How to Lower Prescription Drug Costs

I have an idea about how to lower prescription drug costs and save millions (if not billions) of wasted dollars.

I know how to decrease confusion and eliminate much of the unnecessary anxiety related to prescription drugs. And I know how to decrease the cost of prescription drugs for individuals. How?

Pass a law to make it illegal for drug companies to advertise directly to consumers. Read on see why this is good idea.

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Swine Flu Symptoms and When You Need Tamiflu

The swine flu (AKA H1N1) has gotten our attention. At my practice we are getting getting calls from patients asking about the symptoms and for prescriptions for Tamiflu to have at home “just in case”.

In this post I want to explain the symptoms of swine flu and when you do and do not need Tamiflu (oseltamivir) – or the other anti-viral medication, Relenza (zanamivir). Also, I want to give you a link to good information sources about swine flu. There is a lot of hype out there and as this is a story that is still being written, so I want you to have reliable sources for the best information.

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Flu Shots: Who Needs Them and Why

Labor Day has come and gone heralding the end of summer. I’m back here at the blog after a (great) summer break. I hope you had a healthy summer and are ready to move forward this fall and winter continuing to improve your health and speaking out for health care reform.

This post will remind you about immunizations you may need to get in the next 8 weeks and provide an update on the current status of the swine flu vaccine – when it will be given and whether you need to be vaccinated.

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What to Do If You Can’t Afford Your Meds

Times are hard and people are struggling. I have written many times on this blog about the importance of medications. They are life saving, but they must be taken faithfully and exactly as prescribed if they are to do any good.

But what if you can’t afford your medications? You do have options and almost every drug company has programs that can help. Read this post for information about assistance programs for patients and what your responsibility is in getting needed meds.

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Is It Bad to Take Medications?

This blog is dedicated to helping non-medical consumers make smart choices about how to handle their health and health care. Nowhere, and I mean nowhere, is there more misinformation or more misconceptions than where medications are concerned.

Sometimes when I advise prescription drugs to treat uncontrolled medical conditions patients react as if I am literally trying to poison them. I find the majority of patients, regardless of their intelligence, are not well educated about either the danger of not treating certain conditions or the benefit of treatment with the right drug at the right dose.

Read this post if you are willing to set your preconceptions aside and look at the whole medication question from a health professional’s perspective.

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Smart Women Missing Stroke Risks and Warning Signs

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in both men and women (right behind heart disease and cancer). It occurs equally in men and women until age 75. After age 75 women are at much greater risk for stroke than men. Stroke incidence has been increasing in women of all ages. In recent years strokes have surged in the age 45 to 54 age groups – groups usually at low risk for stroke. Why? Experts believe it’s because of an increase in risk factors that lead to stroke.

In a recent study published in the February 2009 issue of the medical journal Stroke researchers reported that 215 women, all having at least one risk factor for stroke, were unable to identify their risks. Furthermore they did not consider themselves to be at risk and were doing nothing to reduce their risk. The researchers concluded “Educational strategies must advocate for and target high-risk women.”

Read this post to learn the risks and warning signs of stroke these women missed.

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Your Lifestyle Choices: Are You Preventing Disease – or Inviting It?

Maverick Health and my book, A Nurse Practitioner’s Guide to Smart Health Choices, are all about using your lifestyle behaviors to prevent or control chronic diseases. I’ve been at this for over a decade now and every day I read studies and hear news-bites that only validate what I write about on this blog and talk about in my book.

But until you know what I know and, more importantly, act on what you know all this information is useless. Read this post about a study in Europe that looked at how well people controlled their risk factors after they’d already had a heart attack or serious cardiac event. Hint: reviewers that read the study found its results “ominous”.

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High Blood Pressure Rx – Keeping It Simple

Successful treatment of high blood pressure is difficult to achieve for a couple of reasons. First, health practitioners have many drugs and multiple guidelines from which to choose when making a treatment plan for individual patients. Second, patients do not like taking medications, so often they don’t take them as they should - if they take them at all.

Researchers in Canada looked at this problem to see if they could come up with a simpler and more effective approach that would make it easier for prescribers and easier for patients. They published their findings in the April 2009 issue of Hypertension.

Read this post to see which drugs helped 20% more people reach their BP goals.

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Vitamin D Update – Are 3 out of 4 Americans Really Deficient?

Six months ago, in September 2008, I wrote a post on vitamin D. Since then info keeps pouring in about the apparent benefit of this supplement. This month researchers at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine reported that three out of four Americans are deficient in vitamin D. They claim that’s up from about one out two 20 years ago. Some have argued that it might just seem that way because of how vitamin D was measured then and now.

After I researched and wrote that post 6 months ago, I started measuring my patients’ vitamin D levels. I am shocked at the results.

Read this post to see what vitamin D levels are like here in the “Sunshine State” of Florida.

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The Vytorin Controversy One Year Later - An Update

On January 8, 2009, the FDA issued it safety review of Vytorin and concluded: “patients should not stop taking Vytorin or other cholesterol lowering medications and should talk to their [health provider] if they have any questions about these medications.”

Dear patient, you have been drawn into a medical slugfest that is being fought among leading cardiologists, so what are you to do? Read my prior post to get some background on the Vytorin controversy and then read this post to see where we are one year later.

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