• Question: how did they discover how medicines affect humans ?

    Asked by sbdw to Betul, Bridget, Ceri-Wyn, Maria on 23 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Bridget Waller

      Bridget Waller answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      Good question! Many medicines have been used for centuries, and so people learned how to use them from their families. Aspirin came from tree bark! Other medicines were found be accident, and others were predicted to have qualities, as a result of experiments. So lots of different ways to find out about medicines!

    • Photo: Maria Pawlowska

      Maria Pawlowska answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      Through a process of clinical trials – medicine is first tested on mice and rats and then human volunteers. That’s how we know what works and what doesn’t but that’s also why it takes years for new medicine to appear at the pharmacy.

    • Photo: Ceri-Wyn Thomas

      Ceri-Wyn Thomas answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      Ooh interesting question! Many old medical treatments (before advancements in modern medicine) came from natural sources. Medieval herbalists realised that sometimes certain plants or fungi grew in areas responsible for causing ill health in people- areas like bogs or riversides where you might come into contact with nasty bacteria. Willow bark is a very good example of this. Herbalists realised that stewed willow bark alleviated headaches! When this was eventually researched, scientists found that willow bark contained a chemical called salicylic acid. Today we manufacture synthetic salicylic acid all the time and take it to cure aches and pains and reduce high temperatures- only we call it…..aspirin!

      So I guess lots of early medicines were found by chance or trial and error- many didn’t work but some would have been effective. In modern medicine scientists now study the direct mechanisms of how certain molecules affect us during illness and they design specific molecules in drugs to target them! Then they test the drugs for a long time both on suitable animals and on humans when it’s deemed safe enough- these are called clinical trials. If the drug is deemed effective and safe after the clinical trials it is marketed and we can use it as a medicine! Thank goodness we no longer have to stew willow bark!

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