Using a food calorie chart to choose foods when shopping or eating out is a pretty wise thing to do. It will not only help you lose and maintain weight. It will also help you get healthy and stay that way. And keeping a food calories chart handy will help keep you on the right track.food nutrition chart

Essentials Of Clinical Research Tampa Residents May Wish To Know

By Barbara Walker


Clinical research is needed to find cure for conditions that do not have a clear management protocol. It is also paramount that an alternative is provided to ensure that the conditions are put under control as cure is being sought. The aim of research is often to create a new drug, device or establish a non-pharmacological way of curing disease. There are several important concepts on clinical research tampa residents may find interesting.

Before a drug is put on trial, it has to undergo certain processes to ensure it is safe for use in test subjects. Such processes will determine characteristic features of a potential drug including its absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion from the body. This is referred to as the pharmacokinetics of the drug. Pre-clinical studies also try to find out the pharmacodynamic nature of the substance in question. Pharmacodynamics refer to the reaction of the body to the drug including its desired and adverse side effects. At the end of a pre-clinical study, researchers are in a position to decide just how much of the drug can be tolerated by a given individual.

In a situation where it is medical instruments under study, the above stage is skipped. Instead, the trial is taken through good laboratory practices. This stage depends on what the piece of equipment is intended for. In general, some devices are designed to help with diagnosis of disease while others are invented to replace a damaged vital part of the human system. A good example is the pacemaker device which is placed right at the center of the heart to keep it beating in rhythm. Before the device goes to the clinical phase, its effectiveness has to be ascertained.

A more recent step has been introduced to quicken the process of research. This step is simply referred to as phase zero. Only a limited number of individuals are tested. In addition, the drug administered is of levels way below the therapeutic concentration. The idea is to chaff out drug characters that have very minimal chances of being effective later in the trial and subsequently when launched into the market.

The next thing is to recruit a number of individuals ranging from three to a hundred. The main objective is to evaluate certain concerns including efficacy of a given dosage and the toxicity profile of the agent under study. Whether the agent will be in capsule, tablet or in solution form can also be determined at this point.

Usually, healthy persons are used for study. The disadvantage is that these individuals may get sick in the process. Therefore, such people participate at a fee and informed consent is part of preparation. Alternatively, patients who are suffering from certain conditions and have not responded to all the available treatments in the market can sign up for such trials. Another category is that of patients with terminal illnesses.

Phase two of research requires the participation of more than a hundred people. This phase mainly tests for efficacy of a drug on a larger number of individuals. The third phase calls for more than a hundred individuals to participate. It is an intensive phase that seeks to prove the value of a therapeutic agent.

The final step is phase four which is mainly a surveillance stage. This step can be used to study additional possibilities such as the effect of certain medication in pregnant women or children. Such special groups are usually hesitant to participate in the earlier stages because of the high risk involved and can only be included after successful tests in healthy adults.




About the Author: