Saturday, June 4, 2011

Did you ever wonder how pills know where to go and what to do?

Did you ever wonder how pills know where to go and what to do?

By David McClelland

This question has always puzzled me. I just never could understand how the pharmaceutical companies made all those "smart" pills that would always reach their intended destinations within our bodies and, once there, are able to do their intended tasks. It was truly a mystery to me.

Over the last year, I researched this question on the internet, but couldn't fully understand what I found there. I tried the direct approach and questioned doctors and pharmacists. I could never get an answer from them in layman's terms or that satisfied me.

From what all of them told me, I have pieced together an answer with which I am reasonably comfortable, within limits.

Here is what I think I now know about the pills. We need to use an example to make sense out of this. Let's keep it simple and use a pain-killer. Let's say you have an ache or pain at one specific place in your body and you resort to an over-the-counter medication that is supposed to provide pain relief for several hours. The instructions on the package say to take one pill with a full glass of water and your follow the instructions. What happens next? As best as I can understand it, the pill dissolves in your stomach and its contents get into your blood stream and travel all throughout your body. As the medicated blood passes the place where the pain originates, there are receptors there that absorb this particular type of medicine. I think of the receptors as being like tiny "smart" sponges. If all goes well, the medicine in the pill reaches its intended destination and goes to work and the pain subsides until the medication wears off in approximately the time promised on the package. Then, you must take another pill to again find pain relief. I have been advised that you should take the second pill an hour before the first one wears off so as not to be in pain between pills.

I'm sure a medical expert would find the above an overly simplistic explanation and it probably is, but it is the best I can do. I couldn't begin to understand the medications for more serious diseases and how they work, but I have been told that receptors are at work there too.

If you know of a better explanation, in laymen's terms, please let me know.

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