Medicine And Drugs Essay, Research Paper

Drug and medicine- As our understanding of the chemical basis for biology has grown, we have learned more about how molecules which constitute life. Many scientists are beginning to understand the connections between the physical and psychological matters and the molecules that cause them. As a result, we can now use these new understandings of medicine against any dangerous or unpleasant conditions. For example, depression can be treated with drugs that can revive the brain to its normal level.

Many medicines and drugs can change someone’s physical and mental conditions, which can improve the risk of sickness and/or death. Proof of how medicine has improved is the fact that the average person today lives about 20 years longer compared to someone living during the beginning of the century. Although drugs have its benefits, they an also have severe addictive and destructive power.

Antibiotics- The most prescribed medicines in the United States are the antibiotics, drugs that fight infectious diseases like diphtheria, tuberculosis, cholera, and pneumonia. These diseases are cause by bacteria, which reproduce within the human body. Antibiotics work by attacking the microorganisms and selectively killing each of them. Before antibiotics were available, bacterial infections and similar diseases were among the top causes of death in the United States. Today, many of these diseases have been completely cleared out of its existence from developed nations. Unfortunately, bacterial diseases still claim many lives in Third World countries where antibiotics are less available and conditions are poor.

Antibiotics are classified onto several different categories. Some of the most common are penicillin, cephalosporins, and tetracylines. The penicillins were discovered in 1982 by Sir Alexander Fleming, a bacteriologist at the University of London. Penicillin is a fungus that Sir Alexander Fleming discovered after he came back from his vacation. It was not until 13 years later that penicillin was used on humans. This discovery has saved many lives, but as time progressed scientist discovered that there was still some bacteria that were resistant to penicillin.

Antiviral Drugs- in contrast to bacteria, viruses require the machinery of a host cell to reproduce. A virus, which usually consists of only DNA and protein, takes over a host cell and inserts its own DNA into the chromosomes of the host. This virus uses the host cell to produce more viruses. The new viruses infect other host cells and the cycle repeats. Viruses unfortunately do not respond to antibiotics.

Until recently the only way to fight viruses was to prevent them through vaccination, a process that uses the body to fight the disease. A vaccination consists of introducing a small number of inactivated viruses into the body, usually through injection. The body then develops antibodies to the virus, which remain in the body and are available to fight off the disease should infection with the real virus occur.

Sex Hormones and the Pill- Sexual characteristics are managed by molecules called hormones, chemical messengers that act on target cells usually located a long distance from where the hormone are secreted. The male sexual hormones, called androgens, are secreted primarily by the testes. The most important and powerful androgen is testosterone, which acts before the birth of a male infant to form the male sex organs. Testosterone acts again at puberty and beyond to promote the growth and maturation of the male reproductive system, to develop the sexual drive, and to determine secondary sexual characteristics such as facial hair and voice deepening.

The female sex hormones are called estrogen and progesterone and are secreted primarily by the ovaries. Unlike testosterone, estrogen and progesterone are released in cyclical patterns. Estrogen in the female, like testosterone in the male, causes maturation and maintenance of the female reproductive system and determines the female secondary sexual characteristics such as breasts development. Progesterone prepares the uterus for pregnancy and prevents further release of eggs after pregnancy.

With these two in mind it has resulted in the urge for sex, and it has definitely become a big issue in America. Many precautions have been made in the process of preventing any unwanted births and the cause of disease. Birth control pills and condoms have been used for many years now, but have not totally prevented any of these problems.

Steroids- the sexual hormones discussed previously are part of a part a larger class of compounds called steroids, characterized by their 17-carbon-atom, four-ring skeletal structure. Progestin is an example of a steroid used as a drug. Other steroids used as drugs include the adrenocortical steroids and the anabolic steroids.

Two drugs adrenocortical steroids are used primarily for potent anti-inflammatory effects. The other is the anabolic steroids are usually synthetic analogs of testosterone, the male sex hormone. Steroids are most of the time looked upon as used in a negative way, but steroids in fact help people with asthma and other diseases that steroids are used for.

Cancer and Chemicals that fight it- About 40% of Americans develop cancer in their lifetimes, and about 1 in 5 die from it. Cancer kills about 6 million people worldwide each year. Cancer is a particularly difficult disease to combat because cancer cells are modified form of human cells.

Chemotherapy is the administration of drugs, either singly or in combination, over an extended period of time. It uses radiation and can be risky however can be highly effective to eliminate cancer cells.

Depressants- Often called tranquilizers or downers, are those drugs that depress or dull the central nervous system. The amount of depression usually depends on the dose of the drug; low of inhibition, sedation, sleep unconsciousness, general anesthesia, coma, and death. Depressants are used medically to treat anxiety and insomnia, and to anesthetize patients undergoing surgery; however, depressants are also widely abused as recreational drugs.

While recent studies have been made, stating that alcohol can expand one’s life span by lowering the risk of coronary artery disease, it is clear that heavy drinkers increase the risk of heart disease, cirrhosis of the liver, respiratory diseases, and cancer. Drinking when pregnant can result in birth defects in the newborn infant. In addition, about half of all crimes and highway accidents are alcohol related.

The inhalants include those drugs used for anesthesia, as well as those abused for a temporary high they produce. Inhalants are gases or volatile liquids that are still debated; however, it appears that, at least in part, they work by dissolving in nerve membranes and altering their function to depress nerve impulses.

Narcotics- narcotics are drugs that act on the central nervous system to produce an analgesic and sedutive effect. They include morphine, codeine, heroin, meperidine, and fentanyl. They differ from depressants in that they have a greater ability to reduce pain and their lower tendency to produce generalized sedation. The narcotics act by blinding to opioid receptors. The presence of narcotic molecule on an opiod receptor inhibits certain neurotransmitters involve in the transmission of pain impulses.

Breaking a narcotic addiction is difficult but not impossible. Some drugs have been developed to help the addict recover. One of those drugs, naloxone, is used to treat narcotic overdoses.

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