Metabolic Breakdown: Why Some Drugs Might Not Work On You
Have you ever wondered why, sometimes, even the seemingly most effective drugs aren’t doing too well in alleviating your symptoms? Well, the human body is capable of a great many things, including traits such as drug tolerance. The body getting used to a specific drug could be seen as the cause of medication suddenly becoming ineffective. But what about medication that you’ve never used? Another cause might be that the drug you’re using undergoes drug metabolism.
Drug metabolism is the process by which an external drug is altered by the body chemically. Typically, this process occurs when the medication reaches the liver, though not necessarily. The enzymes in the liver break the drug down to its basic chemical components, or as close as the body can get to them. The drug metabolism process can often make the drug ineffective for a variety of reasons. The breaking down of the drug into separate chemical components can render some medications ineffective, because it relies on the interaction of the compounds as a single unit to have an effect.
However, not all medications are...