Drugs 101 BPS 1101 Module 1

The world average life expectancy

73.4 years

What was the life expectancy in most of recorded life

30-35 years

How long has it taken for the life expectancy to go up

How long has it taken for the life expectancy to go up

Life expectancy in Canada (2023)

28th in world, 82.7 years old

Why are you lucky right now in life

Quality of life is good, lucky time and lucky place high life expectancy. Less disease and we have treatment to sicknesses. Less parasitic worms and flees and lice. Acess to health care and vaccines.

Causes of death in 1900s and life expectancy

44 years, and infections, pneumonia, tuberculosis, influenza

As of 2023 life expectancy and causes of death

83 years, heart disease, cancer, stroke, traffic accidents, diabetes

Why is there improvement in overall health the 5 ways.

using scientific method

1. sanitation

2. clean water

3. refrigeration

4. antibiotics

5. vaccination

Reasons for improved sanitation

- Separation between humans ad their waste using sewers

- People being separated from dead bodies and contracting illness from them

Reasons safe water supply improves health

- seperation from bacteria from natures water

-less Dracucculiasis (Guinea worm) infection which starts as an animal in the water and eventually gets into peoples muscles (found in Africa)

-improvement in chlorination (kills off viruses and bacteria and acts as a preservative).

Why has refrigeration improved health

-less spoiled food

-changed seasonal availability (fridge makes stores able to store foods year round for a balanced diet)

Why have vaccines improved health

- cures and prevents sickness

Why have antibiotics improved health

- drugs that treat bacterial infections

- penicillin reduced maternal mortality less women die after giving birth

In the NorthAmerican drug market how much are prescription drugs worth

300 billion

In the NA drug market how much are over the counter OTC drugs worth

25 billion

Where is most of the drug market held in the world

53% in the USA so half

The modern pharmaceuical industry is young and started in 1856 how?

Using chem, and bio scientific methods, works hard to remove bais. and is highly regulated by government

Why were most ancient remedies useless

1. they were made up

2. Inflicted by the placebo effect

3. Only very small amounts of remedies worked

4. Many treatments were actually harmful

Why are most ancient medicines derived from plants

Plants create poisons to protect themselves

Difference between drugs and poison

Drugs produce the desired biological effect whereas poisons produce the undesired effect. The difference between them is the dosage more of it can kill hence poison small amounts may be helpful (most often but it can be the other way around) example insulin and vitamins

What is Sola Dosis Facit Veneum

Means “only the dose makes the poison”

Only the dose makes the poison comes with the question

How much

How were drugs discovered before 1900

Observation and magical ideas

Observervation more rare and leads to strong poisons. Example watching the effects of someone eating a plant.

Magical ideas are based on belief essentially making it up

Drugs found through observation

Strong poisons

• opium

• Nicotine

• Cocaine

Weak poisons

• caffeine

• Salicin

Opium

Derived from poppy seed, in low doses can be a sedative and narcotic pain killer. Toxic in high doses. Basis of many pain killers

In this list of drugs opium is found or the chemical basis of opium derives them

Codiene

Oxycodone

Fentanyl

Methadone

Demerol

Cocaine was discovered as

As a stimulant and pain killer

Now cocaine has formed which anaesthetics (reduces sensation)

Novocaine

Procaine

Lidocaine

Benzocaine

3 reasons why observation can fool you

1. Human brain searches for paterns even if they aren’t there

2. Treatment and effect may be coincidental (people can also lie to you about what to use)

3. Once some evidence is there it’s hard to get rid of it to remove from system if it’s not effective

Apophenia meaning

Seeing patterns and connections when they aren’t there in random or meaningless data

Pareidolia meaning

Perceiving sounds and images as something else like face on mars

Problems with traditional remedies

Each plant makes different amounts of active ingredients so we cannot control dose.

The preparation will change the chemical composition

No standardization - poor reproduction ability and info passed verbally

Very hard to change idea of something once passed verbally

What was an alternative to medication when the problem couldnt be fixed by meds

Surgery and amputation (strapped down and cut off as quick as possible so they dont die of shock and blood loss).

How to actually amputate properly

Make a v shape so we have flaps to close together

Nitrous oxide as a propellant gas

Used heavily in anesthetics as well as household things like whipped cream in small doses

William Morton then discovered?

Ether and that it can be used as anesthetics and increased the amounts of surgery types that could be performed

Before wht percentage of people survived surgery

about 30% due to infection due to bacteria and entry from surgery

When was bacteria discovered

around 1867

Joseph Lister uses which chemical to sanitize surgery

Phenol administered in carbolic acid sprayer

Phenol worked well for patients but not for doctors, why?

There were toxic effects on the doctors, for patients the dose is small but the doctors work with the phenol all the time in larger amounts

The phenol toxicity led to what to increase safety

washing up the room yourself and the patient and wearing gloves, and wearing dedicated clothing

Antisepsis was brought to canada by who when

Thomas Roddick in 1877 from mcgill university

Why were walls and all clothing white

made it very easy to identify when dirty or contaminated

Joseph Lister also created Listerine to be purchased what was it

phenol and water which was sold as a medicinal substance (like dandruff and scalp issues)

Current Listerine is different

Does not have phenol and is mainly for oral hygiene, it has now thymol very similar structure as phenol but with more branching

The first artificial drug name and time invented

Aspirin and developed in 1897

Were there rules in the past about drug making and use

No before 1907 anyone could make and sell drugs making things up, not testing them and no proof it would work

The rise of patent medicine

in the late 1800s there would be a word “patented” on the label to signify higher ups like the royals authorized this product

To increase people to buy scam products they would add

opium to make people feel good and happy even with no medicinal benefits

opium, cocaine and alcohol made the drugs sell more but what was the downside

People were becoming addicted to the products

when radiation was discovered what happened

they started to sell radioactive water as a cure for things

Radithor created by William Bailey

sold as a health and wellness drug and it was radioactive water which made people believe it could kill cancer and that it would make you smarter.

Eben Byers golf pro was a believer of raithor what happened

He drank radithor every day for about two years and it ended up killing him lower jaw removed due to radiation.

What is the Board of food and drug inspection

The first attempt to rules regarding product it mandated all the ingredients be listed on the bottle (in 1907) still no other regulations at this time or testing

Patent medicine became “fake medicine”

Massengill company sold sulfanilamide what was it

One of the first antibiotics and powder, was a breakthrough as a commercial antibiotic.

Massengill wanted to do what with their sales and how did they do it

They wanted to get the sulfanilamide into a product children would take. mixing the drug with ethylene glycol so it could disolve in water (and had a sweet taste and it was marketed to children)

A few days into sales of the kid version there was a problem which was

Ethelene glycol caused kidney failure eventually the government got them to take the product down but only cuz of labeling problems it being called an elixir (meaning dissolved in ethanol but this product was not)

How many people were impacted by this elixir

107 dead and 260 permanently disabled

in 1938 what was created for the drug industry

FDA food and drug administration

• to ensure safety in drugs food and cosmetics

• animal testing was required

• clinical trials on humans

• directions of use on label and side effects

Thalidomide meaning and issue

Developed as a sedative and women used it a lot during pregnancy originally it was successful and safe until seeing the offspring. Issue it was a teratogen and caused phocomelia and attenuated limbs in the offspring. Thalidomide was tested on rats but the fetus in rat and human is very different.

Teratogen meaning

causes birth defects and comes from greek word teratos for monster

The thalidomide episode resulted in what movement

Modern safety standards,

• testing in at least two species one has to be a primate (like monkey)

• Most show the drug is bioavailable (gets into body and bloodstream)

• Must use relevant doses for humans

Why is the regulation industry so important 4 reasons upside and a downside

• ensures safety in the product

• ensures the product works

• ensures good manufacturing quality

• regulation increases cost

Scientific method

Measure - more than once more than one method

Make conclusions based on measurements

Make sure they are correct

Why is measuring things in large numbers useful

makes error rates lower, more measurements more accurate

when was the scientific method really implemented

1850s