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Medication Management Tips That May Save Your Life

When starting taking medications, you need to consider many important nuances in order for the effect of the drugs. It includes the method and time of administration, interaction with other drugs and possible side effects.Medication Management Tips

Tip#1: Proper mode of application

In an elderly person, drugs act more slowly due to a slower metabolism, the state of liver and kidneys is also of great importance. Therefore, in order for the medication to provide the effect, it must be taken an hour or more before bedtime.

Older people also often have digestive problems. They are mostly suffering from constipation. Therefore, taking any medications, they need to ensure that among the side effects there is no constipation. Then, at the same time as taking these drugs, you also need to think about drugs that soften the stool.

Tip#2: Plant-based preparations

Many people think that chemical medications are bad, but plant-based medications bring no damage, but this is not always true. For example, there are at least 70 medicinal plants with a diuretic effect. Thus, together with urine, they also wash out electrolytes, potassium, sodium, magnesium, and calcium from the body. An elderly person who drinks herbal teas and takes drugs that lower blood pressure, many of which are diuretics, may lose too many minerals, such as potassium. This is not good at all, especially if this person has heart rhythm disturbances since in such cases potassium is very necessary.

Tip#3: Side effects and medications

When taking medications, the side effects should always be considered. For example, all non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs increase blood pressure. If the pressure is between 140-160 mm/Hg, nothing bad will happen. If the pressure fluctuates around 200 mm/Hg, then when taking non-steroidal drugs, it can increase even more. Therefore, you should always read in the instruction for use whether the increase in blood pressure is indicated among the side effects. But what if you are fell pain? Then you need to take painkillers and increase the dose of drugs that lower blood pressure. The dosage should be prescribed by the doctor.

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Tips#4: Medications and food

Why are there pills that need to be taken before or after meals? What does it mean to take pills on an empty stomach?

If medications are taken before meals, for example, before breakfast, then after sleep the stomach is empty, gastric juice has not yet begun to release and no food will affect the medication absorption. However, do not think that after taking the pill you can immediately start breakfast. It should take about 20-40 minutes before breakfast. Usually, it is recommended to take medications on an empty stomach that are taken once a day, as well as medications that do not irritate the gastric mucosa.

If you need to take the medications on an empty stomach several times a day, then they are taken 4 hours after eating, when there is no more food in the stomach. If you do not take medications 1-1.5 hours before a meal, their active substance simply will not be absorbed.

Tip#5: When and what to take?

Take antacid drugs and medicines before meals to treat stomach ulcers, choleretic drugs, bloating and diarrhea. In this case, their effect will be faster. The drugs will be more effective. If there is no opportunity to take these medications before meals, take them 1.5 hours after eating. In this case, the effect of drugs will be longer, but also weaker.

When eating, take digestive enzymes together with food (they will help digestive enzymes better), stool softeners (their active substances are released during digestion), for example, senna extract tablets, buckthorn bark, rhubarb root. Since a lot of acids is released during a meal with gastric juice and its pH is very low, drugs for treating arrhythmias and bronchodilators will be well absorbed.

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Immediately after eating, take medications that irritate or damage the gastric mucosa. For example, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, various medicinal herbal teas.

After eating, take medications, the absorption of which the taken food does not have a significant effect. They will act slower, but longer. For example, digestive enzymes, bad-tasting medications that reduce appetite.

1.5-2 hours after eating, antacids are taken, i.e. reducing the acid content in the gastric juice. These drugs will not irritate an empty stomach, since there will no longer be food in the stomach, and the secretion of gastric juice will continue to secret.

Regardless of the food, medications are taken that do not affect the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and do not irritate it. These are, for example, drugs to improve cerebral circulation, bronchodilators or drugs to lower blood pressure. All the medications that need to be taken urgently.

Tip#6: Wash down pills or not?

Medications are taken with a 1/3 cup of water. Then the tablet or capsule will not stick to the wall of the esophagus or stomach, will not irritate it. If you are taking antibiotics or sulfa drugs, it is best to wash them down with a glass of water.

In order for glucocorticosteroids and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to irritate the stomach less, it is better to take them with milk. It provides the effect of enveloping the gastric mucosa. Those who are prescribed antidepressants are not recommended to drink tea and coffee. Under their influence (insomnia, chronic lack of sleep and hyperactivity), the side effects are intensified.

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Tip#7: How to take vitamins

Fat-soluble vitamins, for example, E, K, D, A, should be taken after meals, and soluble in water, especially vitamins of groups B and C, before meals. In turn, complex vitamin preparations containing also minerals are best taken immediately after a meal. At the same time, multivitamins and iron preparations are better absorbed in an acidic environment, so it is better to take them with fruit juice.

Category: Healthcare

Tags: drugs, human health, medications

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