how does the pill know what"s ill?

Answer 1

It varies depending on what's "ill" but there's a general concept. With respect to pain/headache medication, the "pill" delivers drugs which flow through the blood stream and go into spaces called synaptic gaps. Synapses are spaces between neurons or "brain cells" that run throughout your body. These neurons make up your central nervous system which allows your brain to control muscle movement. The pill delivers a drug that is of a certain shape that fits into your pain receptors in the synaptic gap and blocks it so you don't continue to feel pain.

Other drugs work similarly, they flow through the blood to a location where they may take effect. They aren't "smart" pills that know exactly what's wrong with you :). That's why there are side effects to many drugs... they'll fix one part of you but mess you up in some other way. Like if you take vicodin, it will get rid of pain, but it will make you drowsy and sometimes nauseated. It's just about making it more balanced so your body's own immune system can have a chance at making you better.

Answer 2

In reference to presciption pain medications, they are created to replace or enhance the bodies natural pain relievers. There are different chemicals that we secrete for pain relief in the brain. These types of pills copy those natural occuring chemicals. The answer is actually much more detailed but this kind of gives you the short version.

Antibiotics are drugs that are designed to kill germs that invade our bodies. Antibiotics will work on bacteria but not viruses. And not all antibiotics will work on all bacteria. That is why you have to go to a doctor to get a prescription. You have broad spectrum antibiotics that are designed to kill a wide range of bacteria. Then you have more specialized antibiotics that are designed to kill a select few bacteria. Example, pennicillin kills almost everything where as bactrim may only kill the germs that attack the bladder.
Scientist study the bacteria so that they can tell what drugs will affect what germs. Aids is a good example of this.

Overuse of bacteria can actually kill the good germs that we have in our body, that is why women will sometimes get yeast infections when they are on antibiotics for a long time or on high doses. Bacteria can also become resistant to antibiotics and that is why sometimes your prescription is changed.

Viruses now have their own types of drugs that have been designed to recognize them and attack the invader.

Anti-imflammatories, such as the ones for arthritis, are designed in the lab to help relieve joint pain and swelling.

Scientist are able to see the different germs and what affects them and what doesn't. It is true that some drugs have side effects but that is why the FDA makes sure that the doctors and scientists do extensive studies on all the medications, both over-the-counter and prescription drugs before they are released to the general public. Even then sometimes they have to take drugs off the market.


I hope that helped a little at least.

Answer 3

A pill doesn't "know" anything. Instead, it simply delivers a chemical (inserted at a factory) which impacts whatever it was intended to impact, with the fewest possible side effects to anything else.

Answer 4

I put that differently, "I hope it knows where to go and what to heal" and often wondered how does it know where to go and what the pill needs to do ?

Answer 5

it doesn't need to know. it just like the light doesn't know how to clear the dark but it's presence just solve it. so when the pill is down to your stomach and deslove it's content into the blood, then the rest is history.

Answer 6

i asked my mum the same question when i was 5 and she told me that it doesnt it just goes into the bloodstream throughout the body

Answer 7

Its a damn clever little pill.

Answer 8

it doesn't...your body responds to the chemical in a certain way, and hopefully your brain had you take the right medicine.

cryllie

Answer 9

it blocks everything that could be ill

Answer 10

It speaks pillow talk