Are You Taking the Right Medication?
SO, YOU’RE TAKING SOMETHING TO
HELP CONTROL YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE, or ease your arthritis pain, or relieve
your cold symptoms. Whatever medication
you may be taking right now, is it helping
or hurting you?
The idea, of course, is that it should help you. Many of today’s medicines are very effective, and even necessary. But if you don’t know for sure what you’re taking and the right way to take it, prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs have the potential to harm your health.
How can you know you’re taking the right medication in the right way? Start by reading the label and, just as important, stay in close communication with your doctor or pharmacist, who can determine if a new drug is safe to take with your other medications.
For example: Say you’re taking extrastrength acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol) several times a day to relieve arthritis pain. Then you get a cold, so you start taking a cold medication that treats a cough, headache, and sinus congestion.
Chances are, each dose of cold medication also may contain a full dose of acetaminophen— but you won’t know without checking the list of ingredients. In each case, you’re taking the standard dose shown on the label, but because you’re taking both drugs at once, you’re overdosing on acetaminophen. That’s a big deal.
Taken for an extended time, a double dose of acetaminophen can be very toxic and even lead to liver failure.
Other protective steps include:
- Ask your doctor to review your medications at each appointment. Never omit this step, particularly if you’re seeing more than one physician.
- Confirm what each drug is for, why you’re taking it, and exactly how you should be taking it. And, make sure you really need it.
- Ask about side effects. Your doctor or pharmacist can tell you in advance what to be alert to. For example, your blood pressure medication may make you feel a little sluggish the first few weeks you’re taking it. If you’re troubled by the side effects you’re experiencing or aren’t sure about them, call your doctor.
- Make full use of your pharmacist. Never hesitate to ask a pharmacist a question. That’s what he or she is there for.
- Tap into every available resource. For more information about prescription and OTC drugs, go to reliable Web sites such as http://medlineplus.gov.
