When Your Medication Makes You Sick
In my last post I described my personal experience with my mother that gave me the wake up call about the possible issues with a medication. In the past few days I’ve received several emails describing other people’s experiences. It is more obvious than ever that the adverse effects of medications knows no age barrier. The symptoms can impact your kids, your grandchildren or your grandparents.
Older people are at high risk of drug toxicity but it can also happen to a younger person in their 40′s and even in their 30s. Most negative drug responses take place because a person’s ability to metabolize the drug has changed.
You eliminate most drugs from the body through the kidneys and liver. The problem begins because as you reach your 40s you start accumulating fat and you lose muscle mass. You also lose some ability for your kidneys and liver to process the medications. Even though there is a well established connection between aging and drug toxicity, doctors often don’t recognize the patient’s symptoms as an adverse drug reaction and see it as a new medical condition caused by a virus for instance.
Part of the answer to recognizing this problem may require changing the tendency for physicians to prescribe a medication for every symptom. Not every symptom requires a medication. The concern is that the more medications a patient takes, the more likely one of them will build up to a toxic level.
Still another side of the coin is that most of us see multiple doctors and they don’t always communicate with each other. They could end up prescribing similar drugs which can also reach a toxic level. Going to electronic medical record keeping will help eliminate this part of the problem because each doctor will be able to view your medical record.
In the meantime it’s not a bad idea if you kept a record of your medications and bring that list to each of your doctor’s when you visit them. This should include over-the-counter medications also. And some of your doctors may want to know which vitamins and minerals you’re taking and the dosage for each. It’s also a good idea to read the safety inserts that come with your prescription because your physician may not disclose everything to you or may not be aware of them.
Paul, for instance, was a heavy snorer. His doctor prescribed nose drops that contained steroids to open his clogged nasal passages. They worked except over time Paul’s vision became blurry. The first ophthalmologist he saw did not diagnose cataracts because Paul was young and the condition was sudden. He forgot to ask what medication Paul was taking. When Paul’s eyes became worse and he went t a specialist, he learned that taking steroids can cause cataracts. Fortunately for Paul, cataract surgery restored his vision.
Then there are all the drugs that can make you sick when you drink alcohol. Some antibiotics in combination with alcohol can cause serious nausea and vomiting. If you’re on the blood thinner Coumadin, alcohol decreases your protection from blood-clotting disorders and you can have a life-threatening hemorrhage.
Think about it. You’ve heard the ads on TV and the radio: 10 seconds touting the benefit of the drug and 20 seconds of fast talk telling you all the things that can go wrong.
My advice: you are the captain of your ship. Know what is going on in your body.
To your success at healthy aging.
Ruthan Brodsky
Ruthan Brodsky
Business & Health Writer
Copywriter
