DGeorge Bailey, a Canadian phenom turned doctor, died on August 27 at the age of 77. He is best known for his accidental discovery that certain fruit juices had a negative impact on the effectiveness of certain drugs. He died at his home in London, Ont., of a probable heart attack, according to The Globe and Mail.
Bailey was born on March 17, 1945 in Toronto. He was adopted by George and Barbara Bailey, a salesman and housewife respectively. His mother’s cousin, a pediatrician, helped spark Bailey’s interest in science by showing him how insulin could help people with diabetes. As a child he lost an eye in an accident, and although this kept him from participating in many sports, Bailey took up running and found immense success.
Bailey made history in 1966 by becoming the first Canadian to run a mile in less than 4 minutes. In 1967, Bailey medaled in the 1,500 meters at several international competitions, winning the bronze medal at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and the silver medal at the World University Games in Tokyo. The following year, he made the Canadian Olympic team and competed in the 1968 Games in Mexico. He just missed going to the semi-finals after finishing sixth in his first-round heat (only the top five could advance).
He began studying pharmaceutical sciences as an undergraduate at the University of Toronto in 1964. He remained there for his doctorate, earning his degree in pharmacology in 1973. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Saskatchewan and then worked for the now known company. like AstraZeneca, the World reports. In 1986 he began teaching at the University of Western Ontario (now known as Western University). The university had a partnership with what is now called the Lawson Health Research Institute, allowing Bailey new avenues for his research.
A few years later, Bailey was studying the interactions between alcohol and the blood pressure drug felodipine. In a clinical trial, he tried using fruit juice to cover the pungent taste of alcohol before giving it to participants. He noticed that those who drank the juice had much higher concentrations of the drug in their blood afterwards, although it was unclear at first whether it was the alcohol or the juice that was creating the odd reaction. .
“So I decided to do a pilot study, on myself, to find out,” he said. On the inside, a London Health Services Center publication, in 2013. “I once took the medicine with water, then I took it with grapefruit juice. My drug levels were five times higher with grapefruit juice. It was a great eureka moment.
In subsequent research, Bailey and others tested new drug and juice combinations to see if they reacted in the same way, and also tested whether the timing of juicing mattered. Ultimately, he discovered that an intestinal enzyme, CYP3A4, was inhibited by the flavonoids in the juice, which suppressed the metabolism of the drug and caused its concentration to reach dangerous levels.
Felodipine was far from the only drug to react with grapefruit juice. Over the years it was discovered that more than 85 drugs, which treat a range of conditions from cancer to heart disease, are known to be affected by the juice. The list continues to grow each year. While some drugs lose their effectiveness because of the juice, more than 40 are potentially fatal when consumed with juice because the body does not metabolize it as quickly and it lingers in the system. The “grapefruit effect”, as it has been called, has led to labels on these drugs warning patients to avoid the fruit at all times while taking the drug. Other citrus fruits have also been shown to produce the same effect.
According to a obituary Written by his family, Bailey passed away in 2020 by his wife Barbara, and is survived by three children, their spouses, seven grandchildren and a large extended family.