We use it to power our automobiles but Chen Dejun, 72, from China, thinks of it as the "elixir of life"!

A stonecutter and bamboo weaver by profession, Dejun drinks gasoline (and has been doing so for 42 years) to get relief from physical aches.

Apparently he first began drinking gasoline in 1969, when he suddenly started coughing and felt a sharp pain in his chest. He had no success with modern medicine and took up the folk remedy of drinking kerosene, according to a report in Chongdong Evening News. With time, he then switched to gasoline

Although he does not know how much he's consumed over the years, it is believed he may have drunk 1.5 tons of fuel over the last 43 years.

This rather bizarre practice was fine till it became an addiction, after which his family - Yuan Huibi, his wife, and their three sons - left him. Doctors, meanwhile, can only speculate Dejun must have developed some sort of immunity to the gasoline, which is otherwise fatal to human beings if consumed.

Check out the video here...

China