BetterMyMeds – Transforming Pharmacy Practice
Betty Chaffee/ September 26, 2019/ Uncategorized/ 3 comments
Betty Chaffee, PharmD, is owner and sole proprietor of BetterMyMeds, a Medication Management service devoted to helping people get the maximum benefit from their medications.
On television, we see the long list of possible side effects of taking medications. It’s scary to the point that I would live with a condition rather than risk becoming a victim of a side effect. It would seem that once we start taking medications, we will continue to take medications for the rest of our lives to combat the problems caused by previous medications. Our bodies are chemical machines, When something comes out of balance, I would think that the problems should be able to be solved with a controlled diet. Can this happen?
Tony,
It would be great if diet or other lifestyle choices were always the answer. But unfortunately that’s not always the case. Take type I diabetes, for example, where the pancreas just stops making insulin. Or heart disease in those who eat a balanced diet and exercise routinely. While lifestyle choices can have a positive effect on many of the common problems people have, they don’t always completely resolve the problem. That’s where medications can help. And you’re right, if meds aren’t used carefully, they can pile on. That’s why the eye of a pharmacist is so valuable!
I concur with Betty on this topic. A healthy lifestyle that includes regular amounts of aerobic physical activity and a healthy diet does tend to reduce the risks of some health conditions, thus potentially reducing the needs for some medications. However, there are often other factors involved that a person has very little (if any) control over. These factors would include hereditary factors, presence of genes that put one at greater risk of diseases, injuries, allergies, environmental stressors, congenital heart disorders, neurotransmitter imbalances, glandular disorders, etc… Additionally, sometimes a physician may consider diet and exercise to be a long-term solution, yet may consider the patient to be at immediate risk for harm or complications without medication intervention. So as Betty mentioned, this is when the training and knowledge of a pharmacist becomes so valuable to reduce risks of drug-drug or drug-disease interactions, assess how well the patient is responding to therapy, and even recommend discontinuation of suboptimal or unnecessary medications.