He Poisoned Himself for 60 Years, Lived to Be 100

Over the course of his 100-year life, Bill Haast was bitten by venomous snakes over 173 times… And he wasn’t the only person who conditioned himself to be poisoned over and over again to gain immunity to poison. So how can someone survive so many snake bites? How to gain immunity to poison? Let’s get into it!

Sources:

[Bill Haast]

[Mithridatism - Mithridates VI, the King Who Poisoned Himself]

[How Your Liver Removes Toxins]

[Other Sources]

[Brew’s intro song]
Manhattan Twist by Avocado Junkie

[Music Licensing]
Code: JDCZWI2QNFGVMQS6, 2RFDVSKVR9OD5WEY, TARMXYFJ65FPJAWB, BDFIOAINCMCW1GBW, NGAFZMB7IY6A4PEC, 9BSZ5TXFEQNIXXYX, SFGEPWGK3VJ8QL9A, G6DYMA2FWPSPWV5P, XZUZJO5QO5CJEUKD

[Brew]

Thanks to Wondrium for sponsoring this episode!

[DJliohazord]

Brew: “Florida is…fine” *haunting flashbacks of gators*

Me a Florida man: “awww look at the little swamp kitties”

[shiryo]

Ah, he’s a Florida man. Now it all makes sense.

[TheRealGuywithoutaMustache]

So, basically what this story is saying is, Bill Haast is simply just built different.

[toganium]

This guy collected snake bites like I collected Pokémon cards when I was 8.

[MrPaintedwing]

"It was that point he realized that Florida was his destiny"--- Sounds like a trailer for Florida Man: The origin story.

[rachelshaver]

As someone who works with reptiles (including deadly venomous snakes) for a living I have seen this case brought up a number of times. Bill Haast is not the only individual that practiced self-envenomation to gain a resistance to the effects of the toxins in venom. However, there a number of cases in which the individual died while practicing this dangerous technique. Different species of snakes have their own cocktails of different types of toxins, including neurotoxins, cytotoxins, and hemotoxins. This is why there are multiple different types of antivenin. In my experience I have seen repeated envenomation actually increase the sensitivity to venom as well. This is a topic that definitely needs more research and can possibly save lives in the future.

[Bigfoot_With_Internet_Access]

We bigfoots are naturally less susceptible to most snake venoms

[Salty_Web]

Almost as cool as the guy who shot himself in the foot multiple times to build resistance and to become bulletproof, I heard he lived to 1, 000

[cheeriosaregoodme]

Only person I'm willing to listen to talk about snakes.

[clark]

Seeing him share his blood with a snake bite victim had major "I will lend you some of my power." Vibes and it was awesome.

[LeoInterVir]

Fun facts of history:
After the closing of the serpentarium, Haast donated his giant Cobra model, seen in pictures in this video.
He donated it to a local high school to be put aside their football field.
South Miami Senior High, home of the Cobras, was that school.
Ironically a Cobra was their mascot since the school opened in 1971.
The Cobra model sits atop the school to this day, facing the major road South of it.

Florida school meets Florida man... lol

[cd]

I used to be deathly allergic to ant bites until one day I had a severe reaction and was left barely conscious and near death when I received aid and I guess that was enough to jumpstart my immune system to make the proper antibodies.

[Gilhelmi]

Haast was not born a Florida man,
Haast CHOSE to become a Florida man.

There is something beautiful about that, and terrifying.

[EmDashYT]

When your dnd character has poison immunity.

[belagu]

We have a snake guy in our country which is "immune to snake poison" that died when a king cobra bit him he just went to sleep instead of going to the hospital. The irony

[TitoTitoTitoTito]

This guy was a great friend of my grandpa! He mentored my grandpa in milking snakes. Really awesome guy

[kariduanimations]

Imagine being bitten by a danger noodle and your first thought is “imma go sack it”

[chibispartanch.]

Florida Man injects venom into his veins and becomes Snake Man

I could totally see this as a Floridian news article

[mikaaa]

As an Australian, he's got my respect