What's the story on the "toxic lady"? (1996) | Hacker News Reader

What's the story on the "toxic lady"? (1996)

straightdope.com

110 pointsfidotron24 comments

DMSO is a common ingredient in pain medication from Mexico. I have seen it in salves, among other things. The DMSO4 theory is likely correct.

You can also get DMSO from various sources in the US. Usually from "Health Food" or "Supplement" stores. You can just buy it off Amazon now. It's pretty good (water diluted) for relief of nerve damage from a burn or peripheral neuropathy. caveat: I'm not a doctor, but I've both used it and know others who have.

I prefer my skin impermeable, but there are worse things to self-prescribe.

What do you mean? It makes skin permeable?

DMSO is terrifying, dude, it makes skin so permeable as I understand that supposedly even live bacteria outside of the skin can be transferred inside the skin.

It's something I'm shocked seeing people casually use, similar to piperine.

Like, with piperine, you're maximizing "absorption" by directly blocking/inhibiting the p glycoprotein pumps that pump toxic substances back into your intestine, etc. Wtf kind of short sighted thinking is that! Why is that remotely considered reasonable long term. It makes things more "absorbed" across the board.

Neither is a good tool to play with, usually there is a decent, much much safer "hard way" for most of these methods in my experience, at least. :3 :)

DSMO is a solvent, a byproduct of wood processing. It can assist some molecules in passing through skin.

Please note, it does not grab bacteria and pull it through skin, that’s FUDD. They are far, far too big for that. It is in fact studied as an adjuvant for antibacterial agents, as it can help antibacterial compounds penetrate bacterial biofilms.

There is evidence that alone it may assist some viral activity, likely by effecting something in regards to RNA. Conversely, it may help the activity of antiviral agents by helping them penetrate deeper, preventing the strategies viruses use to hide from being as effective.

I personally have no reservations to its use on skin, so long as the area is washed. Basically don’t work on your car and then apply it to your oily hands.

DMSO goes right through skin and will carry other compounds with it. It's used in some drug delivery systems to turn an injected drug into a topical one.

I first learned about it from the Shadowrun tabletop RPG. In the game, cyberpunk operatives sometimes mix DMSO with incapacitating or lethal poisons to load into military-grade squirt guns. I'm skeptical about that working IRL, but it's pretty funny.

Entire podcast episode on this here: https://sqpn.com/2021/05/the-medical-mystery-of-the-toxic-wo...

Cecil Adams is an internet treasure. Before Reddit, his site was the main GOTO for interesting in depth answers to inane questions.

One of my favourites is the cause of the "piss shiver" (the shiver you sometimes get when peeing):

https://www.straightdope.com/21342202/what-causes-piss-shive...

My reaction to “internet treasure” was that I was reading SD in the Austin Chronicle before there was an Internet as we know it. I checked my recollection and found:

Cecil Adams is the pseudonymous author of The Straight Dope, a popular question and answer column published in The Chicago Reader from 2 February 1973 to 2018. The true identity of Adams, whether a single individual or a group of authors, has remained secret. The Chicago Reader's 1986 trademark filing for the name "Cecil Adams" states that "Cecil Adams does not identify any particular individual but was devised as a fanciful name."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Adams

I'm going with the meth lab theory. Father in law (passed away recently) had a doctor "friend" that sold product. They had stories of routinely breaking into university labs to cook. Can't imagine in those years other people didn't do the same at hospitals.

A nurse in Oregon was stealing Fentanyl IV drips, replacing them with tap water. Killed ten people.

https://www.columbian.com/news/2024/jan/03/up-to-10-people-d...

Huh. My first question is whether it was the tap water that killed them? Fentanyl is pain medication right. You'd think people would notice something was up before they _die_...

EDIT: nvm, says infections.

Yeah, that's the problem with tap water in particular, it's not sterile unless treated. Also, in an IV (or an enema) you're running the risk of hyponaetremia, hence why 0.9% saline solution is the default hydration IV fluid unless you have a condition (usually kidney related) that requires a lower concentration.

More casualties of the war on drugs. Anyone who takes a schedule ii medication has the potential for botched care due to some diversion scheme.

Aside from the Straight Dope column itself, their forum is also typically pretty good: https://boards.straightdope.com/

It's the only place aside from HN where I've found reasonably interesting, intelligent, and civil discussion.

There are different subforums, ranging from factual questions (which tend to have WAY higher quality discussions than SEO spam sites), great debates, entertainment stuff, etc.

Can’t get over the sentence “Finally some folks with IQs in the triple digits got into the act”. I think the author’s point was “finally some [geniuses]”, but average IQ is 100 by definition. It’s even funnier though if their point indeed is “finally some [people of not-worse-than-average IQ]”.

This is classic Cecil Adams snark. Having read a bunch of his pieces, I am totally certain he meant “finally, some people who weren’t idiots.”

As someone who has read none of his pieces (that I remember?), that was my read as well.

What’s the opposite of the “room-temperature” insult? Maybe “Death Valley temperature” would be at least one standard deviation above average.

Death Valley would be a hilariously poor metaphor, since it's known for both very high and very low temperatures.

Yeah well no one talks about Death Valley as in “woah the diurnal variation” though.

That's always been my association, but maybe I'm just weird like that!

Thanks for you input.

Yeah, I think he was going for "Finally some people who weren't completely clueless" (i.e. willing to claim that hepatitis, pancreatitis, and bone rot could be caused by nausea/hysteria).

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