Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[icecube]

Hello everybody:

If somebody reads newspapers, which are a "reading staple" for the low-income part of the population, then you must have seen ads from pharmaceutical companies inviting people to take part in drug research.
I knew one guy who took part in several such "studies"; I myself went to one such company, but failed the physical.

I failed it because I was doing certain tricks to expand the volume of blood plasma to reduce the concentration of blood cells per unit of volume, so that less blood cells would go into each blood sample.
But I have done it too early, the only suitable time to do it is just before the actual study, not before a physical.

There are also tricks to reduce the drug uptake by manipulating pH of blood. Depending on pharmacodynamics of a particular drug, its uptake can be significantly reduced if you change pH of blood with certain substances.

Quite obviously, the "target population" for those studies are the people who are not "gainfully employed" and those would not know (or understand) any of these things.

And even though I am not recommending to anyone to take part in those studies, some might find it interesting how you can play this game and which "countermeasures" you are likely to be facing.
There is a write-up on the subject at http://badnursing.com/research.htm

regards: icecube