Artem Severtsev

Medical writer

Not a doctor. I run pill2trip.com — explaining pharmacology in plain language, grounded in primary sources.

[email protected]

I'm not a doctor and I'm not a pharmacist. I run pill2trip.com — a project where I try to explain pharmacology in plain language, because the leaflets that come with your medication are written for other doctors, not for the people who actually take them.

I lean on primary sources: PubMed reviews, FDA labels, package inserts, clinical guidelines (NICE, NHS, WHO, ACG). All references are at the bottom of every article — check them yourself.

What I don't do

I don't prescribe and I don't tell you to stop taking anything.
I don't give dosages.
I don't diagnose.

If you have a symptom right now — see a doctor or pharmacist, not Google and not this site.

Get in touch

[email protected]

Articles by Artem Severtsev

Beta-blockers: the volume knob on your fight-or-flight system

Beta-blockers don't fix stress. They turn the volume of the stress signal down. Your heart still hears the alarm — it's just no longer a fire drill.

NSAIDs: how they actually work and why your stomach hates them

NSAIDs don't fix anything — they switch off the pain and inflammation signal. That's useful most of the time, occasionally harmful, and your stomach almost always has its own opinion about them.

Paracetamol: the gentle painkiller that quietly eats livers

People call paracetamol the gentle painkiller — and that's half right. It's friendly to your stomach and your kidneys, sure. But push the dose, skip a meal, drink with it, and the same molecule can wreck a liver in a single afternoon.

PPIs: how proton pump inhibitors actually shut off stomach acid

PPIs don't fix heartburn — they shut off the acid tap, and as long as the tap is closed the heartburn doesn't show up. That's useful, occasionally lifesaving, and a strange thing to do to your stomach for ten years in a row.

SSRIs: how the most-prescribed antidepressants actually work

SSRIs don't turn sadness into joy — they take the foot off the serotonin brake. That's not a buzz, it's the noise level dropping enough that you can hear yourself think.

Statins: the off switch on a factory you didn't know you had

Statins don't fight the cholesterol on your plate. They turn down the cholesterol factory inside your liver — the one that makes about 80% of your cholesterol while you sleep, regardless of what you ate.

ACE inhibitors: how a snake venom became one of cardiology's most useful drugs

ACE inhibitors don't fix your heart — they switch off a signal that was squeezing it too hard. Useful most of the time, occasionally tricky, and the dry cough you've heard about isn't a bug, it's the mechanism saying hello.

Antibiotics: how four different saboteurs take down a bacterial city

Antibiotics don't fight infections the way a soldier fights an enemy — they sabotage specific pieces of bacterial machinery, and the bacteria fall apart on their own. Useful when matched to the right bug, harmful when used as a generic fix-all.

H1 antihistamines: how they actually work and why one of them puts you to sleep

H1 antihistamines don't stop your body from releasing histamine — they just stop the receiver from picking up the call. That's why your nose dries up. It's also why one of them turns into a sleeping pill by accident.