Hopefully you know that grapefruit juice can inhibit liver enzymes that break down the active ingredients in certain therapeutic drugs, which can result in dangerous overdosing with certain drugs.
A few surprising insights (thread):
1. It was only discovered in 1991, and mostly by accident.
A Canadian team were studying the impact of alcohol consumption on a hypertension drug, Plendil, and needed a "mixer" base for the control (water) and treatment (alcohol) so they mixed both into grapefruit juice.
The bioavailability of Plendil was higher than expected in the study, in both arms, but lower in a water-only control group.
That study (conducted in 1989, to clarify) led to this 1991 Lancet paper, but it wasn't well publicized until after more study. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1671113/
2. Metabolism of almost every drug is affected to some degree.
The polyphenols in grapefruit juice can strongly interfere with Cytochrome P450 enzymes in your liver, the same enzymes that can either *activate* a "pro-drug" or deactivate active compounds over time.
Everything from Tylenol to Viagra to birth control to caffeine have different pharmacokinetics in individuals for up to three days after drinking a glass of grapefruit juice.
3. It's not just grapefruit juice.
All citrus plants can produce the types of furanocoumarin, and all citrus derives from genetic hybridization of three ancestral plant lineages. Grapefruit juice has the highest specific effect on certain enzyme, orange juice the lowest.
4. Grapefruit juice, indirectly, likely causes thousands of deaths every year in the US.
People continue to take their medications with grapefruit juice, especially among the elderly, and the result can be an effective dose 10-20 times safe levels.
Just raising awareness. Take a minute to check in on relatives who take daily medication or who you know like grapefruit juice and be sure they're aware of the risks.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Famed population geneticist RA Fisher published this paper in 1936 taking Mendel to task for either concealing, cherry-picking, or omitting parts of his study of pea genetics.
1. The segregation ratios (as in 'Mendelian ratios') are too perfect. Actual observations are modified by noise and distortion, only land on the 3:1, 1:2:1 ratios in extremely large samples sizes of ideal, perfect genetic models.
I want to talk about the Map-Territory Relation in #science & why it matters to many topics in public perception of science.
It's what I think of when people insist that 'science says there are only two genders'.
Maybe you've seen this work by René Magritte, called "The Treachery of Images". The text translates: "this is not a pipe".
It's not. It's an IMAGE of a pipe. It only resembles an actual pipe in one very specific way, from a particular angle, in 2-D.
Like this PICTURE of a pipe, a scientific model or system of classification is by nature a SIMPLIFICATION.
British statistician George Box: "Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful. However, the approximate nature of the model must always be borne in mind."
But the most interesting story about Benjamin Franklin I've run across is the giant pit filled with human bones that was recently (1997) found in his basement.
Really.
A giant pit of human bones. The remains of at least 28 bodies. In his basement. Cut up with a saw.
Ben Franklin lived at 36 Craven Street in London (now the 'Benjamin Franklin House & Museum').
Workers doing renovations found the bones in a buried pit in the basement, remains including those of infants.
He had a special arrangement with a friend of a friend, William Hewson, now called the "Father of Hematology" for his discovery of blood composition and fibrin.
Hewson operated an "anatomy school" in Ben Franklin's garden (back yard) where students dissected cadavers.
He had an acknowledged illegitimate son, William, who was the last British governor of New Jersey & chief Loyalist, running pro-British military operations from his base in New York.
He died in exile. But HE had an illegitimate son...
William Temple Franklin was William's illegitimate son, born while William was in law school, London.
"Temple" accompanied his GRANDFATHER Benjamin & acted as his secretary, worked on Treaty of Paris where France recognized USA.
Brief return to US, then rest of life in France.
Temple had an illegitimate son, Théodore, but he died before the age of 5, and an illegitimate daughter, Ellen Franklin Hanbury, who was raised by HER grandfather William.
Ellen married but had no children, so this particular chain of Franklin Bastards reaches its end.
My hypothesis:
Humans invented hats because we were envious of the marvelous headgear in the animal world.
Let's talk about antlers, horns, ossicones & pronghorns.
#Antlers are shed & regrown every year, composed of bone that begins at a pedicle, base structure that remains after shedding. Antlers are extensions of the the skull.
Mechanism of growth similar to bone HEALING: cartilaginous tissue gives rise to bone coated in skin "velvet".
Antlers usually only form on males, with one exception: female reindeer grow shortened antlers, which may be functional for snow clearing, or challenge between females over scarce food resources.