HELP!!!!!!!Help on a topic

[jamesleerpc]

i can see that the lower the pH the more faster the pills dissolve.ummmm....One more question. If food and things affect the ph then that means this isnot always the dissolving rates...right?

[Craig_Bridge]

If food and things affect the ph then that means this isnot always the dissolving rates...right?

Right.

There may also be additional "mechanical" factors as well. If there is a "wad" of food in the stomach resembling something like sticky dough, pills can find their way into these through the mechanical mixing effects of the stomach which will delay their breaking apart because they are mechanically shielded by something and not in direct content with the more liquid contents of the stomach.

There is also the absorption process (medicine finding its way into the circulatory system - blood). When the stomach is full of food, competition for the absorption sites in the stomach and small intestine have competition.

Some prescription medicines come with warning labels to not take with antiacids because their absorption is severely affected by a higher pH. Others come with warnings to not take with food. Still others recommend taking with food.

[Louise]

i can see that the lower the pH the more faster the pills dissolve.ummmm....One more question. If food and things affect the ph then that means this isnot always the dissolving rates...right?

Right! That is a great point about food. Basically, many different factors influence how fast a pill dissolves in the stomach- how much food you eat (which might effect the pH as you mention or might change the amount of liquid in the stomach, or the temperature of the stomach acid or change other things you haven't thought of) as well as the variation in the bodies of person to person (volume of stomach, acid level, body temperature)- on average all these things are similar, but every one is slightly different, and some people are very different!

However, your experiment is a good simple model of what happens in the stomach!


As for your conclusions: all pills dissolved faster in acid than the control solution, but your hypothesis was that all pills dissolved the same? Did you see any differences between the different brands of pills? It looks like Tylenol and Aspirin dissolved faster than CVS brand or Equate. Can you think of a reason why?


Louise

[jamesleerpc]

Louise, would a reason be because of what Dr. Ben Kim said."Most generic brands are tainted with small particles of metal"?

[Louise]

Louise, would a reason be because of what Dr. Ben Kim said."Most generic brands are tainted with small particles of metal"?

I doubt this is true and if it were, I doubt it would have a huge effect. There was a recall of many generic brands of pills due to metal particles a year ago, but that was a mistake and the pills were recalled. This mistake could have happened with brand name pills as well. It was a mistake with the machinary used to make the pills, I believe, and could also happen with name brand pills.

I don't know who Dr. Ben Kim is, but it sounds like he has an "agenda"... that is, he is trying to convince people not to use generics for some pesonal reason not a scientific reason. At least the way you reported his statement, his argument seems non-scientific. If you want to link to a website this guy has, I will take a look, but I don't think this is a good reason.

Even if you used pills that had the metal particles this should not effect the dissolving time. Metal is insoluble, so you would dissolve the pill in the normal time, and then have flakes of metal in solution.

What is required to be the same between generic and brand name drugs? What can be different? Did you observe any physical differences in the pills? For example, advil and the genric I take are similar sizes, but the coating is very different... the brand name is shiny, and the generic is dull. This may influence the dissolving rate. But, the pills don't have to be exactly the same size, perhaps the brand name is smaller, weighs less, or has a different shape?

Louise

[zzzzdoc]

You may also want to think about WHY pills dissolve faster in acid. This isn't a coincidence.

There are many factors in a human stomach that influence rates of absorption. Not just the quantity of food, but the composition of it (e.g. fatty foods delay absorption).

But as Louise said, you have developed and used a good basic model of the stomach. Looks like nice work.

[jamesleerpc]

hello everyone, I havent been on due to homework and other things. My science fair project has won first place in district. I am very thankful for all of your help. Umm...and My teacher said i should revise it in just a way for generics only. Is there a way to do this with only generics?

[Louise]

hello everyone, I havent been on due to homework and other things. My science fair project has won first place in district. I am very thankful for all of your help. Umm...and My teacher said i should revise it in just a way for generics only. Is there a way to do this with only generics?

This is great news! Congrats on the first place win!

Why does your teacher want you to revise it? I'm not sure I really understand what your teacher wants (especially since it is prize winning!). Are you supposed to redo the experiment only with generic drugs or just remove the brand name data? If you can clarify, we'd be glad to help.

Congrats again James, and I hope you are really proud of your impressive accomplishments!

Louise