Unfortunately, when we are contemplating taking a new prescription medication, too many of us don’t think about possible harmful interactions with the other drugs we’re taking. We treat the risk like all the fast-paced warnings at the end of pharmaceutical commercials — we ignore them.
That’s dangerous — and in a world where many of us don’t have long-term relationships with a single doctor or pharmacy, it’s becoming all too common for us to fall into drug regimens where the individual medications either counter each other’s effects or create unexpected, and sometimes even deadly, side effects.
That’s why Health 2.0 sites like DoubleCheckMD and PharmaSurveyor are so valuable; they allow you to enter medications and research possible interactions yourself.
If you don’t want to take the do-it-yourself route, however, the Houston Chronicle recommends the following precautions:
Heidi Bragg, a pharmacist and University of Houston School of Pharmacy professor …recommends two actions to help take control of your own health: keep a list of every prescription, supplement and over-the-counter medicine you take, and use one pharmacy to fill all your prescriptions.
The pharmacy professor said drug interactions are especially significant for elderly patients who often take more medicines.
Bragg said she met with one woman who took four synthetic thyroid medications at one time all prescribed by different doctors, all different dosages and all filled at different pharmacies.
“She could have died,” Bragg said.
Pharmaceutical companies talk fast in commercials when they warn about drug interactions. But for your health’s sake, it’s in your interest to take your time and make sure your regimen is both safe and effective.
Related Posts
-
How to Check Prescription Drug Interactions
- How to reduce medication errors
-
Seniors must be vigilant about drug interaction risk
-
Mixing herbal supplements and heart medications may be dangerous
-
Pharmacy 101: antibiotic resistance and medication errors
- How to Protect Your Family from Drug Induced Injury







One Response to Drug-interaction risk is real; don’t ignore it
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
-
Subscribe in a reader
-
Search Blog Posts
-
-
-
How to Safely Buy Prescription Drugs Online from Cary Byrd on Vimeo.
-
Archives
-
Our Healthcare100 Ranking
[...] father stated: “While no medications were taken in excess, we learned today the combination of doctor-prescribed drugs proved lethal for our boy. Heath’s accidental death serves as a caution to the hidden dangers of [...]