What You’re Not Asking Your Pharmacist – and Should
What you’re not asking your pharmacist – and should. Don’t mix alcohol with antibiotics, says Walgreens pharmacist Stacia Woodcock. Alcohol suppresses your immune system so if you’re sick, it can easily foil your recovery. Another reason to skip the booze: It can tax your liver, preventing it from properly allowing your body to absorb medication. Woodcock breaks down important medication tips with “Reluctantly Healthy” host Judy Greer.
The biggest mistake that most people make is that they don’t take their medication as prescribed. Medicine works by maintaining a constant level of the chemical in your body, and the only way to do that is by taking the medication at the same time every day as prescribed by your doctor.
If you take your medicine too soon or too late, the levels of medicine in your body go up and down, causing side-effects or it may not work as efficiently or as intended.
The second common mistake is to forget taking your medication. Walgreens had developed a free app for smartphones that you can use to set alarms for taking your medication, for reminders to refill your prescription, or better still, you can just scan the prescription code via the app and it will send your request to the pharmacist and it will be filled.
What about drinking alcohol when taking medications? It depends on the medication you’re taking. If on antibiotics, drinking alcohol may not be good as alcohol depresses the immune system and will not allow the medication to work. Also, if you drink, your medication may not be metabolized properly by the liver, as all its enzymes are already being used to metabolize the alcohol, and either the medication is not absorbed properly by your body, or it’s not excreted, the levels of medication in your body may be too high.
You may want to avoid drinking grapefruit juice when taking certain medications, as it interacts negatively with many prescription and over-the-counter drugs. Some vitamins and herbal supplements may also interact with your medication, so it’s best to ask your pharmacist about it.
Category: Health and Nutrition, Videos
