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Now, there is some debate over who should use aspirin as prevention -which I review in this video.  As you  can see from the video, the pups are super interested in this topic too!

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Mr. K told me a very detailed story how his wife went with him to the doctor’s office.  The doctor said he should take one baby aspirin every day to help his heart health and have regular aspirin around to chew if he is having a heart attack.  He told me his wife sent him to the store with a note. 

He found the note in his back pocket –uncrumpled it and showed it to me.  Darned if it didn’t say, “Honey, Go to the pharmacy and get BABY and REGULAR ASPIRIN.”  It was then followed by a couple other items and chores (including fix the rocking chair J).

We had a talk about baby aspirin –which is, tricky enough, not actually for babies.  (Aspirin is usually avoided in children younger then 15 years old).  Baby aspirin is actually “Low-dose aspirin” or more accurately, “Aspirin 81mg.”

So, the doctor should have asked his patient to start taking one 81mg aspirin every day.

As for “Regular aspirin,” the doctor actually meant, “Regular-dose aspirin or Aspirin 325mg.”

Helpful Hint: Studies have shown that if a person chews a tablet of aspirin 325mg (or 4 tablets of aspirin 81mg), it can limit damage that happens during a heart attack (of course, you still call 9-1-1!). 

Mr. K chose a generic chewable version of aspirin 81mg but not after we decoded what enteric coating meant…

Enteric coated or buffered means that there is a special coating on the aspirin tablet that will delay the release of the medicine until it reaches the small intestine.  Aspirin can bother the belly –so the coating can help lessen the irritation.

However, because it delays the release of aspirin –it is much, much, much better to chew a non-buffered aspirin during a heart attack. 

He left satisfied and said he will share all the info with his wife.  Of course, he did ask for my card, just in case his wife needed to double checkJ.

Daily 81mg aspirin is often recommended for men and women that have had a heart attack or are at high risk for heart disease.  High risk includes people that smoke tobacco or have high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes. 

Daily aspirin 81mg is not all good, though –there are side effects and drug interactions.  You definitely want to talk with your physician before you start taking one.

I want to hear from you folk –Please leave me a comment or email me at nova@getpharmacyadvice.com .  Be sure to subscribe too- so you can be in the know!

Polypharmacy is the word used to describe a situation where:

1.     too many unneeded drugs are prescribed to a patient.

2.     a patient is taking too many forms of a drug.

3.     there are too many pills to be taken during a day even if they are needed.

In my aunt’s case, she always thought she needed more drugs, but what was really happening was that she was prescribed drugs to treat the side effects of the drugs she was already taking.  Once her doctor prescribed the drugs, it was hard for her to mentally and physically remove them from her daily routine – why else would the doctor prescribe them? 

The only reason she stopped taking most of her meds is because she eventually couldn’t afford them (that’s a whole other issue!).  At one point, she was taking 18 different medications.  Since she hasn’t been able to pay for all 18, she is down to only 4 drugs…WHAT?!!!  Yup, that’s right….only 4 medications now and she feels so much better!

I tried over and over again to tell her she didn’t need so many medications, but she would just come up with a reason for every single one of them.  She agrees now that she was taking too many drugs. 

I needed to send you this message because I see firsthand how patients are affected by being overmedicated.  Drugs may be seen as powerful healers, but they can cause a lot of harm too.  I think it’s important for patients to know that more drugs does not always mean better result. 

Also, I want you all to know that Nova and I both greatly support lifestyle changes (diet, exercise, etc.) before falling back on a drug to help fix the problem – you’ll be an overall healthier person!  Of course, we know that medications cannot always be avoided, but that’s why we are here – to help you learn all you can about the drugs you are taking.

We also support the use of herbal medications or other supplements and home remedies are wonderful too – we certainly don’t think prescription drugs are the only way to go!

As you’ve heard me say before, e-mail at cate@getpharmacyadvice.com with any questions or concerns – it will be a great way to get your medication therapy under control.  Ask us about any herbal supplement, vitamin, home remedy, you name it, we’ll be here for you.  Commenting on this article would be fabulous too  

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I quickly learned there is more to treating the elderly than one would think.  I assumed you could treat the older patient exactly like a younger adult suffering from the same ailment – Not true!

There are several different challenges to meet when dealing with the elderly and medicine so I’m going to hit on one area at a time – hopefully this keeps the topic from being too overwhelming. 

We’ll start with what your body does to drugs after you take it (pharmacokinetics – big word!), which consists of four major areas.  Note: this may be a little confusing, but please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions!  The major areas are:

1)    Absorption – the movement of the drug into the bloodstream

2)    Distribution – the movement of the drug between the blood and the different tissues of the body (i.e. muscle, fat, and brain tissue)

3)    Metabolism – how your body changes the drug in preparation for elimination

4)    Elimination – how the drug is removed from your body

These actions all change as you get older and at some point they will change to a degree in which extra care is needed.  Some of the changes in the elderly are as follows:

1)    Absorption –

a.     Even though the surface area of the small intestine (where most of the drug absorbs) decreases with age, changes in drug absorption tend to be minor and not important in the clinical setting.

2) Distribution

a.     An ↑ in levels of fat-soluble drugs because body fat increases with age.

b.     A ↓ in levels of water-soluble drugs because the total amount of water in the body decreases.

c.      Drugs that bind to proteins in the blood may ↑ or ↓ in levels depending on the type of protein (with aging, one type of protein decreases in number while the other increases!).

3)  Metabolism

a.     Drugs broken-down by the liver will ↑ in level because your liver doesn’t function as well with age.

4)  Elimination

a.     Your kidneys will not be able to remove drugs from your body as well so there will be an ↑ amount of the drugs in your bloodstream.

I’m going to stop here so you’ll have some time to digest what I have told you thus far!  In my next post related to this topic, I’ll give some examples of common medications that would be relevant to the above information.   Until then, please contact me with any questions – I am looking forward to hearing from you!