Half-life in Biology and Pharmacology
A biological half-life or elimination half-life is the time it takes for a substance (drug, radioactive nuclide, or other) to lose one-half of its pharmacologic, physiologic, or radiological activity. In a medical context, the half-life may also describe the time that it takes for the concentration in blood plasma of a substance to reach one-half of its steady-state value (the "plasma half-life").
The relationship between the biological and plasma half-lives of a substance can be complex, due to factors including accumulation in tissues, active metabolites, and receptor interactions.
While a radioactive isotope decays almost perfectly according to so-called "first order kinetics" where the rate constant is a fixed number, the elimination of a substance from a living organism usually follows more complex chemical kinetics.
For example, the biological half-life of water in a human being is about seven to 14 days, though this can be altered by his/her behavior. The biological half-life of cesium in human beings is between one and four months. This can be shortened by feeding the person prussian blue, which acts as a solid ion exchanger that absorbs the cesium while releasing potassium ions in their place.
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