Please, please check the medications
with your pharmacist when adding a new prescription to your
medications. Why? To prevent being hospitalized because of
conflicts among medications. This article on Diabetes Health points
out what can happen and this happened because a hospital could not or
I should say would not check.
It was the pharmacist that discovered
the conflict, but instead of picking up the telephone and making a
call, sent a letter which was not opened until the patient was back
in the hospital. It was corrected then, but should not have happened
in the first place.
The FDA and the manufacturer do check with some drugs, but not every drug that a patient may be taking. Prescription drugs aren't tested in big studies using age, the speed of a person's metabolism, or other clinical variables. Interaction warnings are included with every prescription filled at drugstores. What patients do with this warning is shameful, as many people just toss it in the trash.
A recent study by the Mayo Clinic
declares 70 percent of Americans use one prescription drug while half
the population uses two prescription drugs. The Consumer Reports
National Research Center prescription drug poll revealed an average
of just over 4 prescription drugs are taken by Americans while 14
percent take 7 or more prescription drugs. Then consider that many
patients see more than one doctor who may not be communicating with
each other. This makes a prescription drug problem rather obvious.
Now consider how many people go from one pharmacy to another pharmacy
for their prescriptions, and it is a wonder there are not many more
problems.
Now consider supplements – many
people take them and do not tell their doctor or pharmacist that they
are taking supplements. The FDA only regulates supplement products
without conducting studies to investigate how it reacts with
prescription medications. Mixing some supplements with prescription
drugs is not only risky, but can be fatal. Yet most people consider
them as natural and do not consider them as adding risk.
What can you do? Always maintain a
list of current prescriptions and supplements you are taking. Make
sure that each pharmacist and doctor has this list and keep it
current.
There are also some foods that interactwith certain medications. Grapefruit and grapefruit juice reacts
with at least 85 different prescription drugs as latest count. Since
many people with diabetes are also taking statins, this is one bad
combination, as are some of the cancer drugs and heart disease drugs.
There are many online resources, so
consider keeping a list of websites in your wallet or purse. Or add
them to your Smartphone In Case of Emergency (ICE) setting. You may
want to consider one of many apps that are now available for
prescription lists in the event you end up in the hospital.
The FDA constantly updates its website
using reports from medical professionals about problematic side
effects of not just prescriptions, but food, medical devices and even
cosmetics:
http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/default.ht
http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/default.ht
The FDA also identifies potential
problems for users of
supplements:
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/list-all/
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/list-all/
The ASHP website provides information
regarding drug interactions, precautions, as well as dosage
advice:
www.safemedication.com
www.safemedication.com
The National Institutes of Health (NIH)
MedlinePlus website provides information about adverse effects
between prescriptions, supplements, as well as herbal ingredients.
Just click on "Drugs & Supplements" and type in the
product name.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/
Two additional online resources are
provided by this national pharmacy:
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