Western medicine has always been conservative in its endeavors to cure and treat diseases, unlike its counterpart, alternative medicine counts on the odd and the outrageous in dealing with ailments.

Alternative medicine is infamous for its out-of-this-world beliefs such as fermenting wine with scorpions in the belief that it can cure various diseases and improve sexual potency.

There is also fish swallowing in Hyberabad which is believed to cure asthma, or even having bees sting you to remove rheumatism. So, it's not surprise that Western medicine are now tinkering with python hearts.

What the researchers at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa studied was the python's heart and how it grows in size after eating a large meal, thus increasing their performance.

It is this growth in the size of the heart that intrigued the researchers because if this can work on humans, the growth could be beneficial. This type of growth is called the physiological cardiac hypertrophy, similar to those of a marathon runner, and could prove to be a way of treating diseased human hearts.

Like us on Facebook

Researchers were able to identify three fatty acids involved in this increase in the size of the heart. Having identified them, the researchers collaborated with multiple researchers at the University of Colorado.

These fatty acids were infused into fasting pythons. Afterwards, they observed that the hearts of the fasting snakes were similar to those who were eating. Though growing in size, this does not mean that the cells of the heart were multiplying, rather, they were becoming larger.

Citing the hearts of athletes, Stephen Secor, associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Alabama, said that cyclists, marathon runners, and rowers tend to have larger hearts.

This is because the heart is working harder to move blood through it. With this, its chambers get larger and more blood is pushed out with every contraction leading to increased cardiac performance.

To contact the editor, e-mail: