why do we have to take medicines at the same intervals everyday and not just take them for example 2 times whenever we like? Is there a specific advantage to it being spaced out over a longer period of time or is it just to keep track of what I’m taking?
In: Biology
Drugs get cleared out of your body at a particular half life. So if a drug has a half life of 1 hour, after 1 hour it’ll be at 50%, after 2 hours, it’ll be at 25% and so on. To reach effectiveness in your body, the drug has to be at a therapeutic dose, meaning below this, it does nothing or just has side effects. There’s also a toxic dose, where above this, it causes the normal effects + more side effects.
Medicines are taken so that they’re finely balanced so that they’re above the therapeutic dose but below the toxic dose. And because there’s half lives to consider, spreading out your doses means that you stay within this range (therapeutic interval) longer and minimise time outside of it.
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