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
An effect for one person is a side effect for another. I believe the use of Viagara for erectile dysfunction was originally seen as a side effect. Its original purpose was to treat hypertension and angina.
When you take a drug orally, you are flooding your bloodstream with a chemical. It is intended to go where it is needed, but it will go everywhere else, too.
Of course, they keep trying to find drugs that only have *one* effect, the intended effect, but they can’t always find a perfect drug like that.
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