The modern world medication market is replete with medicines. These are designed to ease or cure symptoms of various conditions. Mostly used ways to deliver medication are:
- Oral- swallowing the tablet
- Subcutaneous- injecting the drug under the skin
- Intravenous- getting chemotherapy
- Intramuscular- receiving a shot in the arm muscle
- Transdermal- wearing a patch
When you consider your entire body, the quick absorption and effectiveness put transdermal management on the top. Gels, sprays, lip balm stick and emulsion creams are easy to apply and effective in delivering the medicine into the bloodstream. Transdermal medicine is the best to use when the patient is unable to swallow the medicine.
What are Transdermal Medications?
Transdermal medicine transports medicine to the area of injury or pain. It is perfect for pain management, pediatric and sports medicine. This is one the fastest and effective way to manage medicine. This technique is widely used because of they absorb the medicine directly through the skin.
The traditional method of administering medicine like tablets gets watered down. They become less effective because of the acids in the stomach and digestive enzymes.
Most of the times, transdermal medication is used to avoid possible side effects. However, the full potential of the transdermal medicine is not explored by the modern medicine. Although, it has been used for many years throughout the world.
How Do They Work?
The medicines enter the various layers of the skin through subcutaneous, intramuscular or transdermal methods. Transdermal medicine is a flexible form of medicine that anyone can benefit from. With the help of transdermal medication, we can address systemic nutritional deficiencies. They improve immune, nervous and hormonal systems.
Furthermore, they protect cells from oxidative damage, decreases the risk of cancer, shrinks the tumor and open cell wall permeability.
For relieving pain, transdermal magnesium therapy is perfect. The combination of heat and magnesium chloride increases the circulation and waste removal. The effect of the magnesium therapy is to pull inflammation out of the muscles and joints. When magnesium chloride is applied to the skin, it has an abrupt effect on pain. This therapy is able to alleviate all sorts of pain. From sports injuries pain to headaches to arthritis pain to pain of restless legs.
The use of transdermal pain patches contains a drug reservoir that holds an opioid. This is transported through the skin. This is useful for delivering a more effective form of pain medication in a controlled manner.
Another way to delivery transdermal medication is through the use of the transdermal gel. You must apply these gels to the area of injury or pain in a specific dose. The medicine present in the gel absorbs in the skin and enters the bloodstream. In recent times they are gaining credibility as an effective method of transdermal delivery method.
Therefore, the use of transdermal is not new, it was used in Ancient China. Back then the medicated plasters were spread on the skin and left to dry. The first patch was certified by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1979. The patch was for motion sickness. Since then the patches have been designed for the collection of medications. The delivery of transdermal medication is considered to be safer, convenient, less painful and more efficient.
DISCLAIMER: The medical information on this site is provided as an information resource only, and is not to be used or relied on for any diagnostic or treatment purposes. This information is not intended to be patient education, does not create any patient-physician relationship, and should not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis and treatment.