's why they head for your lymph nodes and act from there as a result the venom is slow and painful at first you will only feel scared and dizzy because of that then after 15 minutes the venom will start spreading through your body beginning from where the viper bits you the thick and viscous substance will mess with your blood making it clot and causing bruises the higher it goes the more of your body it affects but this progress is slow compared to the effects of cobra and elapid bites if you don't get medical help you will notice the swelling growing every hour as the venom works its way through your lymph it will make it go against you causing even more swelling lymph is your body's primary defensive barrier it's a fluid that contains white blood cells which fight diseases venom gets into their ranks and causes disarray white blood cells attack it to no avail and it spreads ever further and when the vile thing reaches lymph nodes they swell desperately trying to get rid of the intruder production of lymph increases and the bitten part of your body gets more swollen by the hour depending on the potency and amount of venom your limb will grow twice in size by day two or three from that bite since we're talking about your ankle it's your whole leg that will get afflicted foot to hip you won't be able to walk of course and sitting will also be off limits the only hope at this stage is to lie in bed and try not to move even this late there's still a chance your body will cure itself but if there's any possibility to get you to the hospital what do you think yeah you should still do it what the heck when bitten by a snake you might panic and do it all wrong so increase your chances of survival by calming yourself down fear will make your heart beat faster pumping blood through your body and with that the venom it still needs time to reach your circulation so stay calm and lie down keeping the bitten limb below your heart gravity will do the job then don't ever try to suck the venom out of the wound it spreads too rapidly for you to help yourself you won't even get a drop of it out this way but only increase your heart rate again by straining put away that knife and never try to cut the bite to let out the venom like i said it's already in your blood and you can make matters worse by cutting if you didn't have infection inside the wound you might get it from that knife applying cold won't help either cold restricts normal blood flow making venom stay where it is and doing more damage to a single place venom might also make tissues more vulnerable to frostbite you could end up losing a limp same goes for tight bandages and tourniquets when blood flows freely it lets the venom spread of course but also dilutes it making the substance less potent the bite might not be as dangerous as you think but by applying a tight bandage you can triple its power hey look you made it you're in the good place wait a minute uh-oh never mind

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 1,133,648

Rating: 4.8662863 out of 5

Keywords: bright side, brightside, snakes, venomous snakes, snake bite, poisonous snakes, non-venomous snakes, sucking the venom, venomous animals, poisonous animals, first aid, survival tips, what to do if a snake bites you, allergy to snake saliva, what happens when snake bites you, cobra bite, viper bite, sea snake bite, how snake venom works, how snake venom affects your blood, how snake venom affects the body, dangerous animals, dangerous snakes, if you get bitten by a snake

Id: qJzcv690pa8

Length: 8min 45sec (525 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 02 2020