Dear Dr. Toshi,
I'm taking a number of medications, and I don't really know what they're all for or whether I need to be taking all of them. What should I do?
Last week I talked about how to optimize your visit to the clinic, and mentioned a few things about your medications.
With the advancement of medical science and pharmaceutical research and development, we're presented with more and more treatment choices. As a result, some of us may be taking several medications every day. If you include over-the-counter medications (those that you can buy off the shelf without a prescription) and supplements such as vitamins, the list can be long!
It's very important for you to know what medications you're taking because they all have side effects. Yes, even over-the-counter medications! Also, the more medications you take, the more likely it is that you may have problems caused by interactions between medications.
So, here's what I recommend regarding your medications:
1) First, you should know the names and doses of all your meds and what each one is for. MedCard
2) If you aren't sure about any of them, ask your healthcare provider.
3) Whenever you have a visit with a healthcare provider, be sure to bring all your medications with you, including over-the-counter medicines and supplements. (Or, you can bring an accurate, up-to-date list of all of them, including the doses and how many of each you take every day.) This is important because you can run into problems if your provider doesn't know what medications other providers have prescribed for you. They may prescribe the same medication again (so you could be taking double the dose you should be taking), or a medication that has a bad interaction or cancels out the action of another medication you're on. Or, you could be taking a medication that you no longer need to take. All of these problems happen more often than you think because every healthcare system has different medical records and they can't see each other's records.
The label on every medicine container should have the name of the medication, the dosage, how to take it--by mouth, applied to your skin (topical), inhaled (like asthma inhalers), etc.--the number of refills, the name of the doctor/provider who prescribed it, the name and phone number of the drugstore that dispensed it, and other useful information.
Don't mix different medications together in the same bottle because it's easy to get confused or forget what they are over time. That's true for over-the-counter medications, too.
Again, over-the-counter medications and supplements are NOT harmless. It's important that you know what they are, how to take them, and what the side effects may be. If you're not sure, you can ask your pharmacist or your doctor or other provider.
Dr. Toshiko ("Toshi") Luckow, MD, is a Family Physician at the West River Health Services Hospital and Clinics.