Feed stores on Vancouver Island are selling out of Ivermectin.
You read that right.
People have bought so much horse medicine on Vancouver Island that there isn’t any left for the horses. And they’re buying it because they think it will make them better if they get COVID-19.
There is very little medical evidence that Ivermectin will cure COVID. But there’s medical evidence that it could do something else!
It could mess with your little swimmers!
Here’s the thing. Ivermectin is awesome. The people who discovered the drug won a Nobel prize, for crap’s sake.
But do you know what Ivermectin is used for?
It treats awful human diseases like malaria, scabies, and the parasites that cause river blindness. These diseases are caused by worms, not viruses.
How does it treat these diseases?
Well, one of the most important ways is by killing off the worm sperm. Worms can’t make more worms if they don’t have any sperm. And the sperms that survive end up deformed with huge heads, or two heads, or they just can’t swim.
Here’s the fun part: Ivermectin doesn’t care what kind of sperm it’s dealing with. It’s going after all of them.
Scientists have found that Ivermectin messes up sperm in mice, rats, rabbits, sheep, and bucks. There is one study that found similar side effects in humans, but more research is needed to be truly sure.
One thing showed up in all of the animal studies—bigger doses of Ivermectin were worse for the sperm.
Some of the studies tracked the animals for a long time. It looks like the sperm go back to normal, but it can take months, or even years.
Are you really willing to take that chance? Do you really know what’s in that stuff?
To be fair, there is some research that says Ivermectin could be useful against some viruses. When the drug is tested on viruses, it does an okay job.
Like, a medium job. Not a great job. To do a great job it needs to be taken with a mix of other drugs.
Plus you need to take a dose that’s meant for humans. If you take the stuff that’s meant for horses, you could make yourself super sick.
And you could end up with a whole bunch of two-headed sperm.
So you might want to think twice about taking Ivermectin. You could be starting a war in your nuts that you’re not going to win.
