DrugXpert Blog

Job for pharmacy student It is a good thing for students to work during school days. Some students pay their own school fees with it. It is a normal thing for weekend students to work during weekdays. It is difficult for regular students to add work to their schedule. It is even more difficult for pharmacy students and some other courses. This is because the lengthy lecture hour with time for personal study leave no time for side job. However, some have been successfully in it. When To Start Many fresh students always consider working during semester. It is a normal way of life in many  foreign countries. But before you jump in, consider the nature of our school system here in Nigeria. It is advisable to wait to get to year two (200 level) before deciding if to take that step. By that time, you have been accustomed with the settings knowing your strength and weaknesses. But don't forget the higher the level, the more difficult it becomes. So if you see yourself able to mana...

Nigerians and Africans at large are generally black skin people. But because of the way advertisement and celebrities promote light skin, Africans especially Nigerians have taken to skin lightening or bleaching creams. These creams change the colour of the skin from black to light skib within some time. The rate depends on the type of chemical use or the percentage. The damage these creams do to the skin are not felt immediately but takes time. But the immediate effect is the change of colour which is desirable. However, many realise the negative impact of such action and tend to revert back to their normal skin colour. The success of such attempt depends on several factors. The severity of damage already done, the type of ingredients and environmental factors all play key role in the repair of damage done to the skin by bleaching creams. To understand how to return to normal skin, we need to know how bleaching creams work, the kind of damage they do and how to revert it. The bleach...

I am use to heat treatment for my minor home accident. I never knew about cold treatment not until I saw it on television for the first time during a Nigerian football match. At first I was curious what the medic where up to. Later I discovered it was cold therapy for the injured player. Ever since then, I have always wonder which is better. However, I later figured out when each is proper for use. The choice of treatment depends on the type and nature of injury. Using the wrong method can even make it worst of delay healing. Although both work on manipulating blood flow, the mechanism is different. Heat Therapy Heat therapy applied to the body increase blood flow to the area thereby increasing the amount of healing chemicals that gets there. This is achieved by increasing blood temperature. The result is a reduction in site stiffness. Read Also:   How To Treat Body Pain Using Medication This therapy is suitable for long term pain otherwise called chronic pain. Chronic pain ...

Expired drugs are drugs that have pass their shelf life. These drugs need be discarded. The reason is simple. Expired drugs can be dangerous to health when consume. Since they are thought to be healing products, anybody can take it thinking it is safe without checking it out. Other drugs that falls into this category are certain medications that should be discarded after opening after some time. However, there are certain procedures in doing this in certain countries. Nigeria have settings for discarding these drugs which majority do not know. Wrongly discarding these products can be harmful to us or our love ones. Expiring date Expired drugs are a normal thing around the world. They can be found in the homes of individuals, community pharmacy, hospital pharmacy and in industrial companies either in finish form or raw materials. The process are all the same with a slight difference. Below is the method suitable for each category. Home Expired Drugs It is advisable to stock ov...

Some years ago, it was a standard practice to give an Antimalarial with iron supplements. The rational for adding an iron supplement was that malarial parasites destroys red blood cells. Iron supplements help build back red blood cells. However, some of the iron supplements contain vitamin C. Recent research is changing all that practice. Sporozoites, one of the form of malaria parasites that lives in the liver require iron to survive and multiply. To get some amount of iron, they invade red blood cells, multiply inside and destroy it releasing the iron in red blood cells for themselves. This is because red blood cells contain haem which is rich in iron. But giving iron supplements is like supplying the parasites with what they need without working for it. Most drugs get metabolise in the liver as the liver contains many enzymes for that. Same too with iron supplement. The iron supplements goes straight to the liver where the parasites utilize it for themselves. Read Also:   H...

Medical diagnosis Pharmacist-patient relationship is very vital for medication adherence and compliance. That is why pharmaceutical care (P.C) is one of the most valuable practice of the profession. PC is a very broad practice that there is no one single definition that clearly explain it all. Read Also:  Structure Of Health Care In Nigeria The practice of PC is drawing patients to pharmacist. Not only that, many patients are getting turn off by their medical doctors. Patients complain of the time they visit the hospital, the time the doctor gets to see them and when they eventually leave with poor service altogether. Take for example, a patient gets to the hospital at 5 am and see a medical doctor at 9 am. During diagnosis, the medical doctor spend an approximately 11 seconds listening to the patient before interruption. The interuption is not an open ended question for more explanation. It is usually a close ended question that require a yes or no answer. That automaticall...

We all face work or occupational hazards at our places of work. That is why in many government settings, there is an allowance for work or occupational hazards. The type of hazard depends largely on the nature of the job. As a pharmacist, the type depends on the sector. The three sector pharmacist are mainly prone to hazards is the community pharmacy, hospital pharmacy and industrial pharmacy. For each sector, knowing the nature of the type of hazard to encounter will make it easy to avoid it. Hospital and community pharmacy normally experience biological and physical hazards. Industrial pharmacy on the other hand suffer more of chemical and physical hazards. Community Pharmacy As a community pharmacist, you participate in diagnosis, counselling and dispensing of drugs to patients. That is not all. Stocking of drugs and arrangement is not left out. Because of this, a community pharmacist face two type of hazards, physical and biological. Physical Hazards Buying and stocking of ...

Brain There are so many cases when high fever resulted in temporary madness. It is called psychosis. Psychosis is a mental disorder. It can be temporary or permanent but there are drugs that can reduce the signs and symptoms. There are many causes of this condition. They include substance abuse such as alcohol abuse, drug abuse, or psychological conditions such as stress or anxiety and depression.  But the one we will talk about today is the one cause by medical causes such as high fever. Read Also:  How To Get Medical Attention In A Hospital High fever is caused by a number of factors. But the most common reason is malaria or typhoid fever and other infection. Psychosis cause by infection is usually brief and does not really require antipsychosis medication. It does not present in every infection but occur towards the end stage of the infection. According to one research (Typhoid fever presenting as acute psychosis; May RK Nair etc Al MJAFI, 2003; 59 p. 252-253), neuro...

Pectic, duodenal or stomach ulcer is a very common health condition plaguing Nigerians. The number of people diagnose with this condition keeps growing every year. It affects people of all ages, gender, social status, etc. This is unlike what is happening in the western world. The number of diagnosis is dropping yearly over there. The reason I guess is because they have come to realise the cause of the condition. They do everything possible to prevent it from occuring. In Nigeria, what is believe to be the cause is not actually it. So it is difficult to prevent it as Nigerians tend to do things that cause it unknowingly. If you don't know the cause or mistake it, how well can you prevent it? Read Also:  Effect Of Indomethacin on Animals And Human To know the cause of ulcer, it is good we know first what it is and the anatomy of the stomach. Ulcer is a break in the tissue lining the stomach. It happen anywhere between the stomach  and the small intestine. The break is a form...

Human blood is a red liquid. In it are invisible microscopic cells performing various functions in the body. The major cell in the blood is the red blood cell (R.B.C). RBC does various functions. One of its function is carrying oxygen around the body. To carry oxygen around the body effectively, the hemoglobin is attach to the RBC. It is this hemoglobin that is responsible for the oxygen carrying duty of RBC. Hemoglobin is made up of gene and globin. The globin is an iron-protein complex. The globin is made up off two chains which are alpha and beta chain. The alpha and beta chain have two chain each and they interact in certain ways to form a unique structure. To join the heme part, protein attach to the globin chain to form a bridge or link. The type of protein involve is what differentiate human generate. There are three protein involve in this joining. They are the glutamate, valine and lysine. Since two proteins must be link to complete the joining, the position each protein ...

Vitamins and minerals are two of the six classes of food we have. The others are carbohydrates, protein, fats and oils and water. Unlike the others that are needed in large quantities and necessary for energy generation, minerals and vitamins are needed in small quantities and are essential nutrients. The body have different mechanism in place to produce nutrients the body needs. Unfortunately, not all nutrients can be produce by the body. In other cases, the quantity produce by the body may not just be enough to carry out certain duty. In other to get the right quantity, these classes of food need be supplied through the food we eat or through the skin. There is the right amount for each of the nutrients the body needs. Consuming too much may cause harm to the body than good. Too little may cause disease. Vitamins and minerals are called micronutrient because they are needed in small quantities in the body. There are 30 vitamin and mineral the body need. Each perform one or more ro...