What does “half life” mean regarding medication?
Half life of items refers to the time to reduce that item by one-half. With medications it usually is used to described when the amount of time a medication in the blood is reduced by one-half. It varies greatly depending on the medication. Some medications concentration is reduced to half very within minutes. Others may take hours or days. It can be influenced by a patients kidney and liver function. It can influenced by many things such as albumin levels if protein bound. It can also be influenced by different medications. Those influences are called drug interactions, and they are a major concern in the medical field. But, they can often be managed if you know what to look for and how to manage it. You wouldn’t necessarily have to stop one before taking the other. There are some medications that shouldn’t be taken together. So, you’ll have to be more specific or ask your doctor or pharmacist with specific medications to see how to manage those items.
