■至少从15世纪到19世纪后期,奥地利施蒂里亚州的农民每天或每周食用多达数百毫克的三氧化二砷或硫化物,持续数年。服用这些剂量的砷被认为可以增加肌肉力量,增强农民女孩的美丽和性吸引力。似乎没有同时记录慢性砷暴露的已知后果。那里吃砷的历史记录经过审查,似乎是有效的。这些好处是砷食者的主观判断。缺乏关于砷中毒的预期外部和内部临床和病理影响的客观报告,取决于当时的临床账目和尸检报告以及一般医学文献的数量较少,所以它较弱,但它是一致的。
■为什么食用砷的人没有表现出长期暴露于高剂量砷的众所周知的后果是未知的。可能的解释包括由于人和肠道微生物组的诱导基因组变化和选择,消费者的解毒代谢增加。如其他人群所示。这些影响是否足以保护人们免受高剂量砷的影响尚未被研究。
■尽管砷毒性的性质和机制已被广泛描述,还有很多有待发现。
UNASSIGNED: From at least the fifteenth to late nineteenth centuries, peasants in the Austrian province of
Styria ate up to several hundred milligrams of arsenic trioxide or sulfide daily or weekly for periods up to a number of years. Taking these doses of arsenic was believed to increase muscular power and enhance the beauty and sexual attractiveness of peasant girls. There do not appear to be contemporaneous records of the known consequences of chronic arsenic exposure. The historical records of arsenic eating there are reviewed and appear to be valid. The benefits are subjective judgements by arsenic eaters. The lack of objective reports of the anticipated external and internal clinical and pathological effects of arsenic poisoning depends on a smaller number of clinical accounts and autopsy reports and the general medical literature of those times, so it is weaker, but it is consistent.
UNASSIGNED: Why the arsenic eaters did not show the well-known consequences of prolonged exposure to high doses of arsenic is not known. Possible explanations include increases in detoxifying metabolism in the consumers due to induced genomic changes and selection in people and in the gut microbiome, as shown in other populations. Whether these effects would suffice to protect people against their high doses of arsenic has not been explored.
UNASSIGNED: Although the nature and mechanisms of arsenic toxicity have been extensively described, much still remains to be discovered.