Why are some prescribed to be taken during specific times? What happens if we skip these instructions?
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Some substances bind with fat for example. It’s why marijuana together with fatty brownies works well together. Your body is then able to process the fat and make more use of the substance in the process of breaking it down. Other substances have other requirements / recommendations for intake.
It depends on their function or their interaction with you ~~intestinal~~ *gastrointestinal* system. Like you wouldn’t use a rapid acting insulin way before eating because you’d have a dramatic drop in blood sugar. Other medicines might irritate or damage part of you GI tract alone, so food might help you body cope. Other medicines might not get absorbed or digested properly if taken with food… and maybe even interact with the food and become less effective. Just a whole bunch of small reasons. I’m sure someone better versed in pharmacology will come along with better more detailed examples though.
There are many possible reasons. Sometimes you need the drug to be absorbed through the stomach or intestines relatively quickly, without any food competing for passage and slowing absorption of the drug. Sometimes you actually want the opposite, where the drug breaks down and gets absorbed slowly as you digest the food around it. Sometimes the drug actually interacts with some foods that you might eat, reducing its effectiveness. Sometimes the drug irritates your stomach, and having food there can reduce the irritation. It depends a lot on how the drug works and how much your body tolerates it.
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