Heroes Not Zombies

This rather technical study has suggested one of the reasons why drugs work better in some people than they do in others is down to the rest of that person’s life.

We’ve known for a long time that most drugs don’t do what they are designed to do for many of the people who take them. This is not just drugs like painkillers which are trying to modify a subjective experience, but even drugs whose effects are mainly objective right down at cell level, like anti-cancer drugs.

Some researchers are pursuing a genetic explanation for this and a whole new area known as pharmacogenomics has arisen with the hope of combining genetic testing with prescribing so that a particular drug can be chosen in the light of the patient’s genetic make-up which may make them more responsive to the drug in question.

This study is interesting because it looks to an environmental explanation instead and shows that diet and lifestyle strongly influence the effects of particular drugs.

As always, we’ll find that both explanations are partly right and partly wrong. The trick will be to understand how to use these discoveries in the best interests of patients.