Antihistamines

Mum's better! She had intestinal ulcers and partial intestinal blockage, both caused by surgeons doing a crappy job. No fear though, blockage is cleared, and antibiotics are clearing the ulcers. Thanks for the kind words!

So I'm back for a while. Gonna do a quick update on Antihistamines, and then later I'll do the other two.

Antihistamines

What are they?

Antihistamines are drugs used to treat allergic reactions. They generally act the same, and different drugs are usually just the antihistamine in different strengths or in combination with other drugs.

How do they work?

To understand how Antihistamines work, we must first know what a Histamine is.

Histamines are the part of the immune response "team" that deals with the inflammatory response. Histamines bond to histamine receptors. This bond is what causes the inflammatory response.

The inflammatory response is the stage in the immune response that increases the temperature and causes the antibodies in your blood to enter the tissue, so that they can fight off infection.

Antibodies(leukocytes) are like the swat team of your body. Without these guy, your body would never survive against any infection. I'd like to go further into how these guys work later, but this should do for now.

Now, you're probably asking, "If histamines are part of the immune response, why would I want to use antihistamines to go against them?"

Well, allergies are defined as an adverse reaction to something that is generally harmless. 

Example: See, somewhere in your DNA, there is a mix-up that makes your body think, "tree pollen=  BAD." So when your body comes into contact with tree pollen, your body treats it as though it were fighting off the worst infection imaginable. Now your body is putting everything it has into destroying this "infection," and this can be annoying or harmful to the body.

This is where Antihistamines come in.

When your body first senses the tree pollen, it begins with the histamine response, inflaming the area(usually the nose). Remember how we said histamines bonded to histamine receptors? All antihistamines do is bond to those receptors before the histamines can. This prevents/decreases the inflammatory response.

That's it.

Pretty cool, huh?

Notes:

-Some antihistamines can cause drowsiness.

-Antihistamines are not nearly enough to fight off severe allergies, such as peanut allergies. Your doctor may give you an EpiPen, a dosage of Epinephrine, which is used to fight the reaction. This stuff saves lives!

-Usually, to prevent allergies throughout the day, if you are allergic to basic things like tree pollen, it's best to take some antihistamine every day to prevent the reaction. I take Zyrtec for my mold and grass allergies. 

Update (7/26)

I updated antibiotics a little bit. Didn't write a blog yesterday or today, Mum is in the hospital. When everything gets back to normal, i'll try to do one on each antihistamines, amphetamine, and dopamine drugs and reactions, in no particular order. I'll write soon! Thanks for visiting!

Taking requests

I'll do antihistamines or something unless someone requests something cool for this blog. I'll take this down and write when i get some good suggestions.

Antibiotics (Updated)

(Updated 7/26/2011)
-Going a little more in depth, i don't wanna get too confusing though, i like the idea of this being a "welcome --to the world of" blog vs. "an in depth look at" kinda blog.
Adding common adverse reactions and interactions.



Couldn't think of a better place to start. We all use antibiotics.

But what are they?

emedicinehealth.com defines Antibiotics as a type of medicine used to treat bacterial infections.

Bacterial infections are simply infections caused by bacteria, micro-organisms that are so tiny, they are only visible under a microscope. Fun fact: The number of bacteria in a person outnumbers the number of human cells by 10 to1! Have no fear though, because most bacteria is harmless(or even useful) to the human body. But the type of bacteria we're talking about are called pathogenic bacteria.


Examples of bacterial infections include Bronchitis, sinus infections, Gonorrhea, and even variations of pneumonia.

How do antibiotics work?

Because there are so many kinds of bacteria, there are dozens of types of antibiotics. Different antibiotics work in different ways.

Note: These are only some of the most common of the dozens of antibiotics. Others attack different parts of the bacteria.


Penicillins, cephalosporins, and vancomcin are all types of cell wall inhibitors. These antibiotics acylate(basically means change) certain enzymes in an effort to prevent peptidoglycans(groups of enzymes and sugars) from linking. This leads to weakined cell walls in bacteria, making them vulnerable to the body's defensive mechanisms.
Basically:  These antibiotics attack the part of the bacteria that produces the cell wall. The cell wall protects the bacteria in the same way our skin protects us, so these antibiotics weaken the skin, making them very vulnerable to harm.

Neomycin, Erythromycin, Clindamycin, and Tetracycline all inhibit Protein Synthesis. These antibiotics disrupt the cycle or protein synthesis by causing mRNA to be unreadable, disrupting the locomotion of Ribosomes, or stop the process all together.
Basically; Protein synthesis is basically the process of "creating" proteins by reading DNA. Without proteins, the bacteria can't do certain things. Some of these interrupt the reading  process, others attack other parts.

Notes:
-Some antibiotics require you to avoid direct or abundant sunlight, as they can change the way the body absorbs sunlight or they can change the sensitivity of the skin. Doxycycline(Alodox) is notorious for reactions to sunlight.
-Some antibiotics can be very harmful to unborn babies, depending on when you take it vs. the development stage.
-Some antibiotics have side effects or adverse reactions when mixed with alcohol. Most common would be Bactrim. General rule, if the antibiotic is used to treat some physical type of infection(Ulcers, Infected wounds) try to avoid alcohol, as alcohol changes the way blood is distributed to the body, which inhibits the way the antibiotic is distributed. However, a large number of antibiotics don't show any significant risk when mixed with alcohol. Amoxicillin doesn't necessarily react with alcohol, but your doctor will know if there is a risk, depending on what you are treating.
-When taking some antibiotics, you may need to avoid the sun.
-Some people are allergic to different types of antibiotics, most commonly penicillin.
-Some reactions can be fatal.
-Contrary to popular belief, Antibiotics are useless against the common cold, as it is caused by the virus.

Thanks for reading this blog, taking requests for the next one!

Welcome to my Blog!

This blog will be dedicated to gaining knowledge about Pharmacology, the study of medication and its effects on the body. I hope that this helps not just me, but to all of you willing to learn about the world of medicine. Thanks for visiting, check back often for updates!