Druggist For The People

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  Why Sertraline for me?  Why any drug for you?  Research and development of new drugs doesn’t travel in a straight line.  If luck is where preparation meets opportunity, there’s plenty of luck on that winding trail in the pharmaceutical industry.  This episode traces the development of antidepressants, including new emerging possibilities, ultimately answering a listener’...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  Alcohol for alcohol addiction?  Nope.  Opioids for opioid addiction?  Yep.  Why?  And for how long?  The addiction to opioids digs in deep and doesn’t want to let go.  Discussed here, to better understand treatment for opioid addiction, is a brief history of how we got here, the principles of how opioids work in the body, and how the opioids for treatment are supposed to...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  A little understanding of the culprit drugs can go a long way in preventing them from becoming gang members and doing harm by causing a fall.  There are usually several factors that contribute to a fall, from a difficult-to-navigate environment (extrinsic cause) to the things going on inside your mind and body (intrinsic cause), including your condition and the effects o...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  Hundreds of OTC products, with nuanced combinations of medications, presented with bold colors and appealing claims, cloud what could be a clear picture of which product would be best for you.  In this podcast, we address the oral over-the-counter options for pain, one ingredient at a time, for indications such as fever, pain, inflammation, and hang-overs.  In the search...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  Who - or what - does just what it’s supposed to do?  That’s got to be a small club.  Actively participating in the management of your meds by having an idea of the intended effect, the incidence of possible side effects, and then following up with your pharmacist and doctor goes a long way to dealing with a drug’s unintended effects.  Figuring out golf, on the other hand...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  Pharmacists are instructed on how to talk with people about their medications:  communicate verbally, communicate non-verbally, establish trust, listen, ask questions, show empathy and encouragement, remain clinically objective….  But where are the instructions for the patient on how to talk about their medications with the pharmacist or the doctor?  That is what this po...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  The thinking that “it’s just a supplement” can lead to some serious problems, possibly due to the actual activity of the supplement and/or possibly due to  interactions with other supplements and medications.  So it's important to have some respect for the possible effects of the supplement, but that said, the claims made on the bottle of the supplement must be foll...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  Most of the world doesn’t work this way: drug companies splashing their products across your television screen with catchy jingles and bright color combinations that, hard as you try, you can’t forget. The drug companies wouldn’t keep advertising this way if it wasn’t working.  But it hasn’t always been this way.  This episode takes a closer look at prescription drug adv...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  Why give an amphetamine to someone who can’t sit still?  And why has there been a shortage of Adderall?  And what happens when someone drinks with Adderall?  This episode addresses these questions, beginning at the molecular level with how these drugs have their effect, to why on the societal scale there has been an increase in the usage of Adderall.  And finally, what h...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  This episode is in response to a listener’s question about his expired Epi-Pen:  how long is it still good to use?  The potential life-saving action of the Epi-Pen puts it into the must-have-on-hand medication group, but the price and waste can be a financial and frustrating stressor.  What is stability, and why are these expiration dates assigned?  Drug shortages and th...

Send us Fan Mail  Summary:  Ozempic usage recently skyrocketed due in part to high-profile people using it for the off-label use of weight loss, and due in part to social media picking up on this.  Is this the magic injection people have been looking for to lose weight?  The positive actions of this drug, which mimics a hormone, are discussed along with some of the possible adverse reactions.  In...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  It’s happening, almost always happening - drug interactions.  But is the drug-drug interaction significant?  And is it intended, using the primary mechanism of action or side effects of one drug along with another drug’s effects to achieve the desired result?  Or is it a potential problem, the risks and benefits assessed, with monitoring in place, to guide the management...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  In this episode we discuss monoclonal antibodies (the generic drug name ends in -mab), how do they work, and why can antibodies be used for so many different indications?  These indications include being used as an antiviral (against Covid till the virus mutated), a cancer treatment, against many autoimmune diseases, asthma, osteoarthritis, organ rejection and many other...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  This podcast is about what most men know nothing about: Breastfeeding (let’s leave it at that).  And in particular, it’s about how to determine what medications it’s okay to take and to continue to breastfeed.  Also addressed is the essential component of forming a team to guide a mother through deciding about lactation and medication.  To be effective, this trio of Moth...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  Alzheimer’s.  Anyone who has dealt with this disease knows the pain and frustration of losing a loved one, while their heart still beats.  Discussed here is an overview of the drugs that have long been available, the drugs that are new for the treatment of Alzheimer’s, and the avenues being explored for the development of future medications and treatments.  Tying this to...

Send us Fan Mail Summary:  Trying to sleep?  It’s like trying to forget something:  the harder you try, the more you remember.  There can be no “trying” to it.  There are some over-the-counter sleep aids, designed for short-term use, but they too have their drawbacks.  Melatonin, Tylenol PM (diphenhydramine), Nyquil are discussed, with a brief look at Ambien (will be discussed at length in future...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, the question at hand is “What is this stuff?”  It’s albuterol, a beta-2 selective drug, used as a rescue inhaler.  And the question remains:  “What is this stuff?”  When it was invented, why it works and when is too much too much.  And why communicating with your physician about your Albuterol use is so important.  Everything is connected, and so we also spend a c...

Send us Fan Mail In this introductory episode, Donald Schoeff, RPh, with over 40 years of experience as a Clinical Pharmacist in a variety of Pharmacy settings, will discuss information to help people better understand their medications, what questions to ask their doctor or pharmacist and why it is important to participate in this shared decision making with your physician (consider when to take...