Application of Limits on Medicine

By: Ernest, Kuralay, Ainura, Guldana

1. Introduction

Since we were in high school, we were taught about function, where you input the value and
you another value. But have you ever thought about some value that if you put into the function,
it reaches some strange value, like the answer has the denominator infinitely small, or you put
the value so big, it reaches certain value. This concept is so essential that if it were removed,
there would be no such thing as modern science, technology, and even healthcare, which could
lead to cause so many diseases because there were no accurate formulas to make a medicine.
Today we’re going to talk about limit.

What are the limits? Limit is the value of a function or sequence that approaches as the input
approaches some value. Limits are the foundation of all fields of calculus, like derivative,
integral, various calculus series and mathematical analysis. The concept of limit is further used
on many subjects, for example physics, biology, chemistry, architecture, geology, economy and
medicine. Today we are going to show the application of limits on medicine.

2. Application of Limit

By using limit, you can determine the concentration of a medicine in a person’s body over
time. You can also indicate how much substance and medicine should be taken as well as how
fast it metabolizes. The concepts are also applied in studying how medicines act in the body.

2.1. Application on Magnesium Intake for kids aged 1-9

Magnesium is one of the most overlooked deficiencies in conventional medicine. Even

though it is the fourth most abundant mineral in your body and responsible for over 300
biochemical reactions, most of the people don’t get enough of this nutrient. Around 60% of
magnesium are located inside the bone tissue and rest found in non-muscular and muscle
tissues. It is important to take an action of this deficiency quickly to thrive our health.
Overall, magnesium is safe to take, but large amount could potentially cause diarrhea and GI
upset.

The recommended daily intake for healthy individuals are for:

 1-3 years old need 50-100 mg

 3-5 years old need 100-150 mg
 5-7 years old need 150-200 mg
 7-9 years old need 200-250 mg
 We can refer to “Piecewise Function” since we are talking about limits.

50+25( x−1) ; 1≤ x< 3

100+ 25(x−3) ; 3≤ x <5
f ( x )=
150+ 25(x−5) ;5 ≤ x< 7
200+ 25(x−7) ; 7 ≤ x <9

If we want to determine the intake for kids for the specific age, we have to look at one of
these conditions. For example if we want the intake for 2 years old kid, we look at the first
condition.

f ( 2 ) =50+25 ( 2−1 )=75

For the intake for 8 years old kid, look at the last condition.

f ( 8 )=200+25 ( 8−7 )=225

What about the intake for kid that has the age sits between two conditions, or at the edge
of first/last condition? In that case we can use limit to find the intake. We use left and right
side limit. For example, the intake of 3 years old kid

lim ¿
−¿
x→ 3 f ( x ) =¿100∧ +¿
lim ¿ ¿¿
x→ 3 f ( x )=¿100¿ ¿

Since both the limits have the same value, therefore the intake is 100 mg.

The intake of 9 years old kid can be determined using left side limit.

lim ¿
−¿
x→ 9 f ( x ) =¿250 ¿¿

If we plot all of the ages for the function, we get this.

Doses of Magnesium Required per Age

300

250

200

150

100

50

0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
 The function lies perfectly on the line y = 25x + 25. This is very useful because we can
predict the intake beyond the range 1-9 years old.

Now let’s solve the question below

Mrs. Elina has four kids. She has 12-years-old first child, 10-years-old middle child and
7,5-years-old twins who need to consume magnesium tablet daily according to the function
f(x) = 25x + 25, where x is the age of a person. If each 25 mg tablet costs 35 tg, calculate:

a) The number of the tablet she has to buy daily?

b) If she buys with 2000 tg bill, how many is the change?

Answer:

a) Let’s find the limit when x reaches 12, 10 and 7.5 respectively:

A= lim f ( x )=25.12+ 25=¿ 325 ¿

x →12
B= lim f ( x )=25.10+25=¿ 275 ¿
x→ 10
1
C= lim f ( x )=25.7 + 25=212,5
x→ 7.5 2

Since she has 7,5-years-old twins, the value C counted twice, so the total amount of
magnesium they need is: A + B + 2C = 325 + 275 + 2 × 212,5 = 1025 mg.

Therefore, the number of the tablet is 1025 : 25 = 41 tablets.

b) We can calculate the cost by multiplying the number of the tablet with the cost each
tablet, so the cost is 41 × 35 = 1435 tg.

Since she buys with 2000 tg bill, therefore the change is 2000 – 1435 = 565 tg.

2.2. Determining the Concentration of Magnesium Inside the Body

People normally have a very low concentration of magnesium inside their body, which
is around 1-3 mg/dL. They need it to maintain electrolyte in their body, heart function, bone
and blood vessels health and nerve impulse. To maintain the concentration, the body needs
the digestive system and urology system in kidney to set how much magnesium absorbed by
the body and released by urine. Scientists say that the concentration above 7 mg/dL could
lead to hypermagnesemia and above 12 mg/dL is very dangerous and needs special
treatment.

Now let’s solve the question below.

Mr. Alibek is a doctor who specialize on treating hypermagnesemia. One day, he

recorded the concentration of magnesium on one of his patient for the past 60 days with the
graph below:

14

12

10
Concentration (mg/dL)

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Days

a) Approximately, calculate the concentration on day 10 and 20.

b) On which day, did the patient start to need a special treatment (>12 mg/dL)?, and how
long it was?
c) On which day, did the patient start to recover (<6 mg/dL)?
d) How much decrease of the concentration approximately, by the time the patient start
to recover?

Answer:

a) As we can see, the concentration on day 20 is approximately

lim f ( x )=10 mg/dL

x→ 20

b) There are two points that intersect y = 12, which have the x-value of 30 and 43. So
the patient started getting special treatment on day 30 and it was 43 – 30 = 13 days.
 c) There’s only a point that intersect y = 6, which has the x-value of 56. So the patient
started to recover on day 56.

d) Since the function is abstract, we need some value near x = 56. Let’s say x = 55 and x
= 57. We can approximately calculate f(55) and f(57), which are

lim f ( x )=6,7 mg/ dL

x→ 55
lim f ( x )=5,4 mg/dL
x→ 20

Therefore, the decrease is approximately

' f (57 )−f (55) 6,7−5,4 mg

f ( 56 ) = = =0,65 /day
57−55 2 dL

2.3. Comparing Two Medicines

Comparing medicines which one is the best is useful since it can make the recovery time
faster by taking the best one. It can also reduce the cost of recovery and the danger caused by
being sick for longer time. Practically speaking, the only way to determine the effectiveness
of a medicine is by someone taking that medicine and record how much percentage of the
recovery every single time or analyzing the ingredients of that medicine and then predict the
recovery per time based of the ingredients.

Now let’s solve the question below.

Dana wants to buy medicine to cure her cold. She found two medicine, A and B. She
wants to figure out which one is more effective by asking the pharmacist. He than explains
the percentage of recovery of medicine A is f ( x )=100 (1−e−0,25 x ) and medicine B is
f ( x )=50 (2−e−0,1 x −e−0,4 x ) where x is time in hours and f(x) is the percentage of recovery.

a) Plot the x and f(x) value on a table from x = 0 to x = 5.

b) Based on answer (a), which medicine is better?
c) What happens when x approaches infinity?

Answer:

a) This is a table for medicine A.

x 0 1 2 3 4 5
f(x) 0 22,12 39,35 52,76 63,21 71,35

And this a table for medicine B.

x 0 1 2 3 4 5
 f(x) 0 21,24 36,60 47,90 56,39 62,9

b) As you can see, medicine A is better than medicine B because the percentage of
recovery is growing faster.

c) As x goes infinity, the exponent terms approach to 0, so the percentage recovery for
both medicines approach 100%. But in the real life situation, this situation is never
reached whatsoever.