How Does Medicine Know Where To Go

Every year Americans spend more than 250 billion dollars on over the counter prescriptions for an ache or pain that they may be experiencing. Not only do Americans spend a vast amount of money on over the counter prescriptions, but also on medical alternatives such as essential oils or physical therapy. Many people have often asked, ¨How does medicine know where to go?¨ Many believe that medicine knows where to go, however medicine does not know exactly where to go in the body.

When a pill enters the body, the pill travels to the stomach where it stays in the same form. After the stomach the pill travels through the small intestine to the liver where it is then dissolved into the bloodstream. Once in the bloodstream, the dissolved pill goes all around the body. For example, when you take a pain reliever such as Tylenol for a headache the medicine does not know that it needs to go straight to your head. When the cells in your body are damaged they release a chemical called prostaglandin. Prostaglandin is a chemical that acts as a signal to your nerve endings which then goes to your brain which makes you feel pain. While the pill is in the blood system it prevents prostaglandin from being released from cells, once this process is stopped you don’t feel any pain.

The long list of side effects is due to the fact that the pill does not know exactly where to go. When the pill travels through the whole bloodstream trying to repair cells it is reducing swelling of your entire body, not just in your head to cure your headache. That is why Tylenol has side effects such as nausea, stomach pain, rash, and itching. Medicines such as chemotherapy medication, which attacks almost all cells not just cancer cells. Chemotherapy medication looks for rapidly repairing cells. Your hair has rapidly growing and repairing cells, that is why you lose your hair.

People debate whether the benefits of a medicine is worth the possible side effects of medicines. Some of the common side effects of medicines include nausea and upset stomach. Another type of side effect is called drug interaction, which is when one mixes the drug with certain things such as drinking alcohol and grapefruit juice. The possible outcomes of consuming these beverages includes accidental overdose, blood pressure fluctuation, and high or low cholesterol levels. Out of fourteen, fifty percent believe that the benefits of a medication are worth the possible side effects, fourteen percent believe that they side effects are not worth the benefits, and thirty five percent believe that the side effects could possibly be worth the benefits.

Many believe that the side effects are not worth the benefits, so they may use alternate medications such as acupuncture, going to see a chiropractor, essential oils, cupping, and physical therapy. Alternative medicine use is on the rise especially among teenagers. At least fourteen percent of students at Fannin County High School have tried acupuncture, thirty five percent have tried going to a chiropractor, sixty four percent have tried essential oils, twenty one percent have tried cupping, and forty two percent have tried physical therapy.