Fish Poison Makes Hot Feel Cold and Vice Versa

SoyChemist writes "Ciguatoxin causes bizarre neurological symptoms including temperature reversal, a burning sensation, and an imaginary feeling of loose teeth. It is produced by algae and accumulates in the fatty flesh of tropical fish. While traveling to the tropics, a man from England ate some bad seafood that contained the unusual poison. His story, and the tale of some unfortunate sailors of an earlier age who suffered the same affliction, appeared in the current issue of Practical Neurology and was summarized on the Wired Science Blog. Both the Wired blog and the peer-reviewed journal neglected to mention that the potent neurotoxin has been made from scratch by organic chemists."

Comments

Re:Where to order?

[artifex2004]

The article failed to mention where can I get some of this poison? I need to cut down on my heating bill this winter.

Ethanol is commonly known to give feelings of warmth, ; in fact, the movie A Time For Drunken Horses is so named because the winter weather is so harsh that the only way the Iranian Kurds can get horses to work is to give them liquor.

Re:Ciguatera is Common knowledge

[Otter]

It's been known to Europeans for hundreds of years, and presumably to natives for much longer. (I had a very mild case in Belize a few years ago, from a barracuda.)

Incidentally, for those wondering why the synthesis of this is newsworthy, check out the structures of this and similar marine toxins. The synthesis of palytoxin, at the bottom, supposedly sent a number of grad students and postdocs to the hospital, as its intermediates are also insanely toxic.

Re:Ciguatera is Common knowledge

[Sethb]

Yep, I was in Fiji in July, and they served some fish at our resort that was poisoned. I didn't eat any, my mom ate a small bit, but was fine. The resort owner and one other guest were quite ill for days, and their cat that ate the leftovers nearly died. Apparently there's no way to tell if the fish is infected, and cooking it doesn't destroy the toxin.