HOW DO PILLS NAVIGATE THEIR PATH WITHIN THE HUMAN BODY?
HOW DO PILLS NAVIGATE THEIR PATH WITHIN THE HUMAN BODY?
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| January 6, 2024
Ever wonder how a tiny Advil makes your muscle pain disappear? Or how is your fever gone after taking Tylenol? How does ibuprofen distinguish your muscle pain from a headache? This all leads to the larger question: How do these tiny agents know exactly where to unleash their healing power?
As surprising as it may sound, these pills and drugs are not advanced enough to locate the exact destination of your pain. The medication you intake will be processed by various organs before its components are released into your bloodstream. However, the process is not simple. Once the medication is taken orally, it arrives in the stomach where stomach acids break it down. Factors such as drug properties, age, and weight of the person can affect the speed at which medications are broken down [1].
Subsequently, it passes through the intestinal wall via a process known as absorption. This occurs through mechanisms such as passive diffusion, where a substance lowers its concentration, active transport, where the substance moves against its concentration gradient, or facilitated diffusion, where transport proteins help substances move across cell membranes. This allows drugs to move from the gastrointestinal tract into the bloodstream [4].
However, one last step remains before these medications enter the bloodstream which is traveling to the liver. They enter the liver through the portal vein, a blood vessel that directs blood from the digestive organs to the liver. This portal circulation allows the liver to metabolize and process the drugs before they reach the bloodstream. During this metabolization process, drugs are transformed into water-soluble compounds that can be expelled through the bile [3].
After the absorption of medication, the next major step is its navigation through the bloodstream. During this step, the drug gets distributed through the body as the heart pumps blood and carries the medication to various organs and tissues. This distribution allows the drug to reach its target [2]. However, side effects can arise when a drug affects a location other than its intended target, leading to unintended reactions in the body. Some common side effects among medications are fatigue, drowsiness, and nausea [1].
In the elimination phase, drugs are removed from the body to maintain a balance and prevent accumulation. Renal excretion is a crucial process in this stage where the kidneys filter drugs from the bloodstream that then exit the body through urine. It’s important to note that understanding drug elimination is necessary for determining the appropriate dosage. The rate at which a drug is eliminated from the body clarifies how often it needs to be taken. This knowledge allows healthcare professionals to decide the correct medication for patients [4].
Despite not having the ability to pinpoint pain locations, the medications we take undergo a complex digestive journey. After oral intake, they are broken down by your stomach acid and pass through the intestinal wall, where they get prepared to be absorbed by your liver. The liver then uses its filtration process to send the wastes to your kidneys and spread the necessities to the rest of your body. The subsequent navigation through the bloodstream, maintained by the heart, ensures the widespread use of drugs to their intended targets. However, this journey is not without its challenges and side effects. In unraveling the mysteries of how medications traverse through the body, we gain insight not only into their healing power but also their pharmacology and physiology. This knowledge empowers healthcare professionals to make enforced decisions about their drug prescriptions for their patients.
REFERENCES
How do medicines “know” where to go? LabXchange. (n.d.). https://www.labxchange.org/library/items/lb:LabXchange:beef1889:html:1#:~:text=The%20medicine%20travels%20throughout%20the,the%20drug%20perform%20its%20job.
Ocrcnews. (2019, May 22). How does the body metabolize medication?. Orlando Clinical Research Center. https://ocrc.net/how-does-the-body-metabolize-medication/
Vaja, R., & Rana, M. (2020, October). Drugs and the liver. Anaesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7508170/#:~:text=The%20liver%20metabolises%20a%20wide,oxidation%2C%20reduction%20and%20hydrolysis%20reactions.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). A Medicine’s life inside the body. National Institute of General Medical Sciences. https://nigms.nih.gov/education/Inside-Life-Science/Pages/A-Medicines-Life-Inside-the-Body.aspx
Le, J. (2023, October 13). Drug administration - drugs. Merck Manuals Consumer Version. https://www.merckmanuals.com/home/drugs/administration-and-kinetics-of-drugs/drug-administration#:~:text=The%20drug%20passes%20through%20the,of%20drug%20reaching%20the%20bloodstream.
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