Staying Healthy

How long does a drug stay in my system?

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I started having side effects from a prescribed drug. I stopped taking it, but the side effects are still there. How long does it take for a drug to be out of your system?

Side effects of a medicine can be thought of in two ways: symptoms directly related to the drug itself, and symptoms that result from damage the medicine has done to the body. An example of the first kind would be nausea that results from taking a medicine. You would expect nausea to clear up once your liver and kidneys have cleared out the drug. The symptoms are usually gone within a day.

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