Of spiders, Viagra, and bending the truth

May 1, 2007 - 3:10 PM by Nicky

Why let the truth spoil a good story, right?
I read a fascinating piece recently in the mass selling Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Aharanot, about a doctor who is researching spider venom as a cure for male impotency. The story headlined ‘Spider venom to replace Viagra’ reported that the sexual health clinic of Rambam Medical Center in Haifa is conducting a study intended to determine whether toxins secreted by spiders can improve male sexual performance.
The study was launched, so the article reported, after researchers discovered that men bitten by spiders experienced unusually prolonged erections.
Hmm, I thought, this will make a great story.
So I rang up the doctor in charge of the study.
Dr. Ilan Gruenwald sounded bemused.
“Well there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that spider bites from three spiders can cause prolonged erection, but we aren’t involved in any studies on it,” he said.
“You aren’t carrying out research on patients at Rambam?”
“No. We aren’t doing work on it anywhere. I just mentioned it in passing at a conference. The information in the article was 95% fiction. I don’t know where the journalist came up with it.”
I looked back at the article, which also appeared in the newspaper’s web site http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3387228,00.html. “Senior urologist, Dr. lan Gruenwald… has recently approached several pharmaceutical companies and invited them to participate in studies on the subject. A few of the firms have already shown great interest in the new research,” it said authoritively.
“I’ve had calls from all over the world,” complained Dr. Gruenwald. “It’s an interesting theory and maybe we will study it as part of our work, but we aren’t doing anything now.”
Piece of fiction or not, this story has been doing the rounds worldwide, making headlines in newspapers as far afield as India, Germany, South Africa (Black widow spider rises to the occasion), Australia, Taiwan, Egypt (Impotent? Black widow to the rescue) and even the United Arab Emirates.
Like so many stories, no-one bothered to check if it was true.
“You’ve got to really think about what you’re reading in the press,” said Dr. Gruenwald. “It’s really shocking.
“Still one good thing came out of it,” he added. “You can’t find a single spider in Rambam hospital. The hospital is completely spider free.”
I suppose in the meantime anyone really desperate to try this remedy can go about it the old fashioned way – look for a Black Widow.