Over the years, which "antidotes" in movies and TV shows have fooled you?

This is the 4937th article of Da Yi Xiao Hu

The martial arts book "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber" is undoubtedly a classic that countless people miss. The release of the movie "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber: The Sacred Flame" directed by Wang Jing is undoubtedly worth revisiting for Jin Yong fans. The plot of the original book is a bit similar to other martial arts films: when the protagonist Zhang Wuji was still young, he was plotted against by the evil man Hebi Weng (one of the two Xuanming elders), and was injured by his Xuanming divine palm. The cold poison penetrated deep into his internal organs. He only relied on the internal strength of Zhang Sanfeng and the Wudang heroes to resist the invasion of the cold poison and postpone his death. Then he began to explore tirelessly in the world, hoping to find a special antidote, but the specific formula of this antidote happened to be only owned by another martial arts master, so one wonderful story after another was performed next... Jin Yong fans will definitely think that if he is lucky enough, he will finally get the antidote in his hands. With great joy, he took the medicine immediately, and the poison was eliminated. Not only did he recover, but his skills also returned to normal.

However, medical professionals are well aware that the idea of ​​"one drug cures all poisons" only exists in the beautiful imagination of the general public. We know that life is so fragile. There are thousands of highly toxic substances in nature that can kill people instantly, but in theory there is no special antidote. Why are most poisons fatal? This is because after they are absorbed by our body, they cause the denaturation of protein, one of the most important substances in our body.

Do you know what protein denaturation is? For example, cooking a piece of raw meat into cooked meat is a form of protein denaturation. On the other hand, detoxification is to completely reverse this process. But has anyone heard of anyone turning a piece of cooked meat into a piece of raw meat? It should be said that from a scientific point of view, protein denaturation is an irreversible process that is basically impossible to achieve.

So you understand, poisoning and detoxification are not as easy as "a key fits a lock". On the contrary, it is more appropriate to use a metaphor like "once the iron lock is closed, the key is lost and the keyhole is blocked". In our lives, the so-called panacea is just a myth made up by novelists. We must not be fooled.

Fund projects: 2023 Jing'an District Science Popularization Project (KP2023055); 2023 Jing'an District Health Science Popularization Leading Project; Shanghai Health Science Popularization Youth Talent Capacity Improvement Project (JKKPYC-2023-B14); 2024 Shanghai Science and Technology Festival Activities

Author: Shanghai Jing'an District Central Hospital

Dr. Xia Lemin