Prescription drug

An Apple a Day is Medicine for Good Health

That old saying about an apple keeping the doctor away turns out to be true. Apples are chock full of vitamins, especially B vitamins, and they have 6 grams of fiber per small apple. In addition, an apple is less than 100 calories, making it one of the best choices you have for healthy eating. Working an apple or two into your diet everyday isn’t difficult; you just need to make a conscious effort to do it.

Of course apples are not the only things that you can do to help make your health medicine things that are part of your everyday life. There are other options for good health through the use of lifestyle choices. Making enough of these good choices could
help you reduce or eliminate prescription medication from your life.

Start simple if you are worried about giving up everything you love. Instead of chomping on chips for a snack, consider changing to pita chips. They are healthier but still have the crunch and general substance of chips. Eventually you can move to pita pockets filled with yummy dips and then to pita pockets with veggies in them.

Another option is to begin making things on your own at home. Instead of buying chips at the store, you can make your own chips ” for less money, too!” or French fries at home. Doing so will allow you to control the flavoring and taste but still have the crunchy, salty goodness of fries.

These are a few of the changes you can make that will allow you to experiment with your food and enjoy what you are eating at the same time you are getting healthier. Making these changes will result in needing fewer prescriptions and medical tests because you will find that you can eliminate many health problems by simply making changes to your lifestyle.

Filed Under: Medical Care Research Tagged With: Apple, Health, Prescription drug

Prescriptions On and In House

: Cover of Rx

Anyone who has encountered the symbol “Rx” knows all about prescriptions and getting them filled. Prescriptions are a unique element of health treatment because they represent sort of a bridge between the doctor or nurse and the patient, with the pharmacist as middleman. Unlike over-the-counter medicine, prescription medicines require a permission slip of sorts – the “prescription” itself – a way of acknowledging both that the patients require the medicine for health but also that they are not necessarily to be trusted with it on their own.

It’s an unfortunate effect of people’s abuse of medicine that it must be regulated and tracked in this way. It is a simple fact however that many of the medications are incredibly powerful. Because the human body is made up of chemicals it can be greatly influenced or even dramatically reconstituted by other chemicals, and the most potent examples can be found in these carefully-handled prescription medicines. Still, the benefits they provide can be so great and so relieving that people grow dependent on them and abuse the medicines in ways no longer beneficial to the body. Hence the prescriptions, which make sure only the right people get these medicines and also that they only get a healthy amount.

The television show House, M.D. is an illustrative example. The brilliant Dr. House suffered an infarction in his leg, causing him tremendous pain, which he uses the powerful drug Vicodin to control. But the drug, like all pain relievers, is addictive, and House has developed a dependence on the drug. Much of the tension in the show revolves around the balance between his amazing diagnostic skills and the problems his drug habit – and the lengths to which he goes to satisfy his craving – creates. House certainly doesn’t trouble himself with prescriptions if he doesn’t have to and his rule-breaking makes for good TV, but in reality prescriptions are a real boon.

Filed Under: Types Of Medical Care Tagged With: Prescription drug

5 Reasons Teens Abuse Prescription Drugs

Teen drug abuse is on the rise, but it’s not necessarily a rise in street drugs that’s the main problem. Teens are digging into the medicine cabinet and finding prescription medication that belongs to aunts, uncles, grandparents and even parents. Some teens even swap drugs with each other to experience a high that’s a surprise, because they don’t know what medication they’re taking.

1.   They seem like a safe alternative to street drugs. Because they’re regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, many teens thinks it’s safer to take prescription medication than it is to take street drugs. However, prescription drugs can have serious side effects, including damage to the heart, kidneys, liver. When pills, such as Oxycontin, are crushed to boost the high, it can cause a lethal overdose.
2.   They want to fit in. A teenager can swipe one or two pills from the medicine cabinet and it will probably go unnoticed. If swapping or giving away medicine will make the teenager think he or she will become more popular, they may be willing to take the chance.
3.   They want to experience the feeling of getting high. The same reasons that someone would use street drugs cross over for prescription medication. Teenagers may feel anxious, depressed, emotionally distraught or socially lost, which can create a desire to “check out” for periods of time.
4.   They want to earn money. Stolen prescription pills can be sold to their peers for cold hard cash. Some teens need the money for necessities and others want the money for luxuries, but money is definitely a factor.
5.   They think it’s the cool thing to do. When a celebrity is discovered under the influence or having overdosed on a substance, teenagers many times believe the celebrity was taking the drug because it’s a cool trend. Many teenagers like to emulate celebrities, so they use the same drug of choice as their favorite star.

Filed Under: Medical Care Research Tagged With: Drug overdose, Pharmaceutical drug, Prescription drug, Substance abuse

Abuse by Teenagers May Lead to Prescription Drug Rehab

: Image by US Mission Geneva via Flickr

Over the past fifteen years, the number of teenagers and young adults who abuse prescription drugs has grown by leaps and bounds. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) estimates that the number of teenage drug abusers grew from about 400,000 in the mid-1980s, to over 2 million in the year 2000. At the same time, the number of people admitted into emergency rooms for prescription drug abuse rose sharply; from 1998 to 2000, the tail end of the time period examined by the DHHS, Vicodin-related emergency room cases rose by 48 percent, and OxyContin-related cases rose 108 percent. These trends continue into the post-2000 decade at an alarming rate: from 2000 to 2001 alone, oxycodone-related emergency room cases rose in prevalence by 44 percent.

According to the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, the most common types of drugs abused by teenagers include opiates, central nervous system depressants, and stimulants. Opiates are painkillers, drugs such as Vicodin and oxycodone, are abused for their sedation effects, which induce a feeling of euphoria. Central nervous system depressants include drugs such as muscle relaxants, some antipsychotics, and some anti-anxiety medications. Depressants reduce the functioning of the body’s central nervous system, creating a feeling of slowness and relaxation. Stimulants are the opposite of depressants: drugs such as Dexedrine, Ritalin (and its cousin, Concerta), and amphetamines temporarily improve the functioning of parts of the central nervous system, inducing heightened alertness and quicker physical responses.

All of the above categories of drugs are safe if used as prescribed by a medical professional. However, when abused, even in a seemingly-harmless “self-medicating” capacity, they can produce significant, potentially-fatal side effects. Opiates, stimulants, and depressants, which fundamentally work by altering the functioning of the body’s central nervous system, can cause permanent disruption in a person’s brain or nervous system. Teenagers are especially at risk from these often-social recreational drugs, which may lead to prescription drug rehab.

Filed Under: Medical Care Facilities Tagged With: Health, Oxycodone, Prescription drug, Substance abuse

Double Checking the Pharmacies Work

How can you make sure you are getting the right medication from your pharmacy? We want to believe that pharmacies never make mistakes but if you have watched the news or talked to some of the people around you you will find that people who work in pharmacies make mistakes all the time. Sometimes, and most of the time, they are minor errors like spelling or perhaps a miscount in the pill quantity, but occasionally they are bigger errors that can result in dispensing harmful medication to people who can suffer fatal outcomes if not caught early enough. So how do you assure that your medication is one of the medication that is filled correctly.

Before you even arrive at the pharmacy make sure you speak with the doctor about the brand and the generic name of the drug they are putting you on. Ask why they are putting you on it and what is it for. If you can do that and write it down then you are way ahead of the game. Once you have taken care of that it is on to the pharmacy. Once you get there review the prescription with them. Ask them simply what does it say as far as the drug and see if what they are reading matches up with what you have. If it doesn’t then you may have to politely ask them to speak with your doctor. The pharmacist cannot take your word for it. They must be clear with the doctor themselves.

Once you have come back to pick up your medication make sure you take a moment to take a look at the pill bottle. Too many times people pick up medication and don’t spend the five seconds it takes to look at the bottle. Just a simple double check to make sure that there was nothing that got mixed up during the filling or labeling process will do you a world of good. If there is then bring it to the attention of the pharmacist and they will be more than happy to correct it.

Filed Under: Medical Care Supplies Tagged With: Pharmacist, Pharmacy, Prescription drug

Why Medication Expires

Taking medication seems like a simple process. You take your pill and then you forget about it. However, in today’s advanced world we know a lot more about medication than we did 50 years ago and because of this we have to act accordingly. There is more than enough information for you to play by the rules, and with the money that you spend in a given year on prescription medication would you really want to do something that renders that medication ineffective? The answer is no and so by following some steps you can make medication a pleasant surprise.

Do not pay attention to the expiration date on the box but rather pay attention to the expiration date on the label from the pharmacy. The reason for this is that once a package leaves the pharmacy they cannot verify the conditions that the medication has been kept in. For instance, let’s say you receive a cream for eczema from your local pharmacy, but in the course of the year that you have this medication you keep it in a hot car, then a freezing cold car, then a steamy bathroom where the cream traps in moisture. The fact is the weather can and will affect the medication.

When a pharmaceutical company puts an expiration date on a medication it’s because they can be assured that it will remain in the proper storing conditions. When that same medication is taken from the pharmacy to the patient those proper storing conditions cannot be assured so it’s best that even in adverse weather that the medication is not used for longer than the year on the expiration date.

Does this mean that in perfect home conditions that a medication will stop working after a year? Absolutely not. But this is just a guideline to protect you from a medication that could have lost its potency. It’s one thing to have to spend money on a new cream every year. It’s another thing to keep using a medication that isn’t helping. There is nothing economical about that.

Filed Under: Medical Care Research Tagged With: Health, Pharmacy, Prescription drug

Additional Rules for Taking Medication

: Image via Wikipedia

Just because you pick up your medication from the pharmacy doesn’t mean you are doing everything you can to make sure that you are in your best health. Learning how to take the medication matters more than anything. It’s not as simple as just putting in your bathroom medicine chest(which is actually frowned upon) but it’s far more involved than that. There is a lot to know and following a few simple guidelines can not only make sure that your medicine is more effective but also make sure that you don’t lose your mind keeping track of the medication.

1. Take medication at the same time everyday – This is a little different than it sounds. Of course some medication is meant to be taken at night while others are meant to be taken once, twice, or three times throughout the day. This is just how medication works but if you are smart you should be taken all morning medications at the same time every morning, like right before you eat or right after depending on the type of medication you have. The reason is your body should get into the habit of getting what it needs at the same time everyday so it learns to last that long with the medication you have given it.

2. Set a Schedule – Take a pill box that you can purchase at your local pharmacy and have it separated at the beginning of each week. This can do you wonders as opposed to just trying to keep track of it in your head. Then use your smart phone if you have one to set multiple reminders through your alarm clock function or your calendar function. Most calendars have reminders on them. This will take the pressure off of you to remember when you were supposed to take them.
The bottom line is to get into the habit of taking your medication. Skipping doses or just taking them later can have negative effects to the way your body responds to the medication and that’s a problem you would rather not have.

Filed Under: Medical Care Technology Tagged With: Health, Medical Care Technology, Pharmacy, Prescription drug

Using Rx Drugs For Daily Use

: Image by isafmedia via Flickr

How Medicine Helps the Body

Taking Rx drugs is beneficial for the body when illnesses are present. Medication helps the body fight off further infections, as well. Drugs work most effectively when they are present in the body over a constant period of time so they can work through the bloodstream. A consistent flow of medicine stabilizes the body, strengthens it to fight off infections and illnesses, and guards against further illness invasions.

You can take medicine in almost any form, whether it’s liquid, powder, or pills. You can take some with or without liquids, depending on what the medication is and what its effects are when mixed with other substances. Doctor prescriptions often advise patients to take certain medications on an empty stomach. This allows the medicine to get into the bloodstream faster and work quicker. Medications that require you to consume a small amount of food before taking are stronger solutions. Taking them in food will slow down the absorption into your bloodstream. This helps your body release the medicine over a slower rate at a more controlled pace. Food and/or milk can keep the stomach from getting upset when you take certain drugs.

Getting the Right Medical Prescriptions

Doctors issue prescriptions for medications, and making sure you get the medicine that you need for your illness is very important. Doctors typically won’t issue prescription medicines for patients over the phone or without an examination, so it may be necessary to schedule a doctor’s appointment before you can get any medications.

To help you on your visit, make a list of everything you want to discuss with the doctor so you don’t forget anything critical to your illness. Although some things may not seem important, mention them to the doctor anyway and let him assess whether or not it’s important. It’s better to be safe and mention something than to keep quiet.

Filed Under: Medical Care Reform Tagged With: Health, Medical Care Technology, Pharmacy, Prescription drug

Staying Away From Maintenance Medications

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One of the highest costs in the health care industry is the amount of money you spend on prescription drugs. As the years go on not only will you be on more drugs because of the declining age but also with the way doctors are prescribing more maintenance medication for people. Whenever you are visiting with your doctor and your tests come back that suggest you might need to go on a medication there are a few things you might want to keep in mind so that you may be able to avoid being on maintenance meds. It’s a slippery slope when you start on one.

Start by asking your physician why they believe you belong on a maintenance medication. What tests did they do? How bad were the results? How long have they felt this way? These are all very important questions because it gives you a better sense of how the doctor is thinking. They may be feeling that you have been showing poor results on the last two tests and the current test you failed poorly and so they are putting you on meds now. However, you may find that this was your doctors first instinct.

You want to ask your doctor if he would be ok with you possibly trying to improve your personal health before you got yourself on medication. Sometimes just getting more consistent exercise or getting a better diet in place is enough to keep yourself off of maintenance meds. Now what might happen is your doctor suggest that you take the medication anyway. If this is the case then ask your doctor if it’s possible for you to start showing signs of improvement by dropping weight or writing a food log to track the meals you are eating just to see if the doctor is interested in cutting you back on your medication once you have proven that you are committed to helping yourself. If the doctor says no and you feel like you should you can always ask another physician because maintenance meds aren’t for people who take care of themselves.

Filed Under: Medical Care Reform Tagged With: Drugs and Medications, Health care, Physician, Prescription drug