Prescription for Well-Being

Are your supplements conflicting with your prescriptions?

Here’s a scary thought:  you’re taking your daily vitamins or supplements thinking you’re being healthy along with your prescription drugs, then WHAM suddenly you’re in the hospital wondering what in the world happened.  What leads to such a strange thought?  Oh wandering about a health site[1] usually does the trick. That being said, I stumbled upon a cautionary tale of sorts about combining a calcium supplement with blood pressure medications and immediately thought of my grandparents with their cabinet shelf of small plastic bottles.  How many prescriptions do they take alongside their vitamins helping to keep their bodies strong have the potential of harming them? After shaking off the horror film flashback I had, think “The Blob,” I quickly started looking up the syndrome associated with calcium supplements and blood pressure meds (both of which my grandparents take). Apparently calcium (pill or liquid form) plus blood pressure meds equals a BIG NO-NO!  Something called milk-alkali syndrome, a particularly nasty bit of evil, can occur if you combine blood pressure drugs such as, chlorothiazide with those calcium pills you ingest each morning, noon, and night.   Also, if calcium channel blockers happen to be a part of your medical treatment for blood pressure, try to avoid having calcium given to you intravenously.  The calcium actually decreases the effects of the calcium channel blockers, that is bad…very bad.  However (this is good news), the standard form of calcium supplements does not affect calcium channel blockers, so you’re good there just um…don’t mix those supplements with the Thiazide diuretics and you’ll stay your normal hydrated self rather than a chalky mess.

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[1] Information provided by: MSN Health & Fitness

Imperfect Habits Makes the Heart Feel Better

Hello! My name is Jennifer and I’m the newest blogger here at DestinationRx. Hopefully you'll find this blog entertaining and if nothing else, informative. I don’t know if many of you out there are like me, but I know that when it comes to exercise and eating right I tend to go off the proverbial beaten path and end up not eating or exercising properly.  So deterred by the stringent regime that is usually attributed to healthy eating and exercise, I do what most Americans do, I don’t do either.   But, thankfully, there are ways to improve your physique and what foods you put into your body without having to feel the strain of staunch eating and exercise methods.  While looking about on MSN Health I stumbled upon this wonderful article which made me feel like I could actually achieve a healthier lifestyle without feeling the burn of routine and monotony.

The "Good Enough" Guide to Health offers nine simple ways to improve upon your eating and exercise habits without causing you to feel as though you’re totally inadequate or rather, imperfect.  Why is this important you may ponder? It’s a simple answer really. Unless you have a personal trainer, dietitian, and happen to be a movie star, you and I alike will fall short of those “perfect” eating and exercise habits thrown at us constantly by this magazine or that health bulletin – we are, after all, human.   The article helps bring to light the small steps we can take each day to improve upon our healthy eating/exercise habits and emphasizes how the older ideals associated with a healthy lifestyle tend to be lofty.  One of my favorite aspects of this article pertains to the old adage of eating at least 9 servings of fruits and veggies a day.  This, of course, is slightly ridiculous if you factor in the busy lives of most Americans and so a more ‘doable’ option is offered - five servings a day versus the typical nine.  You’re getting the most out of your veggies and fruits without having to feel like every meal needs to include two of each. My other favorite deals with the insane notion that we need to drink at least eight glasses of water each day to stay hydrated.  I don’t know about the rest of you, but the idea of drinking eight glasses a day causes me to imagine how I’ll be a frequenter of the office restroom…every ten seconds.  Instead the article mentions the alternatives to this archaic way of thinking when it comes to hydration.  We absorb the necessary amount of liquid from the things we eat as well as what we drink.  Eating foods that contain water, such as fresh fruits and vegetables or soup, contributes to your daily intake of the ever popular H2O as do beverage favorites such as tea and coffee.  Just remember that food makes up 20% of your daily water intake, so those eight glasses can be cut down to simply drinking with meals or when you’re thirsty. 

So, if you’re anything like me and hate the idea of being stuck within a regimented diet and exercise cycle, test out these helpful hints.  It’s not about being perfect, it’s about being healthy and with these basic steps, we can all improve the conditions of our bodies and our minds.  Baby steps rather than giant leaps are the key!

Helpful Tip: If you'd like to keep track of your health, try this handy tool offered by MSN Health My Health Tracker