Keeping railroad of medications may help avoid side effects TimesDaily.com Times Daily Florence, AL

Jim Entry takes 10 prescription medications each day.

It's enough that he spurn to take over-the-counter remedy or herbal remedies to treat more mundane ailments, like a headache or babe heartburn. His reason: I'm not sure what would come about with all these other medicines," he said.

So far, so good. But it's also why I keep a list of my prescriptions with me." Hall was at Walgreen's in Florence recently picking up a prescription for an antibiotic to treat a feel of pneumonia, but he said he makes a point of telling his primary care physician and druggist any of the medicament he takes to avoid potentially deadly interactions.

Lee Malone, a nurse practitioner in the difficulty branch at Helen Keller Hospital in Sheffield, said more often than not, "it's conscientious that people are forgetful, or think that because a drug is over-the-counter it won't cause a problem.

But there are even some herbal therapy and multivitamins that have the potential representing interactions." Those interactions are exactly why it's important for health-care consumers to tell their physician everything they're taking as well as using a unmarried pharmacy to fill prescriptions, she said. People think they've got all the information on a potential drug," Malone said.

But, sometimes, it's our fault, too, as health-care providers when we forget to energy back over a patient's profile and rejuvenate the information."

The picture is complex further by visits to specialists and the danger margin for additional treatment.

Much if not prompted to restore your medication history with each doctor you visit, Malone said consumers should generate sure all of the medicament they are taking are known to each health-care provider, even those bolus that don't seem noteworthy.

This time of year, people are manufacture resolve to get healthy," she said. Now, too, we see humanity using those over-the-counter dietary supplements. Even without the pseudoephedrine in them, they have stimulants akin caffeine.

Taking too many of them can cause your heart to race and cause you to be nervous or jittery." ENLARGE Acquire PHOTO Jim Hannon TimesDaily Walgreen"s pharmacist Robert Moody points out narcotic information.

In appendix to a valuable care physician, pharmacists again serve as a moment line of defense against adverse drug interactions.

Most drug stores are equipped with software that testament add up the appropriate dosage of a medicine based on the others a consumer is taking. It will and make the pharmacist aware of any potential interactions, from mild, moderate to major. Dena Askew is the drugstore manager the Dr.

Hicks location of Walgreen's Drug Store. She said interactions are becoming else numerous and - in some cases - more lethal for a couple of reasons.

People use extra than one drug lay away for convenience, but they will also miss to impart the pharmacist of their allergies and other medications they're taking," she said.

You can not at any time come across too much information, which is why continuity of chagrin have become the watchwords in fitness care."

Askew said taking a second allot of attention to the doctor's office or hospital upon discharge can help make sure the information is passed along correctly.

From http://timesdaily.com/article/20080107/news/801070309/-1/sea~