I propose creating “Transdermal Skin Patches for Everything” that you ingest or inject for health.
Transdermal skin patches have many uses: anti-nicotine addiction, pain therapy, hormone replacement, contraception, nitroglycerine treatment, motion sickness treatment, anti-hypertension, anti-depressants, ADHD treatment, Altzheimer’s treatment, chemotherapy symptom treatment, and B12 supplementation. An insulin patch is in development.
Patches are usually superior to ingestion because the medicine or nutrition goes DIRECTLY into the bloodstream without the interference of the digestive process.
Patches are superior to injection because they are LESS INVASIVE and less “all-at-once,” MORE “TIMED-RELEASE.”
Theoretically you can make a patch for ANYTHING that you can ingest or inject.
USES FOR TRANSDERMAL SKIN PATCHES
THAT HAVE NOT BEEN INVENTED YET
1. ORAL REHYDRATION THERAPY
The cheapest and most effective way to treat dehydration (caused by a variety of diseases such as dysentery, cholera, diarrhea, rotavirus, etc.) is ingestion of a simple solution of salt, sugar, and water, a therapy known as “Oral Rehydration Therapy.”
Manufacturers could impregnate a patch with salt, sugar, and water. Health care providers could then use it for those with an obstructed esophagus, or those who need direct and immediate hydration, or when intravenous injection of salt, sugar, and water is not available.
2. NUTRITION
Patches would be much preferable to tube-feeding for patients who are comatose or whose esophagus is blocked, or who suffer from dysphagia.
Once upon a time, the army was developing a total, all-nutrition-in-1-patch “Transdermal Nutrition Delivery System,” but they seem to have discontinued the project. And now the link has disappeared. Here is what the link used to be: http://archives.tproc.org/www.sbccom.army.mil/products/food/tdnds.pdf
I propose a separate patch for each nutrient (instead of the Army’s all-in-1 approach): 1 patch with protein, 1 with fats, 1 with carbohydrates, 1 with each important vitamin and mineral.
There already are patches for vitamins and minerals.
But not for protein, carbohydrates, or fats.
I suggest adding “protease,” a protein-digesting enzyme, to a protein patch.
I suggest adding “lipase,” a fat-digesting enzyme, to a fat patch (counter-intuitively, fat is necessary to nutrition).
I suggest adding “amylase,” a carbohydrate-digesting enzyme, to a carbohydrate patch.
Alternately, since protein needs to be broken down by enzymes to be absorbed into the bloodstream anyway, I suggest a patch impregnated with protein already broken down by protease into amino acid—an “AMINO ACID PATCH.”
3. OXYGEN
Oxygen-impregnated patches could help the oxygen-deprived.
TCOT, or “Transdermal Continuous Oxygen Therapy,” continuously bathes wounds in pure oxygen. The “Epiflo” device infuses oxygen into a sterile dressing. But it is a bulky machine. And it doesn’t deliver the oxygen into the bloodstream.
EPIFLO® Transdermal Continuous Oxygen Therapy | WoundSource
“Oxygen Infusion Therapy” is a cosmetic facial treatment. It works similarly to TCOT. It also does not deliver the oxygen into the bloodstream. Intraceuticals Oxygen Infusion | Renew Esthetics (renewed-you.com)
I propose IMPREGNATING A TRANSDERMAL PATCH WITH A LIQUID THAT IS ALREADY OXYGEN-INFUSED (possibly blood or blood plasma), and that can be absorbed through the skin into the bloodstream.
4. BLOOD PLASMA
Since transdermal patches infuse material directly through the skin into the bloodstream, it seems as if phlebotomists could use patches impregnated with red blood, or with blood plasma, for transfusions without needles.
6. CHEMOTHERAPY
There are patches for treating the symptoms of chemotherapy. But no patches that administer the various constituents of chemotherapy. Why not?
7. COUMADIN, ANTI-VIRALS, ANTI-BIOTICS, etc.
Coumadin, anti-virals, anti-biotics, and a whole host of other treatments could be better administered by patch instead of by pill or injection.
CUSTOMERS
Pharmaceutical companies that are already making transdermal patches. Patients who have problems with ingestion or injection. Patients who have problems keeping track of their dosages, who forget to take their pills, etc. Doctors who want easier ways to help their patients access any of these substances. Anyone with a need for direct, non-invasive, timed-release infusion of substances into the bloodstream.