system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What is the most poisonous substance that our own body creates?
gpt
Formaldehyde is far more toxic than acetaldehyde (ethyl aldehyde). In fact formaldehyde will kill you. This is why drinking methanol is toxic is because it is metabolized to formaldehyde. A fun fact is that if someone has accidentally ingested Methanol, you can save their life by having them drink a significant amount of hard liquor( has lots of ethanol). Sufficient quantities of ethanol can outcompete methanol for the enzyme active site, thus preventing methanol from being metabolized into toxic formaldehyde.