The Medical Thread

This is a thread about diseases, medicines, treatments, medical insurances, hospital policies, and everything else interesting about human body here.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is NOT a place for medical diagnosis and advice. For those, please consult certified medical professionals of appropriate fields.

Edited by dRoy on Feb 20th 2020 at 2:33:51 AM

Yes, expired medications can be dangerous. There isn't one standard date of expiry, but it should be on the label somewhere (or on the various resources for the drug). It might be listed as a half-life.

Half life? That indicates the time for something to become half of its original content, isn't it? How does it apply to drugs?

Well... that's the time in which half of it will have changed into a different form, I guess.

Actually, I'm not sure if they would list it as that. It makes sense that they would, but maybe there's some other method.

One of my lecturers told us a cautionary tale the other day about this vet who suspected some cows had contracted tick fever and treated them - but they all died. Only when they did a postmortem did he discover that the medications he'd given them were out of date. The cows had necrotic muscles all down their back where it had been injected, which had killed them.

Oh. Well, at least got the "half" part right...

Necrotic muscles, as in dead/decayed muslces?

In a random note, if I could repeat my high school year, I would take the path so I could study medicine. I'm especially interested in drugs that influences neurological system (there must be a term for that but I don't know).

edited 18th Oct '11 1:44:36 AM by dRoy

Not all compounds break down at the same rate and there will be statistical differences between it being made.

...I've only understood the first half.

No matter how precise you set your machines to make the pills, there will be slight differences. So, you take a portion of them and figure out how long until a specific percentage is no longer useful or becomes dangerous.

Ah, I see.

I find it rather interesting that those vitamin supplements are actually created from rocks. Eating rocks...weird.

It makes sense if you think about it. They have to get the materials from somewhere.

I used to think they came from fruits and sea plants.

Some do. But minerals are, well, minerals.

Isn't every student?

Yeah, it's funny how long it took for me to realize that.

Hmm, necro.

Is any one of you familiar with these terms, supposedly used by the doctors to insult patients?

"Donorcycle" is the only term that I've heard in real life.

However, point #1, (Chronic Biscuit Toxicity) sounds perfectly believable, because I know for a fact that basically all doctors abhor fat people and the horrible obstacles they present toward anesthesia, surgery and of course, being vulnerable to a huge amount of diseases and complications in the first place.

Also, speaking of medicine, this video is kind of funny. Something of a satire against orthopedic surgeons by an anesthesiologist (for the record, Orthopedics and Anesthesia are two of the toughest fields to get into, even among medicine).

edited 31st Oct '11 12:45:28 AM by Vellup

Interesting...

By the way, America's obesity rate hasn't started to decrease, has it?

Does anyone have any idea what kind of effect a complete cure for incurable diseases, like cancer or AIDS, have on society?

A disease would be wiped out.

More seriously, you could see the death rate go down, maybe some civil temporary unrest over distribution, etc.

edited 14th Nov '11 4:32:47 AM by USAF721

It makes me wonder if it's lack of cure or lack of proper distribution that kills more people. :/

Well, seeing as the first automagically causes the second...

Doctors in London say they have cured a baby boy of a life-threatening disease which was destroying his liver. They implanted cells which acted like a temporary liver, allowing the damaged organ to recover.

No Bad for Socialised Medicine eh?

Uhm...whoops?

That's really impressive.

Does anyone know what the chemical and the algae are?

The chemical is called Alginic acid, and it comes from some seaweed. See The Other Wiki for details.

Ah, thanks.

Oh, I heard that when someone gets a concussion and doesn't get up within minutes, that is a serious problem. What happens? What should the people around him/her should do, then?