For many years, medicines and drugs have been developed to treat many different illnesses. Vaccinations have been made to treat wide epidemics, like small pox, and most recently the H1N1 virus. Over-the-counter drugs have been produced to help reduce acid reflux and swelling. Even with these discoveries, there is still more drugs that have yet to be made to treat diseases like cancer and AID’s. When pharmacists study medicine and drugs, it’s important for the scientists to understand how drugs are used to help with the functioning of the body.
Microorganisms attack billions of humans and animals bodies everyday. These microorganisms are known as invaders. These invaders cause the body to respond as different lines of defense. Examples of non-specific defense mechanisms are the skin, mucus, white blood cells, and blood clotting which defend invaders. Examples of specific defense mechanisms are antibodies and memory cells.
Another phrase for medicine and drugs is pharmaceutical products. These products include different types of medicines and drugs. A drug is “a chemical that affects how the body works” (Brown). A drug will change the body if negative or positive ways. Drugs like heroin and cocaine could essentially harm the body. A medicine is “a substance that improves health” (Brown). Medicines usually have a therapeutic effect to the body because they are beneficial drugs. In general, “medicine or drug is any chemical that alters the physiological state, including consciousness, activity level or coordination, incoming sensory sensations, or moods and emotions” (“Option”). The placebo effect is a controversial topic that has been used as a therapeutic drug that isn’t really drug. The patient believes they are taking a usef...
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The immune system is made up of a network of cells, tissues, and organs that work together to protect the body, and it defends the body from “foreign invaders.” Immunity can be divided in two three different defenses, and these are defined as first, second and third lines of defense. The first line of defense for the immune system is the primary defense against pathogens entering the body from the surface in order to prevent the start of disease and infection. Some examples of the first line of defense is the skin, protecting the external boundaries of the body, and the mucous membranes, protecting the internal boundaries of the body. Although the skin and mucous membranes work on the internal and external boundaries, they both release chemicals
Ernst, E., & Resch, K. L. (1995). Concept of true and perceived placebo effects. British Medical
Most of the time nonspecific defenses keep pathogens from getting into the body. Sometimes one can break through and cause a disease. This is where the immune system comes into use.
If the placebo effect is used on common conditions that are associated with the over the counter drugs, people will most likely stop damaging their livers just because they have a headache, fever, feeling sore, and even as pain relievers. There has been a study on cough medicines being related to the placebo effect. “The major benefit of cough medicines for treatment of cough associated with common cold is related to the placebo effect rather than the pharmacological effect of an active ingredient” (Freeman). The researches have finally concluded that, “the idea is developed that a sweet taste may modulate cough at the level of the nucleus tractus solitaries, possibly by influencing the production of endogenous opioids.” In this study it is shown that the medicines effectiveness for the cough was around the same effectiveness as the ones with the placebo effect. Some key factors that help the results of the placebo effect become effective in this study are “the healer-patient interaction, cultural beliefs about traditional treatments, the environment in which the medicine is administered, the properties of the medicine such as taste, color and smell, advertising and claims made about the efficacy of the medicine, the brand name of the medicine,
As modern humans, we understand that the quality of our health is affected by the negative impacts, such as air pollution, water and food. Science is developing in much faster way but at the same time number of problems are also arising. Problems like infectious diseases, diseases without any treatment or whose treatments are available up to a lesser extent such as Lung cancer, prostate cancer, skin cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, penile cancer etc. Cancer is responsible for one in seven deaths. It is epidemic disease thefore its consequences can be seen worldwide. More than twelve million new cases diagnosed yearly and the rate is increasing much faster (Hegde, j.j. 2009). Large number of patients die after developing cancer despite the availabity of various treatments, therefore there is a increase demand for a developing new approaches to cancer therapy. There are number of treatments available but the problem is that they have number of side effects, disturbance or effect on the norm...
“Pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) can be seen as two sides of the same coin. PK and PD have a definite relationship, assessing how much drug gets to the site of action and then what that action is. Both activities are essential in the complete investigation of the interaction between the drug and body, and play significant roles in both drug development and their continual use in the clinical setting (Institute Of Clinical Research, Clinical Pharmacology Special Interest Group, Pharmacokinetics vs. Pharmacodynamics).”
Drugs are classified as chemicals that affect the brain by blocking, mimicking or altering chemical reactions. It is on this very premise organizations have shifted
The placebo effect according to Shapiro, is ‘The nonspecific psychological or physiological therapeutic effect produced by a placebo or the effect of spontaneous improvement attributed to the placebo treatment’ (Shapiro, 1968, cited in Harrington, 1997)
Typically, almost everyone in the world has taken drugs at some point in their life. Whether it be over the counter medication or prescription drugs. People get sick, they have illness, allegories, sexually transmitted diseases or other aches and pains. As you may already know, there is medication for each aforementioned problem. This is called drug use, which is using drugs for its intended purpose. However, the real dilemma happens when people began to misuse and abuse drugs.
When you first hear of drugs you assume one is talking about illegal substances. In our society however drugs are more than just something to get you “high”. Some drugs however are here to help our society. Many drugs are here to be used as prescription drugs to ease us through pains, illnesses, and sorrows. As the technology and medical advances in our world, so do the many different drugs that are being tested in the drug pipelines and entering our markets.
The immune system is a fascinating structure it defends the body against foreign invaders like bacteria, viruses and parasites. There are two primary forms that make up the immune system they are, innate and adaptive systems. Both the innate and adaptive system plays a large role in the immune system. The innate is the primary system to defend against foreign materials and the adaptive is the secondary system that responds to specific issues.
Over the centuries, several treatment methods have been utilized by humans for remedy diseases when they caught. Two of them are modern medicine and traditional medicine. Traditional medicine, which is also called alternative treatment, is older than modern medicine. This effective treatment had been used for many centuries before modern medicine was found. On the contrary, modern medicine has been used since the 1900’s (Lyons). In this system, drugs’ tests are carefully done in the safe laboratories, and their side effects are identified before they are given to the patient. Moreover, the effects of the pills are written on the leaflets which are found in the drug packages to warn the patients for these effects. However, sometimes the side effects are not blocked, so people have to take another pill to get better. It makes people take more chemicals into their bodies. Even traditional medicine, give its place to the modern medicine when its beginning times, it is used efficaciously like modern medicine at the present time. In course of time, people will gain reliance on traditional medicine again, since alternative medicine is more efficient and powerful in order to get better and soothe the diseases than modern medicine. In fact, in traditional medicine, there are fewer drugs, side effects, holistic therapy that people can be availed.
Pharmacology is the science of drugs (from Greek pharmakos which means medicine or drug; and logos which means study). In actual use, it's meaning is limited to the study of how drugs and other substances affect our bodies. It has been defined as an experimental science which studies how substances that have entered our bodies affect our organism. The main tasks of pharmacologists are screening for desired activity, determining mode of action, and quantifying drug activity when chemical methods are not available.[1]
WHO, W. H. (2008). Tradtional Medicine. available at http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs134/en/ retrieved on 9-11-11 at 10:30 pm.
Drugs are chemicals that change the way a person's body or mind works. Drugs are not good for health as they have many side effects and damage our brain, heart and other important organs. Drug is a depressant that slows down the functions of the central nervous system and makes us less aware of the events around us. I...