You may have wondered just how medicine gets created. We no longer drink a powder of herbs, ground for us by the local apothecary. We now take pills, use creams, or drink bubble-gum-pink liquids. We don’t know where the power in our medicine comes from, or where scientists discovered that power in the first place. The science of medicine is fascinating, so if you’ve ever wanted to know how medicine is made, keep reading!
Where Does it All Begin?
Say you’ve got a health issue you want to solve. Let’s look at essential tremors, a disorder that affects 2.2% of the US population, especially the elderly. You may have a passion for treating that particular disorder. You probably won’t start with the disease, however. You’ll start with the cure.
Medicine usually begins with a plant or other material (such a fungus; the first antibiotics were discovered accidentally). If a scientist were to begin with a problem, they might spend their entire lives haphazardly guessing at solutions. Instead, a scientist begins with a plant that has promising properties. They may or may not know what the plant’s eventual power will be. From there, testing begins.
In the Lab
Medicines are developed in specialized labs. A group of scientists work with companies like Western Environmental in Franklin, OH and have a laboratory developed. There, the scientists work in safe conditions, isolating the the separate compounds of the plant. Once they’re able to isolate the compounds, they test them. They may put the compound in a petri dish to test its effect on bacteria; they may work with living organisms to test its effect on a body. Once they think they’ve hit on something, they work slowly to test the compound in various trials until they’re ready to begin testing their new drug with us–human beings.
Clinical Trials
Before moving onto clinical trials, scientists have to be sure the drug is relatively safe. Participating in a clinical trial, however, does come with some risk. At this stage, scientists don’t know what a drug’s side effects may be, so they carefully monitor symptoms and risks in patients. From smaller groups, they move onto larger groups, watching for any negative side effects and making sure the drug is actually effective. If all goes well, through each stage of the trials, then the drug is ready for production.
Quite a bit of time and care go into the drugs we use every day. Consider natural remedies for essential tremors like Tremor Miracle. At the beginning of this article, we wondered how a scientist would find a solution for that disorder. They may have worked with existing discoveries on what compound does what, or they may have started with a compound only–with no specific disorder in mind. Through care, research, and testing, they developed a remedy that can be used for a specific health issue. Not every drug has a problem in mind, but every research project is performed with the same goal: finding new ways to heal.
