system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why are tablets comparatively big when the medicine they actually deliver is usually in milligram or microgram?
gpt
There are several reasons:
1. You have to make sure your active ingredient reaches the point where it should be absorbed without being digested/destroyed first. If you want the active ingredient to reach the colon you have to put something around it that doesn't get resolved in the stomach.
2. Handability: Working with very small amounts of a substance because every little mistake produces a big error. It's easier to dilute the substance and use more of the diluted substance.
3. Dexterity: Most people have problems seeing and picking up small objects. So a tablet should be large enough that even a person with bad eye sight and some dexterity issues. Even the best medicine does nothing if you can't take it.
4. Marketing and the placebo effect: Everybody has a image in mind how medicine should look and taste like. Medicine that doesn't fits in the picture is harder to sell and is often times less effective than medicine that does. So pharma companies make sure everything looks and tastes familiar.