This question came about as my wife has just started a course of steroids to treat her Crohn’s Disease. They work amazingly well, amazingly quickly… But they are only a temporary solution as they have a range of significant side effects such as thinning of the bones, insomnia, etc…
Steroids are “old” in medical terms – why haven’t we managed to remove the side effects yet?
In: Chemistry
Well, the simplest ELI5 reason is that everyone is different. When you design a drug, you do as much as you can to ensure it will work as intended. However, its effects also depend on one’s genes, diet and lifestyle, age, other health issues and if this person takes any additional drugs. There are so many variables outside your control, that among a large group (thousands) of people, you will always find several individuals for whom your treatment isn’t effective or causes some bad side effects. That is because they can have some unique combination of conditions listed above.
EDIT: I want to add the second part. With any modification you risk introducing new side effects. Yet, this industry is constantly improving, we find better and safer drugs all the time. It’s true that for some health issues it is harder. Some of it is due to the fact, that these drugs have to mess with crucial processes in your body to be effective. This makes finding a substance which will do the job without causing serious problems down the line extremely difficult.
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