How does snake's venom kill?
Have you ever wondered how a snake's bite kills so quickly. Well if you want to know that, the following video will give you the answer. Bascially, the snake's venom (A Russel's viper [1] in this case) clots the blood. The clotting of blood means that blood won't be able to properly circulate in your body, thus causing death!
Now the reason, a snake's venom must have the ability to quickly kill its victim is because of evolutionary reasons [2]. If it was not like that, the victim would be able to escape or even injure the snake in return. Because humans are of much bigger size than the typical snake's victims, it takes much longer for a snake's venom to kill a human. For example, the venom of Black mamba [3], which has the fastest-acting venom of any snake, and which injects up to 12 times the lethal dose to humans and may bite as many as 12 times in a single attack, still takes 20 minutes to kill a human.
[4] describes in detail what really happens in your body after being bitten by a venomous snake, such as a Russel's viper. One thing we already know is that the venom has the ability to make your blood stick together and form clots. While some clotting happens naturally in our body, the snake's venom causes widespread clotting. The clotting is caused by a protein called Fibrin [5]. Your body tries to fight this, but too much Fibrin is released by the venom. There is so much Fibrin, that your Kidneys get blocked from it, causing Kidney failure.
The body's fighting mechanism releases plethora of fibrinogen degradation products to stop the massive clotting. So much that your blood can no more clot afterwards, which means that any cut or bite would bleed continuously. Not only that, but it can also cause systemic internal bleeding itself.
Scary, isn't it?
References
[1].https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_viper
[2].http://www.sciencefocus.com/article/nature/how-does-snake-venom-kill-so-quickly
[3].https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_mamba
[4].https://sciencebasedlife.wordpress.com/2013/04/06/the-snake-bite-that-turns-you-into-a-jello-mold/
[5].https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibrin
Too scary. They are too scary to have a look too. Snakes are also most common in Terai region of Nepal. Each year, people lost their lives due to snake bites. I have also lost my maternal uncle due to snake bite.
It is really dangerous. I have listened in each bite it may bite as many as 12 times in a single attack. @hmushtaq
It is too scary. I don't like snakes but still your video is very intresting @hmushtaq.