Why do medications have such a small effect on me, but a large one on others?

I was on this med that helped me with my skin disorder. If my dad took it for his (same problem, I get it from him) it would work like wonders. I took it, and it did nothing. Also if he took it with dairy, he would vomit but it didn't effect me with dairy. I ended up taking like 4 of those pills before being put on the strongest one they could find and even that didn't work well after 1 year of taking it. So why do medications have such a small effect on me? What in the body makes some people more effected then others with medications?

Why do medications have such a small effect on me, but a large one on others?
Could be the amount of the medication. A different dose maybe. Sometimes a person has to take diff doses depending on how much they weigh or stuff like that.Or could be, for example, when I have umm well something.....i take like a regular Advil or painkiller, but since I've taken a lot over the years it doesn't have the same effect as a normal dose, so I have to take more than usual.
Reply:because your wierd
Reply:meds. react to your body chemistry differntlythan others it just a natrual thing.
Reply:Everyone's genetic makeup is so different, it's super-hard to tell!





^_~b Dri b~_^
Reply:Well one possibility is that you don't in fact have the same problem; they just think you do, which would explain why none of the drugs seemed to work!!





Assuming that they did in fact get it right... there are many genetic factors that can alter our response to drugs. When you take a pill, the drug has to be absorbed into the blood. Once its in the blood, it has to be distributed to the site of action.





The body also metabolises (chemically changes) the drug. Some drugs depend on being checmically changed by the body in order to work; other drugs get made inactive by these chemical changes. An example of proteins relevant in metabolising drugs are the cytochrome P450 enzymes. Some people possess no functional versions of these enzymes, some people possesss many versions. This means that these people both show very different reactions to the same drug. Finally, the drug is excreted from the body; this could be in the urine, in the faeces, or via the bile, for example.





Proteins play a part in all these processes - and genes code for proteins. We all have different genes, and therefore we can have different copies/different amounts of these proteins. This means that everyone's response to a drug is likely to be different. In addition, proteins code for the target site - and so the target side can also be different - again, affecting the response. For example, you may have the same disease as your father, but a slightly different version.





It is however surprising that you are so different to your father... I suppose its possible that your mother has very different copies of the relevant genes to those of your father, which you may have inherited.





There are other factors that affect drug response - for example if people have had diseases or surgery affecting their gastrointestinal tract (oesophagus, stomach, intestines) it would affect the absorption of the drug. It might be something as simple as whether or not you take it with food.





There can also be interactions with other drugs - for example, the cytochrome P450 enzymes I mentioned earlier... if you're taking one drug which makes them more active, they will break down other drugs faster, which could inactivate them faster, meaning they have no effect.





I doubt that ALL medications have a small effect on you... just this particular one/this particular type.
Reply:Your question is a very complicated one. I think we can only guess. We can't say the exact reason on yahoo answers. A doctor can tell the exact reason. But I'll try to do my best.





As you know, laboratory animals are used for preparing medications. If they affect the animal in the way that scientists want, and the side-effects are tolerable, then it's used for humans.


It may not work for human beings, because we don't have the same genetic codes with those animals.(In that case, they start again.)


Also, all the human beings don't have the same codes either... The scientists try the medicines with a small group of people. They make the decision according to that group. If it works for the most of the group, then they sell it. You may be one of the people who isn't in the majority.





Another reason may be pyschology.


There was an experiment about that. Three groups of people were taken. First group takes nothing. Second group takes vitamin C. The last group takes something which they consider it as vitamin C, but it's not! At the end, the percentages of the healthy ones were exactly or nearly the same for the last two groups which are also greater than the first group!!!





Another reason may be the other things you eat with the medications. For example, you said you can take it with dairy. It may lessen the effects of the medications. But, you wrote you've taken for a year. So I think it's not a big possibility in your case.


But, if you are taking other medications, they may affect each other negatively.





So the most possible reasons may be


-your genetic code,


-your pychology


(-or other medications you take (if there are) )