Would you like to be an integral part of the medical profession? To understand what drugs to prescribe and what their effects are?

As Physicians diagnose and treat patients, an important aspect to the treatment’s success is the selection of pharmaceutical drugs to complete the treatment. Knowing which drug to prescribe and the drug’s corresponding actions on the human body are essential in any medical treatment. and pharmacology & pharmacy is the study of medicine related to action of drugs and the safe and the effective use of pharmaceutical drugs respectively.

Pharmacology is the science that studies physiological and biochemical processes underlying diseases such as AIDS, malaria, asthma, cancer and cardiovascular disease, and how drugs work to counter these diseases. This understanding can be at the molecular, cellular, tissue or whole body level. Pharmacology also plays a part in the development of new treatments and drugs for both human and animal diseases. A course in pharmacology is therefore highly interdisciplinary, involving a mix of chemistry, biochemistry, molecular and cell biology, and physiology.

Whereas pharmacology studies the effect of drugs on living organisms, Pharmacy looks at the actual dispensing of drugs and medicine to patients. It studies how drug molecules are ‘formulated’ into medicine, and looks at developing new ways to deliver drugs effectively and safely into patients. Pharmacy also touches on the dynamics of patient management, issues in home health care delivery and the biology of aging. If you are interested in entering the cosmetics industry, a course in pharmacy is also highly relevant.

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