I’m assuming that companies factor in the size of the average adult when deciding what a medication’s recommended dosage will be. If this is the case, how do extremely large and extremely small adults figure out how much medicine to take? Do they need to go to the doctor everytime they want to take a new over the counter medicine?
I’m not asking this information for myself, or anyone else. Just wondering.
If its an over the counter medicine, I would ask the pharmacist. They have a book with all the medications you can imagine and what the correct dose is per a kilogram. However, you would probably have to be extreamly small or tall in order to not take the normal dose.
I am not a Pharmacist, this is not medical advice, etc, etc, etc.
My wife is just 5 feet and 100 lbs. I can’t tell you how many times over the years some doc has prescribed a med which as given her bad side effects. When she calls to question the dose, the docs always say, “Well, lets try a smaller dose.” and that ends the problem.
I can understand the drug companies havaing to figure on an average dose, but how can the medicos be so careless (I’ trying to be nice and not say “stupid”) as not to realize smaller people may need smaller doses? Duh?
Thanks.
This is interesting to me, being small of stature.
I have travelled a lot and have made a fair number of visits for shots. Almost always the shots would knock me down, I’d break into a heavy sweat and feel retched. The microbiologist on hand always reassured me, it would pass, and it always did. I never made any connection to my size.
But when my spouse would tease me, as we waited to get in. I’d look around the waiting room for the largest person and point out I was about to get the same dose as that mountain of a human!
It really doesn’t seem fair somehow.
Well he’s thinking the same thing.
It often varies with the medication. Insulin for example has a pretty specific dose an too much is pretty serious. Lot’s of over the counter medications have lot of room before they can cause harm, that’s one of the criteria for over the counter status. If I was really small I would take the initiative about reminding the docs and pharmacists of the fact before they write the scrip. I am not advising anybody in particular, yadda yadda yadda.
Well, for a vaccine, at least, it’s less dependant on your size, since your body just needs a bunch of dead/inactive viruses to know how to kill later on.
When I was in the hospital here I had a few problems due to lack of effective dosage. Average height and weight for Japanese is a lot less than the US. I’m pretty much in the middle of the curve in the US, but here I’m a good 10-15 kg heavier and 10-15 cm taller than most Japanese. The few pain medications I got were, I suspect, not matched to my body weight, so I had pretty much constant low-level pain from my injuries and the surgery. After just two weeks in the hospital, I’d also lost over 5 kg. Part of that might have been reduced appetite, but the food was probably not enough either, not for my build or for my increased metabolic rate while I was healing.
For regular stuff, like colds, Japanese doctors tend to prescribe about 10 different medications, but the dosages are just this side of useless to anyone bigger than an average Japanese woman. I mean, really, giving me 50 mg of acetaminophen is supposed to do something? I weigh close to 80 kg. An effective anti-febrile dose is supposed to be between 5 and 10 mg/kg. I might as well be taking homeopathic medicines.
My wife, on the other hand, had problems the other way when we were in the US on our last trip before our wedding. She’s only about 47-48 kg, so when she got a cold I had to make sure that she took the kid’s sized dosage of NyQuil (1 gelcap). It still knocked her right the hell out and she woke up feeling a bit weird. Half a normal pain pill for the US, usually around 250 mg, is about 2x the usual Japanese dosage.
Doctors and pharmacists should absolutely be paying attention to your weight when they give you medicine. Pretty much any medical professional would if they were actually being professional.
Omega Glory, you’d think that they’d put the dosage information in more explicit terms, seeing as how people like to sue for everything, but the only way I’ve found to get real dosage information is to find medical guidelines for dosing children, which usually break it down by mg/lb or kg, and do the math. Occasionally, this information is in the detailed paper insert they put inside the box. More often, you have to look online or in a drug manual for it. Maybe they think that including a weight/dose chart on the package would confuse the average consumer more than just saying 2 pills per adult, regardless of size.
NyQuil knocks almost everyone out, regardless of the relation of dose to body size.
For anything that carries warnings about “sleepiness” or “excitement”, I start with half the dose the doc ordered; if it works, I stick to that. My GP says it’s good policy, given that I know I’m oversensitive to many of those things… maybe your wife should have a good chat with her own GP about that?
A good friend at work is only 4’ 8" and 82 lbs. I’ve been telling her for years that she is taking way too much medicine, because whatever she takes causes tons of side effects. She took benadryl for allergies and was out of work for a day-and-a-half because her whole body felt numb.
I am 5’ 10" and weight 190 lbs, and benadryl knocks me out. She is getting enough to put her into a light coma!
I think she is very safe with a child’s dose or half an adult dose.
Thanks, **Nava,**we finally figured out that was a good idea (see thread about morons 
). We now ask doc if Rx is for capsules, and then ask for half-dose, and can always double. If pills, we have a pill cutter and put it to use.