Half life!!!!!!

[Bckyc101]

Can anyone explain to me what the half life of a medication means. I have heard this before but if I ever knew what it meant I dont remember.  Thanks

[krisnile]

I don't understand... I never heard about half life going to goggle it now...wish I could help..

[nursealb]

Alright this is the low down on half life's on drugs.  The half life is the time it take to omit half of the dosage of the drug from your system.  The tricky thing is that you don't go through two of them and the drug is gone.  It is actually five half lives.  This is how it works.  You take 10mg.  In one half life you have 5 mg left.  The next time the period of time passes that is the half life you have 2.5mg left.  The next time 1.25 mg.  The fourth half life leaves you 0.625mg.  The fifth half life leaves you with 0.3125mg of the drug in your system and this is considered eliminated.  Remember that the half life is a generic number and everyone's body is different.  Every person has factors that are unique to their person and will effect drug elimination differently.  I hope this answers some questions.

[IBKleen]

The half-life of a drug is how long it takes for half of it to be eliminated from the bloodstream.

Hope that helps.

[SotiredIcansleep]

Half-life means the amount of time it takes for your body to process the amount of drugs you put into it by half.

Example.  If you eat one 10mg oxycontin right now, the amount of time before there is only 5mg of oxycontin left in your blood is it's half-life. Some drugs are metabolized very efficiently by our liver, like oxycontin(4 hours).  Others such as methadone are much harder for your body to metabolize so you get half-lives in the 12-24 hour range, which is great for stabilized blood-methadone-content but you also run the risk of overdosing much easier even by doing drugs the day after you've done methadone.  I've known quite a few people who have died recreationally using methadone because they don't quite grasp the half-life thing and accidentally OD.

[avisg]

I believe it is the amount of time that the meds stays in your system after you take it.