Acetylcholine is the chemical messenger at many points
in the nervous system, notably the junctions between:
- nerve cells and skeletal muscle
- nerve cells and heart muscle
- nerve cells and glands
- nerve cells and other nerve cells, including in the
periphery, the spinal cord, and the brain
|Many vital functions could be
affected by drug manipulation of the acetylcholine messenger.
There are cases where physicians might want to "soup up"
neurochemical signaling by increasing the amount of acetylcholine
in these junctions.
Some conditions that are known to benefit from
enhancing acetylcholine action with cholinesterase inhibitor drugs are:
A common prescription drug used for these purposes is
Knowing what you now know about how cholinesterase inhibitors
work, you no doubt realize that overdose can be dangerous. Too much
of a good thing is a bad thing.
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