It seems like the more potent a drug/medication is, the more risks are involved with it, where as drugs with very little risk don’t help nearly as much.
In: Biology
It depends on what you consider a side effect. For a young, healthy person, there are many drugs which won’t cause any negative effects at all. For instance, most people who take acetaminophen (paracetamol) at appropriate doses for a headache will not experience any negative effects. Same goes for calcium carbonate tabs for heartburn, non-sedating antihistamines for allergies, etc.
There are about a bazillion listed side effects for almost any drug, but this is from large studies – if you take thousands of people with different genetics, ages, and health conditions, someone is bound to get negative effects from almost any medication. Likewise, taking any substance at much higher than the recommended dose (e.g. overdosing) will almost always result in negative effects – this is even true of something like water or food!
That said, if something is said to have absolutely no effects other than the intended one, there’s a good chance that it’s utter BS and doesn’t even do that (e.g. homeopathy).
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