GreenFrog
07-26-2009, 05:46 AM
I'm not a pharmacology student. The closest I've come to pharmacology is studying Chemistry in High School.
Anyway, there's been three questions that have been bugging me, and I can't seem to get an answer to them from the general public, so I've come here to see if somebody would be kind enough to help :)
So here's my first question:
If two products are reported to contain the same amount of a drug, how is it that one of them could be way more powerful? I'll give an example. Take a drug like Diazepam. The product, Valium, contains Diazepam, and you can get Valium tablets that contain 10 milligrams of Diazepam. In Asia, you can get tablets containing Diazepam made by a different company, and these tablets are reported to contain 10 milligrams of Diazepam. Now the thing is, everybody always says that the Valium tablets are way more powerful than the Asian ones, and I'm at a loss to explain why. The only explanation that comes to mind is that the Asian tablets are actually lying about how much Diazepam they contain.
Recently I had to go to a pharmacy to buy Nolvadex, but they don't have it. So I looked up Nolvadex and found out that it contains Tamoxifen. I went back to the pharmacy and asked for Tamoxifen, and they showed me a product containing 10 milligrams of Tamoxifen. Funnily enough, the product is called "Tamoxifen" and it's made by Ebewe. Normally I would say "great, I've found what I'm looking for", but because I've seen how Valium is reported to be way more powerful than its Asian counterpart, I'm not sure whether this other product is a suitable replacment.
My second question:
When determining the dose of a drug to take, should you always take into account your blood volume? For instance, let's say we have two indentical men, except one of the men is 5'0" in height, and the other is 6'4" in height. If these two men are identical in every way except for their height, then the taller guy will have twice the blood volume of the shorter guy. (I'm using the mathematical principle that if you increase something's length by X, then you increase its volume by X to the power of 3). So if these two guys are taking a drug like Diazepam, then should the shorter guy only be taking half as much as the tall guy?
My third question:
I always here people say "Antibiotics weaken your immune system". They say stuff like "if you use antibiotics this time around, then your immunity will be weakened next time". What I understand is that antibiotics can kill good bacteria in your body, especially in your gut, which is why they can cause diarrhorea, but I fail to understand how taking antibiotics could weaken your immune system or how they could result in you having weaker immunity the next time you're exposed to a pathogen.
Anyway, there's been three questions that have been bugging me, and I can't seem to get an answer to them from the general public, so I've come here to see if somebody would be kind enough to help :)
So here's my first question:
If two products are reported to contain the same amount of a drug, how is it that one of them could be way more powerful? I'll give an example. Take a drug like Diazepam. The product, Valium, contains Diazepam, and you can get Valium tablets that contain 10 milligrams of Diazepam. In Asia, you can get tablets containing Diazepam made by a different company, and these tablets are reported to contain 10 milligrams of Diazepam. Now the thing is, everybody always says that the Valium tablets are way more powerful than the Asian ones, and I'm at a loss to explain why. The only explanation that comes to mind is that the Asian tablets are actually lying about how much Diazepam they contain.
Recently I had to go to a pharmacy to buy Nolvadex, but they don't have it. So I looked up Nolvadex and found out that it contains Tamoxifen. I went back to the pharmacy and asked for Tamoxifen, and they showed me a product containing 10 milligrams of Tamoxifen. Funnily enough, the product is called "Tamoxifen" and it's made by Ebewe. Normally I would say "great, I've found what I'm looking for", but because I've seen how Valium is reported to be way more powerful than its Asian counterpart, I'm not sure whether this other product is a suitable replacment.
My second question:
When determining the dose of a drug to take, should you always take into account your blood volume? For instance, let's say we have two indentical men, except one of the men is 5'0" in height, and the other is 6'4" in height. If these two men are identical in every way except for their height, then the taller guy will have twice the blood volume of the shorter guy. (I'm using the mathematical principle that if you increase something's length by X, then you increase its volume by X to the power of 3). So if these two guys are taking a drug like Diazepam, then should the shorter guy only be taking half as much as the tall guy?
My third question:
I always here people say "Antibiotics weaken your immune system". They say stuff like "if you use antibiotics this time around, then your immunity will be weakened next time". What I understand is that antibiotics can kill good bacteria in your body, especially in your gut, which is why they can cause diarrhorea, but I fail to understand how taking antibiotics could weaken your immune system or how they could result in you having weaker immunity the next time you're exposed to a pathogen.