slightlyodd.com

Another repost from my old website. Hope you find it interesting!

In the interest of getting a better understanding of the endocrinology behind diabetes, I decided this afternoon to have a poke around the web at information on hormonal glucose regulation.
Type 1 diabetes is fundamentally a disorder of glucose regulation related to the body’s inability to [...]

I used to post a bunch of interesting stuff on slightlyodd.com on my old content management system. Sadly, my webhost died and I lost a bunch of articles. However! Thanks to the magic of the internet wayback machine on archive.org, I can repost these articles again! So here we go – the first one on [...]

Not content to leave methanol without drawing some theoretical conclusions, here’s the last I have to say on the topic.

Blood’s buffering capacity is around 38.5 mEq/L/pH at physiological pH levels, and is more capable of buffering in an acidic than an alkaline direction.
1 mEq of formic acid is 46 milligrams.
Acidosis is clinically defined as a [...]

Blood is a pH buffered solution, and the average adult has around 5 liters of it. A standard can of diet coke has approximately 200mg of aspartame, 10% of which is metabolised to methanol. That 20mg of methanol is metabolised rapidly by alcohol dehydrogenase into formaldehyde. This formaldehyde is then rapidly metabolised into formic acid [...]

I drink quite a bit of diet coke. Probably two cans, each day that I work. I’m forever being told by people “that’ll give you brain cancer you know” or “that stuff’s gonna kill you!”
I admit, it’s not the best habit to be drinking some kind of synthetic beverage a couple of times a day. [...]

I’m pleased to report that it’s iron containing enzymes like myeloperoxidase that ensure that the colour of the stuff that comes out of your chest and head while sick is a charming green. Present in neutrophils (a type of white blood cell), this enzyme will convert hydrogen peroxide and free chloride ions into hypochlorus acid [...]