For decades gasoline has been used to power vehicles and machinery, but 71-year-old Chen Dejun proves it works very well for humans, too.

Chen Jejun lives alone in a thatched cottage on a hill in China’s Shuijiang municipality. He’s known by the locals as a stone cutter and master bamboo weaver, but also for his unusual habit of drinking gasoline. The slender old man estimates he drinks around 3 to 3.5 liters of gasoline every month, to relieve any physical pain. He buys gasoline from a station at the bottom of the hill, and although it’s hard for him to calculate how much gasoline he has consumed throughout his life, judging by his daily habit, reporters of the Chongqing Evening News estimate he has drunk around 1.5 tons of fuel over the last 42 years.

He first started drinking gasoline in 1969, when he suddenly began coughing and felt a sharp pain in his chest. He tried some medicine, which didn’t seem to help him much, so after the elders of his village told him he might have tuberculosis and should try drinking some kerosene, he didn’t think twice about it. After drinking his first cup he felt sick to his stomach and decided to go to bed. One hour later he woke up feeling much better, so he continued drinking the stuff to ease the pain.

In 2001, Cheng Dejun switched to gasoline, because the entire village started using electric light and kerosene was harder to come by. He says it’s just as good as kerosene, and according to doctor’s tests, Cheng appears to be in good health, despite signs of emphysema. Feng Fu, an associate professor at Second Hospital Associated with Chongqing University, says the old man must have developed some kind of immunity to gasoline, otherwise it should have killed him. He also added that the gasoline might act as an anesthetic, but it can’t cure Cheng’s pain.

via China Daily