Take Good Care 'cause it's Toxic

Hi again! It's me again and thank you for reading my previous post about Endocrinology :)

Last week, We were again assigned to a new topic to put into our blog...and it should all about Toxicology.

But before that, well, my birthday is on that same week..so it's time to party!!!

Everything happened according to our plans.
Well almost...

I have headache!!!!! and also accompanied by mild fever...oh no! why now?

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I remembered a commercial here in the televsion...poof!

And so, I asked my friend to help me go to the pharmacy and buy some medicine..and guess what I bought, Acetaminophen.

Thank God, someone invented acetaminophen. haha.

Hmm, Acetaminophen, does it sound familiar? Here in the Philippines we call it Paracetamol. This drug has an Analgesic (for pain relieving) and Anti-pyretic (fever reduction) effects. Thus, this is a really good medicine for my dilemma that day.

Image Credit: http://www.oshmanlaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/acetaminophen.jpg

To tell you the truth, I still haven't experienced any adverse and toxic effects from this drug so allow me to some bits of information about this drug.

Did you know that?

Acetaminophen is an over the counter drug which means that anyone who can buy can have an unlimited access to this drug.
As we all know, it one of the most commonly used drugs here in the Philippines.
It is a relatively safe drug but remember everything in excess in bad for you.
The dose which is recommended for this drug is 4 grams per day. Anything more than this is considered to be toxic or detrimental to our health, because if you exceed more than the recommended dosage, your liver will be damaged. This is in turn, will cause acid accumulation in the blood, excessive hemorrhage, clotting disorders and eventually death.

Liver toxicity probably is the most common detrimental effect of Acetaminophen overdose. Normally, this drug is excreted through our liver by the "Hepatic Mixed Function Oxidase System". But when the liver is bombarded with high(toxic) doses of this drug, the liver utilizes another system which is called "Cytochrome P450 enzyme system". But the downside of this system is the production of a by-product called NAPQI (N-acetyl-p-benzoquinone imine) which has very adverse effects to our liver or hepatic cells.

God is really great because He also designed our body to fight/counter-act the effects of NAPQI, this is through the natural production of Glutathione which its primary action is to neutralize the effects of NAPQI. But there comes a case when all the Glutathione level in our body is depleted, we may given an amino acid called N-acetylcysteine (NAC) to regain Glutathione back and fight the effects of NAPQI.

For more information about Acetaminophen poisoning, please click this link.

For Your Information:

It takes 3-5 days before serum indicators levels of liver damage become abnormal.
Taking-in Acetaminophen should not be done within 10 days consecutively.
Alcoholics should not take acetaminophen more than the recommended dosage.
People with liver diseases should not take acetaminophen, as this would exacerbate the conditions.
The most common laboratory methods which are used in quantifying acetaminophen levels in the serum is by Competitive Enzyme assays, Immunoassay techniques and as well as High-Performance Liquid Chromatography.

Everything I've discussed is under the umbrella of Toxicology.

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Toxicology is the study of the detrimental effects of various agents such as chemical, biological and as well as physical agents to the living organisms and also to the environment and also involves the prevention and control of these effects.

The adverse end product of of a series of events which is started by the exposure to different agents such as physical, chemical or biological is Toxicity. Toxicity can manifest in varying forms which ranges from mild dysfunctions to severe organ damages and worst, death. These effects are either reversible or irreversible.

There are Two Types of Toxicity:

Acute Toxicity - this occurs fast by taking high doses of a certain substance.
Chronic Toxicity - this occurs by prolonged exposure and/or accumulation of a substance inside the body.

The Branches of Toxicology are as follows:
1. Clinical Toxicology - which deals with emergencies such as overdoses, poisonings, attempted suicides. It also involves compound identification and quantification, Sign and symptom management, Emergency care--home poisoning and poison control.

Image Credit: http://www.wadsworth.org/chemheme/pix/4122.gif

2. Forensic Toxicology - medico-legal aspects of poisonings. Identification and quantification of poisons and as well as establishing relationship between tissue residual level and probable cause of death.


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3. Industrial Toxicology - deals with the effects of compounds on water, wildlife. Movement of chemicals in the environment--soil, air, water, residual life of chemicals in the environment.

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4. Biochemical and Molecular Toxicology - Determining mode of action of chemicals at the molecular level and the effect of chemicals on DNA, cancer genes.

5. Product Development Toxicology -Service and pre-clinical toxicology for product development. Evaluation of full toxic potential of chemicals destined for drug use and establish safe doses for people.

6. Environmental Toxicology - Effects of compounds on water, wildlife. Movement of chemicals in the environment--soil, air, water Residual life of chemicals in the environment.

7.Regulatory Toxicology - Deciphers and analyzes toxicological data for risk estimation. Determines safe level for human drugs, safe level of heavy metals in water and safe levels of pesticides.

Here's a video for some more in-depth discussion about Toxicology:

Video Credit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk-ykYYwbu0

Well that's it for now..Thank you for reading my post and I hope you learned something and this would be helpful for you. See you again for my next post.