# Are there poisons with antidotes? Examples? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 14, 2009, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-poisons-with-antidotes-examples/510001 "2009-09-14T03:58:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![TGWATY](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@TGWATY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TGWATY)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-poisons-with-antidotes-examples/510001/1 "2009-09-14T03:58:03Z")
I was just watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Recall the old Hollywood standby of the hero who has taken a poison and must secure an antidote before he succumbs? Are there such things? Anyone know examples? ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-poisons-with-antidotes-examples/510001/2 "2009-09-14T04:04:11Z")
30 seconds on Google found me [Antidote - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antidote#List_of_antidotes) ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-poisons-with-antidotes-examples/510001/3 "2009-09-14T04:07:09Z")
Of the top of my head, one could imagine a 20-year-old Indy who must desperately procure some alcohol to counteract the antifreeze he’s just ingested. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-poisons-with-antidotes-examples/510001/4 "2009-09-14T04:13:41Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > 30 seconds on Google found me [Antidote - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antidote#List_of_antidotes) Don’t forget [Antivenins](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antivenin#Availability_of_antivenoms). People can be poisoned by animals too and thus can use an antidote, even if under a different word, to save them. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-poisons-with-antidotes-examples/510001/5 "2009-09-14T04:49:05Z")
As an example, nerve agents like VX or Sarin block the enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine, which causes your muscles to spasm and freeze up due to an overload of signals. The antidote atropine blocks the acetylcholine receptor, decreasing the spasms. So antidotes are not that rare or complex in all honesty. Considering how many receptors we know how to activate and block, there are easily dozens. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-poisons-with-antidotes-examples/510001/6 "2009-09-14T08:34:28Z")
Some of those are only vaguely antidotes. I would consider chelators to be a treatment for heavy metal poisoning, but you certainly aren’t likely to recover quickly. I don’t think amyl nitrite really cures cyanide poisoning. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-poisons-with-antidotes-examples/510001/7 "2009-09-14T09:21:19Z")
Yeah, there are antidotes, which are reasonable enough, and then there’s the whole “you have 24 hours to find the antidote or you die, but if you take it at 23 hours, fifty nine minutes, you’ll be fine,” which is slightly less realistic. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-poisons-with-antidotes-examples/510001/8 "2009-09-14T09:29:34Z")
I know there is one to benzodiazepines. They use a, get this, benzodiazepine antagonist. Of course, they only count as poison to certain people… ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-poisons-with-antidotes-examples/510001/9 "2009-09-14T10:59:08Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > As an example, nerve agents like VX or Sarin block the enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine, which causes your muscles to spasm and freeze up due to an overload of signals. > > The antidote atropine blocks the acetylcholine receptor, decreasing the spasms. Made famous by Nicolas Cage in _The Rock_. ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-poisons-with-antidotes-examples/510001/10 "2009-09-14T11:02:16Z")
I love this phrasing in the abov elinked Wiki article: > [@](#): > > Some other toxins have no known antidote. For example, the poison ricin, which is produced from the waste byproduct of castor oil manufacture, has no antidote, and as a result is often fatal if it enters the human body in sufficient quantities. How is that not true of every substance? _Water_ is often fatal if it enters the human body in sufficient quantities. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-poisons-with-antidotes-examples/510001/11 "2009-09-14T11:14:48Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Made famous by Nicolas Cage in _The Rock_. No really. "“you have 24 hours to find the antidote or you die, but if you take it at 23 hours, fifty nine minutes, you’ll be fine” was made famous by Nicolas Cage in _The Rock_. In the real world Atropine counteracts thee rigid paralysis and tetanic contractions of sarin by inducing a flaccid paralysis and non-responsive muscular system. A preferable but still debilitating state. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-poisons-with-antidotes-examples/510001/12 "2009-09-14T11:51:14Z")
> [@](#): > > "“you have 24 hours to find the antidote or you die, but if you take it at 23 hours, fifty nine minutes, you’ll be fine” was made famous by Nicolas Cage in The Rock. I’m sure you don’t mean that – the idea was already an old movie meme by then. Heck, **Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom** \ came out well before then! I have no idea where this first came from – all I can think of right now is the counter-example from **D.O.A.** \*. It’d be interesting to try and track this one down – I’m certain IJatToD is far from the first time I heard of it. \*although someone else in the Edmund O’Brien film IS saved by having his stomach pumped shortly after ingesting the poison – but that’s not the same as an almost-magical antidote. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-poisons-with-antidotes-examples/510001/13 "2009-09-14T13:01:39Z")
> [@Candyman74](#): > > I love this phrasing in the abov elinked Wiki article: > > How is that not true of every substance? _Water_ is often fatal if it enters the human body in sufficient quantities. I believe the 'too much water" antidote is nutrition/food/sodium. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-poisons-with-antidotes-examples/510001/14 "2009-09-14T14:50:01Z")
I can’t find the exact quote, but there was an episode of “A Bit of Fry and Laurie” in which Hugh Laurie said something about how eating too much of anything is bad for you, prompting Stephen Fry to launch into a brilliant rant about how “too much” is, by definition, the exact amount of anything that is bad for you. ---
**Author:** ![TGWATY](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5e925/32.png) [@TGWATY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TGWATY)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-poisons-with-antidotes-examples/510001/15 "2009-09-14T15:03:19Z")
thanks to all. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-poisons-with-antidotes-examples/510001/16 "2009-09-14T15:39:07Z")
> [@Blake](#): > > No really. "“you have 24 hours to find the antidote or you die, but if you take it at 23 hours, fifty nine minutes, you’ll be fine” was made famous by Nicolas Cage in _The Rock_. Hey, I could have brought up the _Crank_ movies. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![phouka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c5a1d2/32.png) [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-poisons-with-antidotes-examples/510001/17 "2009-09-15T06:07:38Z")
Naloxone is used to treat opioid overdose. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-poisons-with-antidotes-examples/510001/18 "2009-09-15T11:21:10Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > Of the top of my head, one could imagine a 20-year-old Indy who must desperately procure some alcohol to counteract the antifreeze he’s just ingested. Heh, I came in to mention that one. Yup, the antidote to antifreeze is IV ethanol. Often heard screamed loudly by my sister’s vet school friends, who found it hilarious. They always said that if their (on campus) bar ran out of liquor, they only had to go to the ER and tell everyone they’d swallowed antifreeze :p. ---
**Author:** ![rbroome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@rbroome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rbroome)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-poisons-with-antidotes-examples/510001/19 "2009-09-15T12:10:47Z")
> [@TGWATY](#): > > I was just watching Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Recall the old Hollywood standby of the hero who has taken a poison and must secure an antidote before he succumbs? > > Are there such things? Anyone know examples? As I remember the story, Israili agents poisoned a Hamas official in Amman Jordan but got caught and had to identify the poison allowing the Jordanians to administer an antidote in time. Here is a description of the event: > **[SAIC | Welcome to SAIC](https://www.saic.com/)** I have no knowledge of this site as to how reliable it is, but the facts generally align with what I remember.