3 Things You Didn't Know About Your Pharmacist That Could Save Your Life

One result of the most life changing diagnosis is a treatment regimen that includes some kind of drug. The doctor gives a prescription to the pharmacy and off you go. Most people believe that all pharmacists do is count pills and slap a label on the bottle. They do not realize the training to become a pharmacist and that training could save your life.

Pharmacists know more than doctors

Whether or not your doctor wants to admit it, the pharmacist knows more about drug interactions than the doctor. An important component of pharmacy education including chemistry and learning interactions between classes of drugs. Physicians are more likely to know the drugs most used in their specialty, but not in-depth knowledge across specialties.

Pharmacist as an air traffic controller

Faced with a medical condition that changes life is often more than one doctor, especially if surgery is part of the treatment protocol. You can have prescriptions for each physician. As a patient, you may be overwhelmed by the amount of medicine into the wall outlet and can not cross your mind to tell your doctor about other medications prescribed. Your pharmacist and thanks to modern technology you will find all prescription drugs. The pharmacist be alarmed if some of your medications are known to interact in a bad way. Computer programs in pharmacies are also able to cross reference interactions and display a warning that if two of your medicines interact badly. The pharmacist can literally save your life.

Pharmacist, educator

In the health field today with your doctor little time to spend with you. You may be so focused on your health issues you put aside questions about the medication prescribed. Your pharmacist has more time to explain the drug, dosage, possible side effects and interactions with over-the-counter medications. You may not think that the cold medicine or aspirin may interfere with your medications, but may inhibit the effectiveness of the drugs or even have toxic effects on the body.

It is important that you bring all your prescriptions at the pharmacy itself. If you use multiple pharmacies the ability to detect a problem is significantly reduced, since they are the story is not in your computer system. Your pharmacist may recommend alternatives to more expensive drugs, with the approval of your doctor. Become more aware of generic drugs and the times saving money as it has no impact on the result may be worth investigating. Pharmacists are also trained differently than doctors, since they are formed in an environment of customer service pharmacy. They are a valuable resource and your pharmacist for a part of your circle of trust within health, will be very useful.

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