I know it varies from medicine to medicine but I was looking for a more general explanation.
In: Biology
The pill is mostly cornstarch or something similar. When you swallow it it dissolves into the water in your digestive system then into your blood through your small intestine.
You can take a pill and toss it into water to watch it dissolve if you would like. They will also dissolve if you leave them in your mouth too long.
The medicine does not get activated what happens is that is dissolved in water if it was a dry pill and absorbed by your body and interact with the different cells and other part of the body.
Most medicines are just molecules that do not do anything by themself but they interact with.
You can compare it to salt that you put in water and drink the water. The salt is not activated just dissolved and you can tase it when it interacts with the taste bud on your tongue.
Some medicines are directly absorbed from the mouth, or intestines, and start working right away.
Many do actually get “activated” by going through the liver, which causes chemical changes of the medicine into a form which can be used by / have an effect on the rest of the body.
In the same way nutrients from food are digested and put into your blood stream is what I would say idk if that helps at all
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