Something you should know before modifying your pills

Hey you! It’s good to have you back on my blog! How am I doing on consistency? ‘A’ for effort? No? Too soon? Okay, my bad…LOL! I’m getting better at this, don’t worry.

The post for today was inspired by my sister Wini who inspired this whole blog in the first place - Thank you Wini! I love you! I got a call from her telling me about her 5-year-old baby (yes, I’m that annoying aunty that would call a 10-year-old a baby! 🙄 ) who needed to take a pill for the first time in his tiny cute life. Imagine his introduction to pills – a big ole capsule! Poor baby! Anyway, she was wondering if she could just open up the capsule and pour its contents into his favorite juice in order to get him to take it. But the question there was if exposing the powder in the capsule would affect its potency in the body negatively.If I remembered anything from my toxicology class about the mechanism and kinetics of drugs, I didn’t think it was safe, simply because drugs are designed in a specific way for a particular reason.

What was the intention behind pills anyway?

Not to bore you with the gory pharmacological details that I’m trying to understand myself, I’ll explain it how I comprehend it. Now, pills are made up of 2 components- active ingredients which do the major work of treatment, and non-active ingredients that keep that active ingredient stable and compact for intake and absorption into the body.

Pills are designed a certain way that ensures that the active ingredients get to the active site, which is the organ or tissue that requires the desired pharmacological effect, in one piece (or at least in the intended amount as parts of the drug fall by the wayside into other organs or even destroyed by chemicals produced by the body). Hope your head isn’t hurting yet.

Let’s use an example to make things a little clearer. A 500mg dose of medicine X is administered and the target site is the small intestine. The actual amount needed at the target site is about 200mg. The guys who designed the drug know that along its journey to the small intestine, 300mg would be lost in transit to maybe other organs or the cold hands of destruction and so, they make room for that. But if the body needs for all the 500mg to get to the small intestine, and be released over a long period of time, then they would encapsulate it to protect it on its way to the target site. You get the gist? There are sometimes different forms of one drug with different dose administrations. By forms, I mean a medicine for cold could come in form of pills and syrup, and 2 pills 3 times daily, might not be 2 tablespoons of the syrup form 3 times daily. Stay with me now, we are almost done here.

From the example above, I'll go a bit further to say that encapsulated drugs are commonly designed for slow (extended) or controlled release into the system. This means that the capsule holds the active ingredient in place, till it reaches its destination. When it gets there, the capsule then absorbs fluid from the tissue, which softens the coat and makes holes that allow the release of its content into the body at a specific rate over a period of time (Phew! Long sentence!). This process determines the dose basically. So, imagine that you opened up the capsule and drank the contents directly, it would get absorbed into other organs or even destroyed before it gets to the target site, and you would have taken the medicine for nothing! Then guess who would have to take more and more just to get better? You! Such a struggle! This could also apply to splitting drugs or crushing them, or changing the form in anyway.

So, before you modify the intake of medication, please check with your doctor or pharmacist to get advice on how to proceed as there might be other forms of the drug that could be more convenient for you. You could also read the package insert to see if there are any instructions on consumptions or dosage. Also check with your doctor before using anything other than water to drink your medication. Some drugs are sensitive to things like grapefruit juice, milk, coffee, wine, and even green tea! I bet you didn’t know that (or maybe you did and I’m just telling you stuff you already know…LOL!). 

Anyway, I told my sister to put the pill in a big spoon of yoghurt and pray that he doesn't try to chew the yoghurt! Hahaha! I don't know if it worked. I think she just used eba! Le Struggle! 😂 Start now to teach your baby how to swallow pills using M&Ms or small pill-like candy (Like, really itty-bitty candy). Teach them now even if they don’t have to take pills yet. Practice makes perfect.

And to all those who are not in good health in anyway, you are in my prayers! Love ya! Stay safe!