In our world today, lots of persons abuse medicine, they use medicine anyhow without proper pescription from a medical personnel. For example, lots of persons use a particular drug to treat any kind of disease Symptoms they have without knowing what what causes that disease, and that is very dangerous because a particular disease Symptom can be as result of different diseases, hence it is important to know what disease it is and what causes it, so you can know the right medicine to apply.
It is important to note that every drug is not medicine. Then what is medicine?.
What is medicine
Medicine is a drug or combination of drugs supplied in a suitable container with a proper labelling, having a definite dosage form with dose and are therapeutically used for treatment Pharmaceuticals. of diseases https://howtodiscuss.com/t/symptom/12173. A medicine is any drug that can cure a disease https://howtodiscuss.com/t/morbidity/11264. condition when taken by a sick individual. Medicine can be used to cure, or prevent disease, ease symptoms or help in the diagnosis https://howtodiscuss.com/t/diagnosis/6993. of illnesses
Summary
A medicine is any drug that medically approved for the treatment, diagnosis, management and prevention of a disease condition. All medicines are drug but all drugs are not medicine.
Why do people take medicine
People take medicine for
- healing from an illness or disease condition.
- prevention of disease https://howtodiscuss.com/t/symptom/12173. (prophylaxis) and maintenance of health.
- relief pain caused by diseases or injury
- promotion of healing https://howtodiscuss.com/t/health/8405. from an injury.
How does medicines work
Medicines donot achieve their desired effects by doing anything new in our bodies. Drugs do not do anything new in our bodies. They only speed up or slow down what is already happening or going to happen in our body. That’s how drugs or medicines achieve their desired goal. They do not do anything new in our body. In the case of microbial infections https://howtodiscuss.com/t/contagious/12248… Antibiotics https://howtodiscuss.com/t/antibiotic/8734. targets the microorganism that is causing the infections and render it defenseless for your body’s immune system to be able to kill them… antibiotics also neutralize toxins produced by this microbes.
Summary
Drugs and medicines work by either aiding or inhibiting an already existing physiological process in our body. Drugs don’t do anything new in our body, they only speed up or slow down what is already happening or going to happen. That’s how they achieve their effects.
Sex difference (why are women more susceptible to side effects)
A recent research in medicine has shown that women are more susceptible to drug’s side effects and the effects of lots of drugs used as medicine are more prolonged in women than in men . This is because the physiology
https://howtodiscuss.com/t/physiological/14536. of women is slightly different from that of men, and the metabolism of women is also slower than that of men.
Side effects
Side effects are undesirable and unavoidable pharmacological effects of drugs used as medicine which occur at doses suitable for the body. For example, Atropine causes dryness of mouth.
Summary
side effects are unavoidable pharmacological effects of a drug at a therapeutic dose, it is usually as a result of the drug binding to it’s receptors.
** Allergic reaction**
An allergic reaction is an immunologically mediated adverse reaction to a drug. It is usually genetically https://howtodiscuss.com/t/inheritance/10287. mediated, in other words, it is inherited. For example, chloroquine causes severe itching in some people but it is completely harmless in some persons.
Dosing and why dosing
Drugs are usually pescribed in doses. It is extremely important to follow the pescribed dosage
https://howtodiscuss.com/t/dose/14613. to avoid adverse drug reactions which can be life threatening in some cases.
Indication and contraindication
Indication means what a drug can be used for, the kind of diseases
https://howtodiscuss.com/t/morbidity/11264. and conditions it can be used to threat while contraindication is what a drug MUST NOT BE USED FOR. For example you don’t give a NSAID (non steriodal anti-inflammatory drugs) to an ulcer patient.
Summary
Indication is what a drug should be used for, i.e the disease condition it should be used to treat. While contraindication is what a drug must never be used for. For example, misoprosol causes uterine contraction hence it is contraindicated in pregnancy so that it will not cause forced abortion.
Using medicine correctly
In using a drug as medicine, it is important to know when the drug is indicated and when it is contraindicated. Not only that, but the dosing must be known and followed strictly so as to achieve the maximum benefit(s) of the drug and prevent unwanted reactions (adverse reactions)
https://howtodiscuss.com/t/intolerance/12245. which can be fetal.
Summary
It is important to know what the disease is and what causes it so as to know the right medicine to take. Take only medically pescribed medications.
Breaking therapy
It is important to deligently complete your therapy and not break the therapy
https://howtodiscuss.com/t/remedy/10801. halfway. This is because if you break the therapy, the drug
https://howtodiscuss.com/t/drug/7460. will not achieve it’s full purpose and the illness
https://howtodiscuss.com/t/terminally-ill/10182. will still be there and your body may becomes more tolerant to that drug such that you will be needing a higher dose
https://howtodiscuss.com/t/dose-response-relationship/7762. for maximum efficacy
https://howtodiscuss.com/t/efficacy/11168.
Summary
Breaking a drug therapy halfway is very dangerous, it makes your to develop resistance to that drug and so reducing it’s efficacy and gives the disease a greater chance of destroying your body.
Frequently asked questions
Is all drugs medicine?
All medicines are drugs but all drugs are not medicine.
Whenever I’m feeling unwell is it right for me to just go to over the counter and by medications that have worked for me before?
No, a particular Symptom maybe as result of different different disease conditions with different etiology, for example feeling feverish can be as a result of malaria, Ebola virus infection, Corona virus infection, etc. This is why it is important see a medical personnel to direct you on what to do.
conclusion
A medicine is a drug that is used therapeutically to cure, manage, prevent, or to diagnose as disease.
It is important to know when a medication is indicated and when it is contraindicated so as not to suffer from dangerous adverse effects, such as aggravation of ulcer when an NSAIDs is taken by an ulcer patient or forced abortion when misoprosol is taken by a pregnant woman. It is important to always seek medical advice before taking an medication.