Prescription for Well-Being

We're In The Washington Post

This morning’s print edition of the Washington Post recommended us as a source for locating drug prices at local pharmacies. The article, titled Should You Buy Drugs From Your Doctor? It Depends On Several Factors, briefly explores the issues surrounding buying drugs directly from your doctor.

Sounds great, right? Instead of having to drive from the doctor’s office to the pharmacy, drop off your prescription, wait around for half an hour (or more), pick it up, and drive home, you can do it all at the doctor’s office. It’s one-stop shopping for your health needs!

It may be less hassle, but like many of life’s conveniences, it’ll cost you. Drugs you buy at a doctor’s office may cost more than drugs you buy at a pharmacy. For the drugs you need immediately, it may be worth it, since often pharmacies may not have your drug in stock and will have to order it (which can take a few days), or may be backed up and take a day or two to fill your prescription.

If you do decide to buy your drugs directly from your doctor, be thorough about it. Bring a list of the drugs you’re currently taking (including over-the-counter drugs like ibuprofen). According to the Post article, doctors are more likely than pharmacists to rely on memory – their own or their patients’ – so be extra careful.

Check out the Washington Post article below:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/26/AR2007102602499.html

 

"Empty Calories" Are Calories That Don't Count, Right?

Um, no. They’re bad for you. As in chicken-fried-steak-smothered-in-gravy bad. Having-Reese’s-peanut-butter-cups-for-dinner bad. A-few-beers-(okay, five)-at-happy-hour bad.

Empty calories foods are foods (or beverages) that have high calories but no nutritional value, such as vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. You know, the stuff your body actually needs from the food you eat.

Americans definitely have food issues, but we should give ourselves some credit. The thing that makes it hard to avoid empty calorie foods isn’t always poor judgment or lack of willpower – it’s convenience. Like most people, I don’t regularly pop into my local chain restaurant for a ribeye-fried shimp-baby back ribs combo. I eat pretty healthy, though like most females in their 20s, I could probably cut back on the Diet Coke. But when the mid-afternoon slump hits, you bet I’m in the kitchen at work, eyeing the array of (packaged, high-fat, empty calorie) snacks on the counter. I don’t even like most of these snacks – but they’re there, and I need something.

Of course, offices tend to be breeding grounds for empty calorie eating – people are stressed, short on time and energy, and need an immediate boost. Plus, there’s “event” food – birthdays (cake, cupcakes), lunch meetings (sandwiches, pizza), holiday parties (hors d’ oeuvres, booze). The event stuff is one thing (a birthday without baked goods is just plain wrong), but if we were better about the day-to-day stuff, we could probably afford to have a little food fun on special occasions.

Yes, our lives are crazy busy, but a little planning goes a long way. Tossing some whole-grain crackers into a plastic bag before you leave for work takes 10 seconds. (Or do it the night before if it’s always a mad dash out the door for you in the morning) Perhaps suggest to your employer that he or she purchase some healthy snacks for the office. I’m thinking a big Costco veggie tray. (But lose the ranch dressing.)

Click here for a good overview of what constitutes an empty calorie food (though it’s pretty much common sense – if it’s bad for you, it’s probably an empty calorie food):

http://www.healthcastle.com/empty-calories-foods.shtml

Depression, Anxiety... And This Season's Hottest Trends?

The magazine rack at the local Albertson’s isn’t usually the place I look for health information, but I picked up the November issue of Glamour (the one with Mariah Carey on the cover) and discovered an interesting article about young women and anxiety & depression disorders.

According to the article, anxiety & depression meds are the number one prescribed drugs for women in their 20s and 30s – far more than birth control pills, which many of my friends and I always assumed were the most widespread.

The article also touches on an interesting question regarding the increasing prevalence of young women taking anxiety and depression meds – do we need the meds to deal with our lives, or have the lives we created for ourselves also created a need for the meds? We try to do everything these days; the ideal modern woman is a superwoman, no doubt: have a successful career, a great relationship, be the perfect mother, and look fabulous while doing it – all before you turn 35. I need a Xanax just writing that sentence!

The physician contributors in the article stress that it’s ideal to treat anxiety and depression with both drugs and therapy – but therapy’s time-consuming and expensive, so it’s no surprise that busy, cash-strapped young women prefer to pop a pill. There are also several profiles of women who share their experiences with anxiety and depression and what worked for them – meds vs. no meds, lifestyle changes, etc.

The good news is that if health issues like anxiety and depression are getting some major coverage in magazines like Glamour, the taboos surrounding them are surely falling away.

Or, the conditions are becoming so widespread that they can’t be ignored, even by the glossy monthly mags… and that’s not such good news after all.

Check out Glamour’s online info about depression: http://www.glamour.com/health/articles/2007/10/depressiontest

Facebook For... Your Health?

I recently read an interesting article in the New York Times on social networking sites catering to baby boomers.  I think these sites have lots of potential to provide value in healthcare. 

20 years ago, I organized a bi-weekly exercise program for my patients called the Downriver Treadmill Team.  In addition to the health benefits provided by the regular exercise, an unexpected additional benefit of the program was the resulting discussion and interaction that occurred between patients regarding their condition and how they manage that condition.  We all like to hear from other people living with similar conditions.  Additionally, the health benefits of a strong support network and active friendships are strong. The Downriver Treadmill Team, which continues today as a patient-organized program, turned out to provide this type of valuable benefit, and I can also see this taking place online through social networking web sites.

My only caution when participating in health-related social networking is that patients should consult their doctor for any medical advice.  Networking between patients is not a substitute for talking with a physician.

If you’re interested in the New York Times article, click here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/technology/12social.html?ex=1190347200&en=2091ae63990478ed&ei=5070&emc=eta1

Counterfeiting - Not Just For Money

Hey all, Joseph here, and I’d like to say hi to everyone– and share a little bit about an interesting story I came across.

We all know about counterfeit money, but what about counterfeit medicine? Scary, yes, but it’s out there. Congress has tried to crack down by making international pharmacies go through an “e-pedigree” process to ensure the drugs they sell are authentic despite the fact that they’re coming from an overseas pharmacy. But counterfeit medicine is still a big, dangerous problem.

Online shopping is obviously very popular, but for something as tricky as prescription drugs, many people are skeptical. For me, there’s something comforting about buying medications from your local pharmacy, where you can go and talk to your pharmacist about what kind of generics you can take, possible allergic reactions or just generally interact with him or her. As much as I trust Congress and their efforts to mandate RFID tagging on prescription bottles, there’s also a part of me that’s wary of buying medicines from non-U.S. pharmacies regardless. You don’t know where they’re coming from, the source, etc. Even with a RFID tag, I’d still be concerned about counterfeit medicine and cautious about buying medications from any online pharmacy that could be based in or receiving their supplies from a foreign country.

Click on the link below to read the article about counterfeit medicine at the RFID Journal.

http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/3478/1/82/

What's New At DRx

Hello DRx members (and those who may have discovered us but aren’t members – yet)! I’d like to take a minute and let you know about a few changes here at DRx. First, as some of you may have noticed, we’ve redesigned our site. In addition to giving it a fresh look & feel, we’ve added some great new tools to help you organize your health info (your fave pharmacies, doctors etc.), save money on prescriptions, and stay educated about the prescription drugs you and your family may be taking. We’re going to be adding even more helpful tools and further expanding our functionality in the future, so be sure to check back with us to see what’s new at DRx!

In addition to the improvements we’ve made to DRx.com, we’re also going to be expanding our blog. Dr. Rogers and Pharmacist Janie have been providing fabulous info and advice based on their years of medical/pharmacy experience, and they’ll continue to share their wisdom here. Joseph and I will also be throwing in our two cents (or more) from the healthcare consumer perspective, in hopes of helping make it a little easier for you to manage your healthcare and prescription drugs.

Check out our new site, and visit us here at the blog again soon!