B6-preventing and treating diseases Flashcards
Epidemology
study of large scale data relating to health and disease.
Causation vs Correlation
What is a placebo
A fake pill that makes the body think it is being medicated when it isn’t (can help make people better). It is used to see if a drug actually has any beneficial effect.
Before a drug reaches clinical trial and after
Before a drug reaches clinical trials, it must pass lots of tests. They are tested in labs to find out if they are toxic and if they are efficient in their job. At this stage they are tested of cell, tissues and organs but lots of chemicals fail this stage. The drugs that pass those tests are then tested on animals to see if they work on whole living organisms and to help work out doses and side effects that a human might experience. If it passes this preclinical test, then the drug goes to human trials. Where the drug is tested on a small group of healthy human
volunteers to check its safety and then the drug tested on small numbers of volunteer patients who have the illness, to ensure it works. Drug tested on large numbers of volunteer patients to monitor drug effectiveness, safety, dosage, and side effects. Finally the drug is approved and can be prescribed
What is a double blind trial
1) A group of patients with the targeted disease agree to take part
2) Some patients are given a placebo that doesn’t contain the drug and some are given the new medicine
3) All the patients are mixed up into different groups so neither the doctors or patients know who has the real drug until the end of the trial
4) Then all patients health is monitored
Often the placebo contains a different drug that is already known to treat the disease so the patient gets some treatment.
Treating and preventing diseases
Pain killers -reduce nerve impulses therefore reduce feeling of pain -don't actually treat problem or pathogens Antibiotics -kill bacteria(and fungi) But not VIRUSES -chemicals that (usually) destroy bacteria cells walls -can be tablets, liquids or injected -derived from plants/fungi -bacteria are evolving resistance to antibiotics Washing your hands -soap/hot water -alcohol gel or foam Cooking with raw meat and fish properly Disinfectant -go on surfaces Diet and exercise Amputation Antiseptics -go on skin Isolate the infected if it is communicable Vaccination
Vaccination
Small amounts of dead or inactive pathogen are put into your body often by injection.
The antigens in the vaccine simulate your white blood cells into making antibodies. The antibodies destroy the antigens without any risk of you getting the diseases.
You are immune to further infections by the pathogen. Thats because your body can respond rapidly and make the correct antibody as if you had the disease.
Memory cells remember how to produce the required antibodies.
Vaccination is known as active immunisation as
Because your white blood cells have to actively produce the right antibodies
Passive immunisation
when the correct antibody is injected in your system so that if you get the pathogen it is destroyed-usually only used if you are going on holiday.
Herd immunity is
when a large enough proportion of the population is immune to a disease the spread of the pathogen is reduced and the disease may even disappear like smallpox and polio.
But If the number of people taking up a vaccine falls the herd immunity is lost and the disease can reappear like in uk in the 1970s when there was a scare about the safety of the whooping cough vaccine rates fell from 80%to 30% and people started to get it and die and then people started to get the vaccine again.
Digitalis
Used to strengthen the heartbeat.
Comes from foxgloves.
Aspirin
Aspirin is commonly used to treat a wide range of health issues it relieves pain and inflammation.
It comes from willow bark when in 1897 Felix Hoffman synthesised acetyl salicylic acid (aspirin).
Penicillin
It is used to kill bacteria.
It come from Fleming who left the lids of a culture plate and later coming back to it and realising the mould had killed the bacteria covering the gel. He called it penicillin but couldn’t extract it from the mould after 7 years of trying so 10 years later Ernest Chain and Howard Florey extracted penicillin
What happens if the number of people taking up the vaccine falls
herd immunity is lost and the disease can reappear like in uk in the 1970s when there was a scare about the safety of the whooping cough vaccine rates fell from 80%to 30% and people started to get it and die and then people started to get the vaccine again.
Toxicity
Whether the drug has any poisonous side effects
Efficacy
How effective a drug is
