4 ms·

Isn’t a drug just anything that affects how your body functions? It doesn’t have to be something that your body wouldn’t have in it anyway

speak_plainly 3y ago
I’m no doctor but I think the difference between a drug and a hormone is that a drug is a foreign substance you take to affect the way your body functions while a hormone is something produced endogenously to regulate various processes in the body. People need to understand that melatonin is a hormone and that comes with different risks and issues than a drug.
- delecti 3y ago
  Drugs and hormones aren't separate groups either. Melatonin is a hormone which is also sold as a drug. Additionally, some hormones are wholly artificial; many of the estrogens and progestins which are used for birth control fit that description.
- swores 3y ago
  Nah, there are drugs that already exist in the body (such as the extremely strong psychedelic DMT, which naturally occurs in tiny amounts within human brains and within many other animals and plants). There isn't a hard scientific boundary of what substances count as a "drug", and if a hormone is being taken as a pill to affect a human then it is being used as a drug.
- mrguyorama 3y ago
  There is no concrete definition of "Drug". Most working definitions are "Something that affects you, but isn't food".
  - brianpan 3y ago
    Nor is there a concrete definition of hormone. Drug: Chemical that affect you (by ingesting), but isn't food. Hormone: Chemical that affects you.
- matheusmoreira 3y ago
  They are not mutually exclusive. A drug may be a hormone and hormones may be endogenous or exogenous. For example, oral contraceptives are drugs which are exogenous hormones. One may think of the neuroendocrine system as the body's event system. Hormones are the event signals. Where they're emitted from doesn't particularly matter, the key is they're flowing and circulating to places and producing observable effects on any tissue with the appropriate interfaces which range from cell membrane receptors to nuclear receptors.
vvpan 3y ago
You are probably correct, I honestly do not know. What I meant is that there is an association between melatonin and sleep and there is _some_ research on it as an effective medicine but the quantity of it (to my untrained eye) is limited. So when people take it they generally take it as an over-the-counter supplement with some hope for uncertain effects because "it's the thing in the body that regulates sleep". Thus the quotes around "drug".
scotty79 3y ago
Sugar affects how your body functions too.
- mewpmewp2 3y ago
  So homeopathy pills are drugs!

speak_plainly 3y ago

I’m no doctor but I think the difference between a drug and a hormone is that a drug is a foreign substance you take to affect the way your body functions while a hormone is something produced endogenously to regulate various processes in the body. People need to understand that melatonin is a hormone and that comes with different risks and issues than a drug.

delecti 3y ago
Drugs and hormones aren't separate groups either. Melatonin is a hormone which is also sold as a drug. Additionally, some hormones are wholly artificial; many of the estrogens and progestins which are used for birth control fit that description.
swores 3y ago
Nah, there are drugs that already exist in the body (such as the extremely strong psychedelic DMT, which naturally occurs in tiny amounts within human brains and within many other animals and plants). There isn't a hard scientific boundary of what substances count as a "drug", and if a hormone is being taken as a pill to affect a human then it is being used as a drug.
mrguyorama 3y ago
There is no concrete definition of "Drug". Most working definitions are "Something that affects you, but isn't food".
- brianpan 3y ago
  Nor is there a concrete definition of hormone. Drug: Chemical that affect you (by ingesting), but isn't food. Hormone: Chemical that affects you.
matheusmoreira 3y ago
They are not mutually exclusive. A drug may be a hormone and hormones may be endogenous or exogenous. For example, oral contraceptives are drugs which are exogenous hormones. One may think of the neuroendocrine system as the body's event system. Hormones are the event signals. Where they're emitted from doesn't particularly matter, the key is they're flowing and circulating to places and producing observable effects on any tissue with the appropriate interfaces which range from cell membrane receptors to nuclear receptors.

vvpan 3y ago

You are probably correct, I honestly do not know. What I meant is that there is an association between melatonin and sleep and there is _some_ research on it as an effective medicine but the quantity of it (to my untrained eye) is limited. So when people take it they generally take it as an over-the-counter supplement with some hope for uncertain effects because "it's the thing in the body that regulates sleep". Thus the quotes around "drug".

scotty79 3y ago

Sugar affects how your body functions too.

mewpmewp2 3y ago
So homeopathy pills are drugs!