Crippled Man Walks Again After a Spider Bite

[slickwilly13]

http://news.aol.com/health/article/paraplegic-man-spider-bite/383836

[krakenslayer]

That's very interesting.

I was telling my girlfriend (who works in the healthcare industry) about this and she said that she read somewhere that some spiders have a venom which suppresses a protein in the nervous system called GABA. GABA is an inhibitor which prevents neurons from going haywire, so in a normal person the poison causes uncontrollable spasms and burns out the nervous system. In this guy's case though, if his nerves were indeed "asleep", perhaps by reducing the activity of the inhibitor the neuro-toxin actually gave his nerves a "jump start".

That's all speculation, of course, but it's certainly something that might be worth looking into in terms of medical research... :)

[MikePizzoff]

That's incredible. I hope scientists run with this and research the shit outta it.

[MoonSylver]

Was it a radioactive spider by any chance...?:D

http://www.cibercomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/bis_layer_spiderman.gif

[Marie]

[QUOTE=MoonSylver;181853]Was it a radioactive spider by any chance...?:D

We'll know if he crawls up a wall won't we?

M_

[Skippy911sc]

The typw of spider, Brown Recluse , is very common in my neck of the woods. They say they are extremely poisonous, but I have heard only a small percentage of the population have an allergic reaction to their bites, most just get a little irritated. They are small spiders with a violin shape on their back. Nasty little buggers, although I am scared of spiders...and yet snakes really don't bother me. I think this is a result of watching Kingdom of the Spiders as a child. :)