I subscribed as soon as I read Dark Science.

Another interesting factoid about Syphilis: back in the days before Penicillin they used to infect people suffering from late stage Neurosyphilis with Malaria as a cure. The intense fever cycles and highly stimulated immune system would kill off the bacteria and the Malaria could then be taken care of afterwards. While they used relatively mild Malaria strains the method obviously still came with risks, but was better than nothing. If I recall correctly the guys who did it first even got a Nobel prize for it.

I had syphilis years ago. I don’t remember having any distinct symptoms, so it went undetected for a couple years. I started having health problems after those years. My joints and body constantly ached. I had lesions all over my legs, and a gumma (tumor) in my right eye. After going to countless drs with no explanation of my symptoms, my dermatologist took a biopsy of a sore on my leg. Not sure how she figured it out, but she ran a test for syphilis and was positive. When I went to the hospital, they did a spinal tap and confirmed that I had neuro-syphilis in my spinal fluid. The dr told me i couldve had organ failure in a matter of weeks. I had to have a PICC line (which is an IV that thread through the arm veins to above the heart) which was connected to antibiotics that would continuously provide medication. I had to wear that for nearly a month. Aside from losing my vision in my right eye, thankfully I made a full recover without any other serious damage.

Over 40 years ago, I woke with a total body rash. The hospital suggested secondary syphilis and sent me to the nearby special clinic. They immediately spotted that it wasn't. It was decided that it was a severe allergy to the penecillin that I had been prescribed for a very sore throat. Good job the first hospital didn't pump me full of penecillin to cure the syphilis I didn't have.

I was in an STD clinic once. There was a motivational poster on the wall that said "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade". I said to the bloke next to me, "What are we supposed to do, make crab cakes?"

The lady at 00:35 is not a victim of syphilis but a lady who died in a fire and her picture was taken as a Memento Mori by her family; I believe that her memory deserves respect even if we don’t know her name. May she Rest in Peace.

I remember back when I was in my residency we had an elderly gentleman suffering from cognition issues. Just about everyone wrote him off as having early-stage dementia or Alzheimers. My preceptor astutely ordered an STD screen just as a long shot. The guy was positive for syphilis. He was in his 70's so he probably had the tertiary stage for 30 years. One of many facts ingrained in my head all these years.

Fun fact: the grotesque rotting features and unpredictable sometimes violent behaviour of late stage syphilis sufferers have directly inspired the zombie genre of film and fiction.

Would like to point out that with the current rise in antibiotic-resistant syphilis strains, I wouldn't consider it "nothing to worry about," just less of a worry than it was in the past

I work in a rehab profession and had a client with neurosyphilis. By the time he was diagnosed and treated with antibiotics, he had significant brain damage. He appeared to have been infected from his mother in utero, but no one knew as he had been put up for adoption. He was only born in like 1975. I’ll never forget him.

Worth mentioning is congenital syphilis, e.g. syphilis you are born with due to mother being infected. CDC actually says that there is rise of syphilis in the recent years.

Having nursed patients with limbs rotting away from the inside due to the latter stages of GPI (General Paralysis of the Insane) I can attest to the devastating effects of Syphilis.

My best friend somehow got a dose of it & didn’t realize what it was until he developed full-blown tertiary syphilis. That was in the 90’s. He’s been severely disabled ever since.

My uncle died from syphilis. We never got to know why he didn't get a therapy. We found out he had syphilis when it was too late to rescue him. It was a nasty death. May he rest in peace.

I feel great sympathy towards the people who suffered horribly from this disease in our history, and great appreciation to the medical scientists who developed the treatment preventing most people in the future from suffering the same fate.

This reminded me of the Tuskegee experiment :( An institution in 1932 did a study on syphilis. They got a big group of black men I think like 600 and told them they were treating them for “bad blood” but they were actually injecting them with syphilis. They weren’t informed of the experiment but they were told that in exchange for participating in the study they would receive free meals, free medical exams, and burial insurance. Even after they developed a treatment for it, the men who were infected In the studies were not offered any kind of treatment. The people conducting the studies wanted to track the full progression of the disease and so they would study the men until they died and then preform autopsies to gather more information. It’s horrible and unethical.

I’m an adolescent psych RN. One of my 15 yr old patients has all the STDs, including syphilis. She was trafficked for sex. And here I thought the sore on her mouth was because she got popped by her pimp. I don’t think syphilis is making her mentally ill. Hopefully we caught it in time.

Hey imma be real with anyone who sees this, I caught syphilis literally a week before I left for navy bootcamp and thankfully they caught it in such a early state the penicillin shot in the ass hurts and the anxiety of me accidentally passing it on to another person killed me for weeks so please wear protection (thankfully to my knowledge I didn't spread it to anyone and the person I caught it from never informed me at any point in time so definitely watch where you're sticking your stuff at)

Al Capone also infected his wife who passed it onto his son (sonny) in utero and his son was born deaf and what appears now to of also been some sort of brain damage. But Mae for some reason didn’t seem to be affected by the disease and passed away at 89 in a nursing home and sonny passed in 2004

One of my favorite composers, Franz Schubert, died from syphilis at age 31. Somehow, he managed to compose 1,000 pieces of music. He wrote one of the greatest piano sonatas of all time the month he died from the disease (the B-Flat Major Piano Sonata, D. 960).

Back in the 90s everyone admitted to hospitals here in Louisiana had to have a syphilis test. (We we’re in the midst of an epidemic of it)The theory was that we could catch people and treat them while they were admitted and also start the process of contact tracing. My mom said when she had me in the late 60s, they wouldn’t admit her without a chest x-ray so I suppose TB was big then. Lol Fun fact, you also used to have to have a syphilis test to get a marriage license. Same reason I guess, trying to stop a easily transmitted disease.

I was a caretaker for a lady who had tertiary syphylis infected by her husband who received it in the korean war. She died early unfortunately and there was nothing they could do abt it except palliation for her discomforts.

You've ticked every checkbox I had at the end. I'm a med student, but a lot of the time studying becomes overwhelming. Videos like this reignite the passion in me to try and become a better physician & hopefully acquiring such knowledge in the future!

The sad thing is that there are no reliable tests for neurosyphilis in 3rd stage, especially one that was incompletely treated before. The RPR, VDRL tests are negative due to treatment, both in blood and in CSF. The treponema-specific tests are all positive for life and don't tell you anything new after you had syphilis. The only way to detect a remaining syphilis in CNS is to compare the antibodies in CSF and the blood - if they are more in CSF, then you have "intrathecal" production of antibodies in CNS and neurosyphilis. Most doctors in US don't know about this test, will not do it. There were patients with strokes in which all current tests show negative for neurosyphilis, yet they had it because their CSF was able to infect rabbits. Extremely sneaky and nasty disease, similar to Lyme. People still die from it because doctors underestimate it and have no tests for the more advanced stages.

Funny story: My neighbour worked at a rural nursing home in Australia. I remember her telling me that whenever any elderly gentleman moved in, if they were WW2 veterans, they'd be tested for STDs. The irony was some of these men where pillers of the community, from some of the most respected families in the district and genuine proper gentleman. But sure enough, a large percentage of them also tested positive for a dose of clap and pox that they pick up during the war.

The Al Capone case was really weird, guy seemed like he was the happiest he'd ever been in his life when it started affecting his brain.

My ex at the time had this and gave it to me but Fun fact: syphilis makes you lose hair EXTREMELY fast…as well as making your face shut down…trust me I’ve had this…the hospital I went too when I was still in the primary step couldn’t find this in my blood it was months later after it sat in my body for months that a clinic I went too after I almost lost sight in my right eye took my blood and found it and said to act quick…a year later my hair is fully grown back and I’m cured

actually im glad i stumbled over this piece, im doing a thing on microbiology and I like that you found actual spiraling cells in motion to see how they transfer and the comparisons you did on the skin, i got to understand it better and know why they are like that, i appreciate this video, very helpful indeed!

I had no that it was so horrible. My great grandpa died of complications from syphilis. Apparently after moving here from Norway he had an affair. My great grandmother eventually tested positive for it but by that time we had medication fortunately. Cheating is terrible and he definitely paid the price for it but, I never understood how much he suffered 😢❤

Back in 1973, I worked at the county fair for a week. A lady had open sore syphilis. An old man traveling with the carnys was having sex with her. The county health department was called and she was taken put in quarantine. She looked absolutely nasty. She had open, weeping, sores on her feet.

another lovely situation I could've easily found myself in during my younger years. I am truly blessed for having avoided so many calamities in my life

A spirochete bacterium like in Lyme disease. In Lyme, the spirochete also protects itself once it enters the bloodstream and the story gets worse. Could you cover the Lyme Borrelia Burgdorferi please? It's like a creature from a horror movie.

I wonder if modern zombies was inspired by some syphilis victims. Someone stumbling around, possibly lashing out occasionally, growling or barely speaking from increasing brain damage and resembling a rotting corpse from the severe scarring caused by vascular damage.

Very informative about a curious topic so many of us have unknowingly been associated with. My grandfather died in 1934 at age 36. Doing research his Death Certificate read :Cause Of Death: Spinal Lues.(?) ( Syphilis) He contracted it in WW 1 and died in Tertiary Stage 14 years later. Relatives-unknowingly stated he died of severe dementia.

I stumbled across this video by chance and my lord was i hooked subed instantly and i'm now binge watching your content.

Great video as always just surprised and wished you talked about the horrors of the tuskegee syphilis trials

This was extremely well presented and detailed. Please do a video for every single STD on the list.

The fact that such a highly specific bacterium needs such stringent conditions to survive and thrive yet still infects millions each year should tell you what horn dogs we are as a species.

Yooo these episodes getting more dark I love it

Definitely horrifying! Love your channel, keep up the good work!

I just happened to stumble upon your channel. I am now hooked 🙂

Absolutely fascinating. Just had to subscribe. Looking forward to more!👍

Thanks for showing me about this disease syphilis. I was wondering because my father has it, and they said they couldn't cure it for because they didn't catch it early enough.

Excellent video! Short but rich with interesting facts, read in a steady clear manner

A close friend suffers from brain atrophy from having syphilis It reduced him to an eight yr olds mentality.

Your pathophysiology is so understandable. I love it.

As a doctor, i highly appreciate this beautifully made detailed video yet with crisp information !

Had a neighbor who died with Syphilis tell-tell signs. I eventually worked at nursing facility she was placed in. Ms. Luella RIP

Awesome video!! Happy to learn something new from your video. Keep it going!

Great video, animation, graphics, and information.

Outstanding report !

Informative and to the point. Very enjoyable.

Hopefully Syphilis will go away for ever! Very educational. Thank you Dark Science.

I'm a retired nerves and you never forget what you learned and the more that medical has raised and it's very interesting that I keep in touch learning different things thank you for sure your video and sharing my name is Sherry Contreras Dallas TX be real or stand still God bless you please keep sending more videos thanks 🙏💓💓👍👍🙏💓

Great show!

Good video! Thanks for your effort

I had syphillis for about 6 months. Only for so long because of a misdiagnosis by the doctor I saw. I was rotting away and it hurt so bad just to go number two. I had bloody stool and I couldn’t sit right on the couch or chairs. I was in excruciating pain and my mouth was soooo dry. I had cuts on the insides of my cheek, a sore on my lips, and my nose was constantly bloody.

I'll never get sick of videos like this.

Excellent information!

The neurologist Dr Oliver Sacks (Portrayed in the film Awakenings by Robin Williams) recalled in his book, 'The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales', the case of a woman aged 85 who had suddenly become more lively and funny and young feeling. It was discovered that she had contracted syphilis some 65 years before and the 3rd stage had just begun. I have copied it below if anybody is interested: Cupid’s Disease A bright woman of ninety, Natasha K., recently came to our clinic. Soon after her eighty-eighth birthday, she said, she noticed ‘a change’. What sort of change? we queried. ‘Delightful!’ she exclaimed. ‘I thoroughly enjoyed it. I felt more energetic, more alive-I felt young once again. I took an interest in the young men. I started to feel, you might say, “frisky”-yes, frisky.’ ‘This was a problem?’ ‘No, not at first. I felt well, extremely well-why should I think anything was the matter?’ ‘And then?’ ‘My friends started to worry. First they said, “You look radiant- a new lease on life!”, but then they started to think it was not quite-appropriate. “You were always so shy,” they said, “and now you’re a flirt. You giggle, you tell jokes-at your age, is that right?” ‘ ‘And how did you feel?’ ‘I was taken aback. I’d been carried along, and it didn’t occur to me to question what was happening. But then I did. I said to myself, “You’re 89, Natasha, this has been going on for a year. You were always so temperate in feeling-and now this extravagance! You are an old woman, nearing the end. What could justify such a sudden euphoria?” And as soon as I thought of euphoria, things took on a new complexion ... “You’re sick, my dear,” I said to myself. “You’re feeling too well, you have to be ill!” ‘ ‘Ill? Emotionally? Mentally ill?’ ‘No, not emotionally-physically ill. It was something in my body, my brain, that was making me high. And then I thought- goddam it, it’s Cupid’s Disease!’ ‘Cupid’s Disease?’ I echoed, blankly. I had never heard of the term before. ‘Yes, Cupid’s Disease-syphilis, you know. I was in a brothel in Salonika, nearly seventy years ago. I caught syphilis-lots of the girls had it-we called it Cupid’s Disease. My husband saved me, took me out, had it treated. That was years before penicillin, of course. Could it have caught up with me after all these years?’ There may be an immense latent period between the primary infection and the advent of neurosyphilis, especially if the primary infection has been suppressed, not eradicated. I had one patient, treated with Salvarsan by Ehrlich himself, who developed tabes dorsalis-one form of neurosyphilis- more than fifty years later. But I had never heard of an interval of seventy years-nor of a self-diagnosis of cerebral syphilis mooted so calmly and clearly. ‘That’s an amazing suggestion,’ I replied after some thought. ‘It would never have occurred to me- but perhaps you are right.’ She was right; the spinal fluid was positive, she did have neurosyphilis, it was indeed the spirochetes stimulating her ancient cerebral cortex. Now the question of treatment arose. But here another dilemma presented itself, propounded, with typical acuity, by Mrs K. herself. ‘I don’t know that I want it treated,’ she said. ‘I know it’s an illness, but it’s made me feel well. I’ve enjoyed it, I still enjoy it, I won’t deny it. It’s made me feel livelier, friskier, than I have in twenty years. It’s been fun. But I know when a good thing goes too far, and stops being good. I’ve had thoughts, I’ve had impulses, I won’t tell you, which are-well, embarrassing and silly. It was like being a little tiddly, a little tipsy, at first, but if it goes any further . . .’ She mimed a drooling, spastic dement. ‘I guessed I had Cupid’s, that’s why I came to you. I don’t want it to get worse, that would be awful; but I don’t want it cured-that would be just as bad. I wasn’t fully alive until the wrigglies got me. Do you think you could keep it just as it is?’ We thought for a while, and our course, mercifully, was clear. We have given her penicillin, which has killed the spirochetes, but can do nothing to reverse the cerebral changes, the disinhibitions, they have caused. And now Mrs K. has it both ways, enjoying a mild disinhibition, a release of thought and impulse, without any threat to her self-control or of further damage to her cortex. She hopes to live, thus reanimated, rejuvenated, to a hundred. ‘Funny thing,’ she says. ‘You’ve got to give it to Cupid.’

anatomy of neck snapping? the one where a human turns a person head backwards or partially and why it does kill them as people can be paralysed neck down

I love the amount of detail, enough to understand why and what is going on. I'm learning much!

Excellent video. Understandable explanations for lay people. The visuals were very helpful.

Excellent presentation. Thank you :)

Yes! Love your videos. Make more please 😅

Thank you. This is a disease that has highly specific periods of dormancy and eruption. If the infected patient is lucky, he or she will die of heart disease before the tertiary phase.

Absolutely fascinating. Subbed

Very interesting topic and very well explained. Very easy to understand. Great video.

When I was a medical librarian, I learned this limerick about syphilis: There once was a man from Bombay, who thought that the "syph" went away, so now he has tabes and saber-shinned babies, and thinks that he's queen of the May.

Heeey! I love your videos. I'd like to recommend a video, how the black death end or three examples of modern biological warfare/examples of medieval biological warfare.

The aorta is the main artery that carries blood AWAY from your heart to the rest of your body (not into the heart as stated in this video). The blood leaves the heart through the aortic valve. Then it travels through the aorta, making a cane-shaped curve that allows other major arteries to deliver oxygen-rich blood to the brain, muscles and other cells

Interesting and very captivating. Thanks

great video as always

Very informative video!

This is bloody good information. To say this. Great. I have never understand this information before until now

You had me at "Dark Science " new subber

fun fact : Captain Jack Sparrow apparently is supposed to have Syphillis. Being the cause for his weird behaviour and mental state. Indicator for that is the what seems to be a rash he has on the side of his face so Jack will likely have died from Syphillis

I wonder what the people thought of the scientist who said that the infection can come back 15 years later Like how did he discover that and link it to syphilis

Outstanding presentation. Good job. 🇭🇲

That was a nice demonstration and explanation of what syphilis can do.

I liked the old content, i like the new content. Great job right here. Keep going ❤️

Thanks for this really great summary of a horrific infection. History can teach us a lot. Luckily for now at least we still have some good antibiotics to treat some of these devastating infections.

I loved this video..very interesting..im subscribed ..gonna check them all out...thanks for the information

Could u cover the dark science behind rabies or ebola?

Interesting and well presented. New subscriber.

Thanks again to the inventor of antibiotics. You are awesome!

I love this channel so much

When I got married in 1972, the couple was required to have blood taken to test for syphilis and gonorrhea. I guess that was one way to try to curb these diseases. But that was back then when you were required to be married to have sex🤣🤣🤣 so they held you hostage until you had submitted a sample and when it was ok, then you got your marriage license😄❤️🎉

Correction: oxygenated (from the lung) blood exits the heart through the aortic valve and into the aorta. Blood enters the left - or “systemic” ventricle (pumping chamber) - through the mitral valve.

Thank you for the lesson .

This video is the best promotion of being responsible with what you do with other people i have ever seen

The single best KZfaq channel in the world.

Very informative video. Also, great narrator. 👍🏻

Never had syphyilis but I'm glad its curable nowadays coz the effects are scary

First video i watched since i subscribed

Best explanation as always

And this is why fapping is the safest sex.

Right now in Alaska there is a quiet syphilis epidemic

Speaking of having questions answered ... how would the first case of Syphilis have come about? It can only grow in humans, it is transferred from human to human. This is a question I have been asking for 60 years, after my grandfather in his 70's, contracted it from a blood transfusion at a VA hospital in Cleveland.

*Lets all consciously give thanks to Alexander Fleming's work*