You may think a given drug is a miraculous godsend. Yet, someone you know may get little relief and experience unpleasant side effects when she takes the same dose. Your age, body weight and other health conditions could make you more or less susceptible to medication side effects. All of the choices can be confusing.
Your healthy body operates by constantly balancing thousands of biochemical reactions. Your heart beat, senses, movement, healing, digestion, even your thoughts occur because of elaborate and intertwined series’ of events. Diseases and their symptoms are the result of an overload, shortage or misfiring in one or more of these pathways. For example, rheumatoid arthritis occurs when chaotic inflammation attacks the body’s own tissues. Diabetes occurs because the pancreas is unable to produce insulin, or the body is unable to use that insulin.
Medicine corrects the symptoms of disease by mimicking your body’s own chemicals, and then tricking your system into behaving as it should. Individual drugs work by blocking or enhancing a specific biochemical reaction. There are so many drugs because there are so many diseases caused by so many disordered chemical reactions!
Most medicines are taken as pills that must be digested, absorbed by your intestine, processed by your liver, and then circulated via the bloodstream throughout your whole system. As your system digests and processes the pill, the ingredients in that pill are transformed into the substance designed to solve the problem. This substance floats around your bloodstream until it finds the problem.
How do the substance and the problem recognize each other? Think of a key in a lock. The key represents the drug and the lock symbolizes one step in the chemical reaction. The key fits the lock, unlocks the door, and reopens the pathway. Or, this key could lock the door and prevent anyone else from getting through. Matching the right substance to enhance or block the chemical reaction will treat the disease.
Most medicines will not cure disease. They temporarily correct a process and relieve symptoms until it’s time for the next dose. How often you need to take your pill is based on how long its active ingredient remains effective in your system. Some only need to be taken once a day, because they are active for many hours. Others only last for a few hours and need to be taken several times a day.
You’ll notice that any drug’s dosing schedule is designed to fit our 24 hour clock. Since 24 is not divisible by 5, we say, “4-6.” That way, you can spread a day’s maximum dose over the course of 24 hours. Why the range? It depends on the chemical makeup of the pill, and individual patients’ metabolism. Some drugs, especially those for heart problems, must be taken regularly and consistently. Other drugs, for less critical health issues, can be taken “as needed.” Make sure you understand what pills you take and why, and HOW and WHEN you need to take them.
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