The adage that you shouldn’t believe everything you read on social media carries particular weight when it comes to a widely circulating viral claim that children’s Benadryl allergy medicine can help save people from rattlesnake bites, a medical expert said.
“That (rumor about Benadryl) is total fiction. I don’t know where it got started,” Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue told Cowboy State Daily.
It’s being shared as serious medical advice on numerous Wyoming community social media groups, especially in areas known to have rattlesnakes.
Only proper medical treatment, as soon as possible, can save somebody from terrible injury — or even death — if bitten by a rattler, he said.
The Claim
The claim being made is that one potentially lethal effect of a rattlesnake bite is swelling.
Therefore, giving the victim Benadryl can help reduce the swelling and boost their chances of survival, so the claim goes.
Some online posters are even recommending that folks headed for outdoor adventures in rattlesnake country include a bottle of liquid children’s Benadryl in their packs, in case of a snake bite.
No Truth To It
Packing allergy meds in case of snakebite is terrible advice, Blue said.
“I would not count on that at all,” he said.
The venom in a rattlesnake bite is a toxin, whereas allergy medicines are designed to counteract allergic antigens, which affect the body in a completely different manner, he said.
The toxin in rattlesnake venom is nasty stuff, Blue said.
“It’s basically a poison that causes tissue destruction,” he said, adding that it can lead to ghastly wounds and, in some cases, major organ shutdown and death.
The toxin in rattlesnake venom kills muscle tissue by “breaking through the cell wall of each muscle cell,” Blue said.
He added that it can also disrupt blood cells’ ability to clot and slow or stop bleeding.
Drop The Benadryl, Grab A Torniquet
As terrible as rattlesnake venom is, it’s not as bad as the venom from some snake species in Africa, he added. Those contain neurotoxins that can quickly cause death by shutting a person’s nervous system down.
But a rattlesnake bite is nothing to take lightly, Blue said.
In an emergency, the best course of action might be to apply a torniquet above the bite site to keep blood flow from spreading the toxin throughout the body.
That might buy a person an additional hour or so to get to a hospital, the doctorsaid.
Allergy Meds Do Something Totally Different
Allergy medicines will do nothing against the tissue destruction caused by a rattlesnake bite, Blue said. Those medications are designed to counteract a dysfunction in what are called mast cells.
When they are working normally, mast cells play a vital role such functions as healing wounds or fighting off pathogens.
But allergies can trigger mast cells to release chemicals called histamines, Blue said.
Histamines can cause such symptoms as watery eyes, runny nose, coughing, wheezing and skin irritation, he said.
In the simplest terms, what allergy medicines such as Benadryl do is block the unwanted release of histamines, Blue said. And that has nothing to do with slowing or stopping the tissue destruction caused by rattlesnake venom.
How Much Time Do Bite Victims Have?
As for how much time somebody has after they’ve been bitten by a rattler, there’s no definitive answerer because so many variables will be in play, Blue said.
So the short answer is: Don’t waste a second, get to a hospital as soon as possible, he said.
The variables start with the bite itself.
“Sometimes when a rattlesnake bites, it doesn’t release any venom,” Blue said. “Sometimes, it releases just a little venom. And sometimes, it releases a huge amount of venom.”
Another variable is the location of the bite, he said.
With a bite on the foot or ankle, it will probably take more time for the toxins to hit vital areas than it would if the bite is higher up on the body.
And the victim’s body size can also make a difference, Blue said.
“If you have ‘X amount’ of venom, then it’s going to cause more problems in a 50-pound kid than it will in a 250-pound adult,” he said.
One thing holds true across the board, he said — rattlesnake bites hurt like hell, and the pain keeps getting worse as more tissue is destroyed.
“The pain can’t kill you, but it can make you want to die,” he said.
Avoid Bites In The First Place
The best way to counteract a rattlesnake bite is to avoid getting bitten in the first place, Blue said. When hiking in snake country, wearing snakebite-proof boots or gators that go well above the ankles is a good idea.
Pay attention to avoid stumbling in too close to a snake and surprising it, he added.
As far as the Benadryl rumor goes, Blue said it would be nice if it were true.
“I wish it did work, because then we could just keep Benadryl on hand everywhere,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
