Over the years, I have wanted to become a pharmacist. Since it’s within the medical field, and it’s still helping people, while at the same time not directly in contact with the sick. To become a pharmacist, several years of school especially in the chemistry department are required. Your job as a pharmacist is to know what chemicals make up a medication, how those chemicals will react with your body’s chemicals and even how the chemicals will react with other medications. For instance, many people would be shocked to learn that there are quite a few medications that should not be taken with grapefruit.
Who would have thought a fruity drink could have side effects. Grapefruit is known to in affect the body’s metabolism, by preventing certain enzymes in the body from functioning properly, in turn not digesting the medication the way it should (The editorial staff). Numerous different medical conditions, treated with a variety of medications are known to have side effects with grapefruit: “ high cholesterol (atorvastatin, lovastatin and simvastatin), high blood pressure (felodipine, nifedipine, nimodipine and nisoldipine), hearth arrhythmia (amiodarone), depression (buspirone and sertraline), and HIV (saquinavir)” (The editorial staff).
Just to look at one example, sertraline commonly known as Zoloft used to treat depression. The reason these two cannot be taken together is because of the enzyme CYP3A4, which is responsible for reducing the Zoloft amount absorbed in the blood stream (Wolf). Whereas, grapefruit will reduce the production and availability of the enzymes, causing abnormally high and side effect causing amounts of Zoloft to be put into the bloodstream. It a pharmacists job to know, and be aware of these various side effects because the average patient would have no reason to know such a random chemistry fact.
Another example of chemistry in pharmacy, is paring various medications with each other. Some medications just cannot interact ever, while others it is okay to within a certain time frame. It’s up to a pharmacist to determine and be aware of so the patient isn’t harmed. For example, thyroid medication should be taken four hours apart from various medications: “Aluminum or calcium antacids, Calcium supplements, Iron supplements, Sucralfate (Carafate, Sulcrate) mucosal liners/anti-reflux, and Sodium polystyrene sulfonate (antacids such as Tums)” (Kaplan).
When looking at levothyroxine, a thyroid medication, it cannot be mixed within a certain time span of iron supplements because the iron can do two things: reduce the effects of levothyroxine in the body, or severely increases it (Kaplan). This is just one of the medication combinations that chemically interferes with each other, that a pharmacist needs to know. Therefore, chemistry is everywhere in a pharmacists job. The chemical makeups of various drugs are crucial to the patient’s life. It’s up to the pharmacist to know the difference between drugs that can or can’t mix, and that will or will not cause harm with a certain patient.