Interesting Facts Regarding Drugs

Drugs when processed and packaged become medicines. These medicines are available to us either as over the counter (OTC) or as prescribed medicines. Medicines are almost used by everyone and you must know some interesting facts about your medicines & be aware of some important things regarding them.

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Drugs are to be handled with much care and should be taken only under the supervision of a registered medical practitioner. If you think that it is safe to take a simple and common medication for headache that is paracetamol, then you are wrong as you need to see the health of your liver when you take this medicine. Although it is available as an OTC drug (drug which is available without prescription).

Do you know that many people world wide have been admitted to hospitals and are suffering from one or the other severe illness? This is because of inappropriate usage of medicines. This is also known as adverse drug reaction. These reactions take some time to show their effects on the body.

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Have a look at some interesting facts regarding drugs.

Brand Name

Yes it is true sometimes brand matters, if you are taking a drug of a particular brand from a longer period of time. Make sure you continue to purchase the same brand always. As the bioavailability (amount of drug absorbed in the blood) of different brands may vary. This means the drug you are having is well effective for you and the other drug may not reach the same plasma concentration.

Aspirin

It is a common drug which you all know is used to alleviate pain. However, many effective drugs have drugs that have replaced aspirin for pain relief. But, do you know aspirin in different doses has different effects on the body. It is used to thin blood and to prevent the risk of heart attack.

Sublingual Tablets

These tablets are placed below the tongue and show their effect within two minutes as they enter the blood through the skin below the tongue. This drug bypasses the stomach and directly enters the blood circulation. This route is used in emergency conditions such as high blood pressure. An example for this is nitroglycerine.

Injections

Administration of drug through injection has quick reaction as it does not enter stomach and then spreads through blood circulation. It is an emergency route but must be given with caution as it can be a cause of many serious infections. Moreover, there are many types of injection route such as intramuscular, intravenous, subcutaneous etc. There are different drugs meant for different routes and accidental administration of IM injection as IV can be fatal.

Implants

These are small sterile tablets that are inserted by a small incision on the skin and are placed into the subcutaneous layer. These tablets release the contents into the blood slowly and have sustained action. They can show their action for six or more months. Mostly contraceptive drugs are given by this route.

Drug patches

These are adhesive patches and are sticked on the skin. This patch contains drug which enters the blood through the skin and also shows sustained action. Some pain killers are given by this route to show continuous effect in the body.

Antibiotics

Do you know that if you will take antibiotics and antacids simultaneously, then there will be no effect of antibiotic in your body as the alkaline nature of antacids will ionise the acidic antibiotic. So always keep a gap of at least six hours between both of them.

Calcium Interaction

Calcium interacts with most of the drugs. If you take calcium simultaneously with other drugs such as thyroid hormones, the other drug can't show any effect as calcium forms a complex with the drugs that is not absorbed into he blood.

Paracetamol

Analgesics or pain killers are most misused by people. There are different type of pain in the body and depending on the type of pain you have to select the pain killer. Avoid having paracetamol for all pains as it mostly has antipyretic properties. It brings down elevated body temperature down effectively. If you have inflammation along with pain then have non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID'S)

Generic Drugs

These are the drugs which do not have any brand name and are known by their chemical name. Since no brand is involved they are cheap and yet effective. People should promote the use of generic drugs. Unfortunately in India generic drugs are not available everywhere and people don't use it.

First Pass Metabolism

Do you know that the drugs you take through oral route are destroyed in the liver and the remaining part enters the blood and show its effects. This is called as first pass metabolism. So the dose is adjusted properly. For example: If a drug has 50 percent first pass metabolism then 50 percent dose is added extra by the manufacturing unit. A drug having 100 percent first pass metabolism is given through injection.