5 ms·

In the case of metformin, the direct line is from guanidine in french lilac being used since the middle ages for diabetes. Guanidine is effective, but long term

In the case of metformin, the direct line is from guanidine in french lilac being used since the middle ages for diabetes. Guanidine is effective, but long term liver toxic. Once actual chemistry broke open our ability to analyze that drug, related chemicals could be synthesized and studied, which led to biguanidines, of which metformin is one, which were tested in animals. Many drugs are found this way by looking at chemicals related to ones we already know about, and then testing on animals and humans. Self testing of new drugs by researchers used to be very common. How did folk medicine come to know the effects of guanidine? Dunno.

groby_b 2y ago
> How did folk medicine come to know the effects of guanidine? Dunno. The same way we know a lot about other things in the chemistry domain - somebody tasted it, just to see what happens. "Mendeleyev's Dream" is a great book that contains many fascinating anecdotes of people going "let me just lick this, just to try". (Or, if you want to go more modern, the history of hallucinogens is pretty fun too) Humans seem to have a strong tendency to stuff unknown things into their mouth, just because they can.
- falcor84 2y ago
  Indeed. I would assume that this is one of the traits that survives due to group selection [0] - it would be bad if everyone in the population was such a risk taker, but groups that have a small percentage of these people will adapt better. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_selection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_selection
  - elcritch 2y ago
    That's my belief on why ADHD has such similar levels of prevalence (between 5%) around the globe despite drastically different cultures and varying genetics. It's great for the group as a whole as the ADHD members tend to be natural entrepreneurs, inventors, etc. However it often sucks for the individual ADHD folks and leads to higher rates of, well, everything. So the equilibrium settles to a stable fraction of the overall population.

groby_b 2y ago

> How did folk medicine come to know the effects of guanidine? Dunno. The same way we know a lot about other things in the chemistry domain - somebody tasted it, just to see what happens. "Mendeleyev's Dream" is a great book that contains many fascinating anecdotes of people going "let me just lick this, just to try". (Or, if you want to go more modern, the history of hallucinogens is pretty fun too) Humans seem to have a strong tendency to stuff unknown things into their mouth, just because they can.

falcor84 2y ago
Indeed. I would assume that this is one of the traits that survives due to group selection [0] - it would be bad if everyone in the population was such a risk taker, but groups that have a small percentage of these people will adapt better. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_selection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_selection
- elcritch 2y ago
  That's my belief on why ADHD has such similar levels of prevalence (between 5%) around the globe despite drastically different cultures and varying genetics. It's great for the group as a whole as the ADHD members tend to be natural entrepreneurs, inventors, etc. However it often sucks for the individual ADHD folks and leads to higher rates of, well, everything. So the equilibrium settles to a stable fraction of the overall population.