Druggist For The People

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  A listener shares his experience with the treatment of his Prostate Cancer, from the initial diagnosis, research into the best treatment for himself, his strict adherence to this treatment, and his continuing follow-up as he is now seven years cancer-free.  This discussion attempts to clarify some of the terminology encountered in this listener’s journey.  Topics: ·     ...

Send us Fan Mail   Summary:  Sometimes when you start a medication, you first might have to adjust to the idea of taking a drug every day, and then to the reality of its effects upon your body and mind.  But this episode is about another step that you might want to add to this scene:  monitoring and then communicating with your healthcare provider.  When was the last time your doctor called to see...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  The balance of the flora in the gut is essential to maintaining a healthy barrier between what’s in your GI tract and what’s in your bloodstream.  This episode addresses how broad-spectrum antibiotics can cause C. Diff, the dramatic effects of this and how it is treated.  Also discussed is how diet, alcohol and some drugs may affect the balance and diversity of the micro...

Send us Fan Mail  Summary:  Headlines are meant to grab your attention, whether it’s about politics or sports or medicine. And so it goes for Semaglutide (Ozempic and Wegovy) and Liraglutide (Victoza and Saxenda), whose attributes have been trumpeted for weight loss, and whose possible serious side effects have recently been noted in the press.  This episode attempts to take some of the sensationa...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  Like it’s never happened before, the FDA approval of a new weight loss drug grabbed the headlines, but here’s another headline:  Same Stuff, Different Packaging – Zepbound.  This episode is a review of this very effective and very popular group of new drugs:  the Ozempic-like drugs, the Incretin Mimetics, which act like the gut hormones secreted in response to food.  The...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  Do Echinacea, Vitamin C and Zinc have a place in the prevention and treatment of viral infections such as the common cold or the flu?  What should be a straightforward discussion about risks and benefits is complicated by the lack of regulation by the FDA, and therefore the uncertain content of some herbal supplements.    Topics: ·       Cold, Flu and COVID-19 02:30 ·   ...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  For decades the FDA told us phenylephrine worked, that it was safe and effective, and now we hear that it is safe, but maybe not so effective?  This episode addresses the oral phenylephrine situation specifically, including possible options for when/if oral phenylephrine is pulled from the shelves.  We also take a look at the FDA process for establishing the status of dr...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  I’ve forgotten how to sleep.  Try harder?  No.  Trying to sleep is like trying to forget something:  the more you try the more you lie awake, remembering what you are trying to forget.  The treasured good-night’s sleep evades so many of us, so here is a brief discussion of a relatively new group of drugs for insomnia, with a reminder to consider utilizing cognitive behav...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  The rising number of children and teens suffering with mental health issues, primarily anxiety and depression, is not a blip, but rather a real trend.  Anxiety or depression has grown by thirty percent in children aged 3 to 17, between 2016 and 2020.  The Covid-19 pandemic certainly had an effect, but prior to Covid-19 mental health disorders in children and teens was al...

Send us Fan Mail  Summary:  The rising number of children and teens suffering with mental health issues, primarily anxiety and depression, is not a blip, but rather a real trend.  Per a Health and Human Services Study, anxiety or depression has grown by thirty percent in children aged 3 to 17, between 2016 and 2020.  The Covid-19 pandemic certainly had an effect, but prior to Covid-19 mental healt...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  A new option is coming for an often-underreported condition:  postpartum depression.  The FDA Fast Tracked the review of Zurzuvae, thereby acknowledging that this new drug may fill an unmet medical need.  We discuss how this drug works, how quickly it can have an effect, and (as usual) the importance of actively participating in the risk-benefit discussion and subsequent...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  Another option for treating anxiety might be laying in the bottom of your toolbox, resting beneath the handful of drug options – Xanax, Buspirone, Escitalopram, Sertraline, Propranolol…  It’s Meditation.  This episode looks at a comparison of the effectiveness of Escitalopram (an SSRI) versus Mindfulness Meditation for the treatment of anxiety, and though the results are...

Send us Fan Mail Summary: This episode is in response to a listener’s question about the Rx sleep-aid Lunesta, and the discussion includes the close relatives Ambien and Sonata, which share the same mechanism of action.  Like every other drug, the risks-benefits of this group of meds should be discussed with your doctor prior to use, and the discussion should continue as you monitor your sleep pat...

Send us Fan Mail Summary: Why an antipsychotic drug for depression?  This powerful group of drugs – the atypical neuroleptics -- and specifically Abilify, represent a useful tool in the treatment of Bipolar Depression.  A thorough review of precautions and possible side effects, a risk-benefit discussion with your physician, along with continued monitoring, drug journaling and utilizing your pharm...

Send us Fan Mail Summary: Lots of drugs have moved from prescription to OTC status:  proton pump inhibitors (Prilosec), Histamine 2 blockers (Prevacid), antihistamine eye drops, Hydrocortisone 1% cream…. For this to happen, the question that must be answered is this:  can the drug be used safely and effectively, relying only on the drug labeling?  The above-mentioned drugs have passed this test. ...

Send us Fan Mail Summary: Off-label drug use rings of risk, of a doctor gone rogue, of an unknowing patient in danger.  But this issue - using drugs approved for one indication for a completely different use - is more common than you would think, and the reasons for this are simple and sensible.  This is a look at how an FDA-approved drug may launch in a trajectory for an intended indication, but...

Send us Fan Mail  Summary: Your bones, like everything else in your body, are part of a dynamic system:  in this case calcium is stored or released, depending on the needs of your body and the amount of calcium consumed.  Bone mineral density, which measures calcium and other minerals, provides a picture of the strength of your bones.  Naturally – or maybe not so naturally – when there is a low bo...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  Though “the Pill” is ubiquitous with oral contraceptives, it refers to many different combinations, dosages, and packaging of the hormones contained therein: forms of Estrogen and Progesterone.  This episode looks at the history of The Pill, at the actions of the pill within the body of the woman, and at the actions of the pill within the body of the community.  And fina...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  This episode is about what I didn’t know about:  when and how do we put our dog to sleep?  Discussed here is the difficult decision-making process, the drugs used the day of the event, and the peace that comes with being thankful for the time we had together and that we have done the right thing in the right way.   Topics: ·      Decision-Making Process 02:55 ·      Tyle...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  The instant-to-instant changes that occur in you, be they responses to a change in the weather, seeing beauty where you had forever missed it, or worries that just won’t go away, all might result in changes to your chemistry, to the balance that is a healthy you.  Generally, pharmacy is about chemistry, specifically in the form of a drug, that is added to your body, to t...

Send us Fan Mail  Summary:  Mood Stabilizers seems like too casual a term for this group of drugs…what could go wrong starting a mood stabilizer?  Plenty.  Mood Stabilizers might suggest to a person that they just take it when they need it, when the fact is these meds require regularly-scheduled dosing.  How about we refer to this class of drugs as Neurodown-regulators, or maybe Neuronal-firing re...

Send us Fan Mail  Summary:  Prescription drugs are so often approved for what they can do for you, and abused for where they can take you…and so it goes for Ketamine.  Valued for its ability to provide sedation and analgesia while maintaining cardiorespiratory stability, its abuse lies in its dissociative and hallucinogenic actions.  This episode is a brief discussion of the history of ketamine, w...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  The medical term is vasomotor symptoms (VMS); the more common term is hot flashes and night sweats; the term used by my wife is Sweaty Betty.  And that’s as nice as she can be about it.  Recently the FDA issued a Priority Review for Veozah, due to its unique non-hormonal action and if approved, the potential significant improvements it might provide for moderate to sever...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  To discover how you got here, you must care enough to ask the question.  This episode is not about peeling away the layers to discover what’s at the mysterious center of your med regimen; rather, it's simply about starting with the drugs which address your most urgent health needs – in this case, your heart.  We will  follow that trail of drugs (one often leads to a...

Send us Fan Mail  Summary:  Time to talk about the number one prescribed drug in the United States.  Xanax?  Ozempic?  Adderall?  Nope.  Atorvastatin (Lipitor)!  You fasten your seatbelt to prevent possible harm, and people do the same with the statins, the possible harm being a stroke or heart attack.  It’s all about oil in water.  It’s all about cholesterol and triglycerides (fats) in your blood...