Metabolism

The Liver's Chemistry Set: Phase I & Phase II Metabolism

The body has a problem: the drugs that work best are fat-loving, and fat-loving molecules are almost impossible to flush out — the kidney just keeps reabsorbing them. The liver's solution is a two-stage chemistry set that rebuilds a drug into something the body can finally throw away. But that same machinery can turn a harmless painkiller into a liver-destroying poison. This is the story of how — and why the antidote to a paracetamol overdose is a race against the clock.

CYP450, Inducers, Inhibitors & Drug Interactions

A glass of grapefruit juice can raise the level of some drugs in your blood as if you'd secretly tripled your dose. An antibiotic can quietly cancel a woman's contraceptive pill. And two people given the exact same codeine tablet — one feels nothing, the other stops breathing. Behind all three lies a single family of liver enzymes, and the two ways drugs mess with them: induction and inhibition.