The Evil Monkey has a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from a southeastern U.S. university. After a postdoctoral nightmare of Inquisitorial proportions, he is currently working in a laboratory and an adjunct assistant professor at a nearby state university.
Scicurious is a graduate student wrestling with a PhD in Physiology at a southern institution. She is a nerd, a geek, and also a dork. And yes, that really is her brain.
NotoriousLTP is an MD-PhD student in New York City. After finishing (hopefully soon) his PhD in behavioral neuroscience, he will re-enter the fun vortex that is medical education.
Yeesh, I post ONE thing on tryptophan and everyone's all like "excessive daytime sleepiness!" Oy. So let's be straight here. Turkey contains tryptophan. So does chicken. So does beef. So does anything containing proteins, because tryptophan is an amino acid that is one of the building blocks of larger proteins. It contains it in roughly equal proportions compared to other amino acids, and thus, eating turkey is not going to give you way more tryptophan than anything else. Also, I would not encourage anyone to take in higher amounts of tryptophan than normal, because that is silly.
I also want to say that I don't think the tryptophan in turkey is what causes excessive sleepiness after Thanksgiving meal ingestion. For reasons behind this, see this excellent article from Adventures in Ethics and Science. After all, haven't we all experienced a "food coma"? You eat a big carb meals (mmm...pasta...breakfast of champions) and the next thing you know, you're falling asleep over your computer trying to workbecausethisthing is duetomorrow...zzzzzzz....*wha*? sorry? Right. Anyway. Heavy eating of foods with high glycemic index (masshed sweet potatoes and pie, anyone?) causes changes in bloodflow (as your body lovingly cradles your stomach), as well as release of hormones in the parasympathetic nervous system which leads to "post-prandial somnolence". So don't blame the turkey, what did it ever do to you?
Also, there's a new blog 'round here! "What's new in life science research". It will be covering the current biggest topics in biotechnology, including stem cells! The latest posts are already up, and it's a great read! I recommend. Some familiar faces over there.
And now it's almost dinnertime, and I'm off to get quickly into my own food-coma amongst a plethora of family members, dogs, cats, and significant others. Mmmmm. Happy Thanksgiving!
Comments
i shall NEVER blame the pie. screw the facts!
you have an interesting blog. i'm a fellow neuropharm/drug abuse geek. :)
Posted by: leigh | November 27, 2008 9:08 PM
I like how my drunk-ass uncle has five or six Jamesons every Thanksgiving and passes out on the couch. And as my aunt is waking his dumbfuck ass up and trying to drag him home, he's gibbering about how the turkey made him "fall asleep". HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!
Happy Thanksgiving, SciC!!
Posted by: Comrade PhysioProf | November 28, 2008 12:02 AM