Have you developed some symptoms all of a sudden that you can’t explain that have made life very challenging and even not enjoyable? Are you 65 or older and taking 5 or more medications or supplements? Have you been diagnosed with a heart, liver or kidney disease/impairment, diabetes, high blood pressure or other chronic disease? If you answered yes to any of these questions plus suffering from some fairly new symptoms, you could be experiencing an adverse drug reaction often caused by an interaction with a disease state or even another medication or supplement.
I want to share a case with you that’s a perfect example of just how easily we can be at risk for just one problem causing us to go into a cascade of a medical or pharmaceutical mishap and rapid health decline. Hear the story of an 80 something year old male, very active and leading a healthy lifestyle. He has mild high blood pressure and kidney impairment but he’s very compliant with taking his medications and takes natural supplements that have aided in his kidney impairment over some years. He’s on about 6 medications including a few supplements. He was told that he had to have bladder surgery and so he did and all was going well with his recovery. He was healing as expected. A few weeks later he suffered a fall and broke a few ribs and was prescribed an opioid medication for the pain. About a week later he became constipated and couldn’t urinate for several days and had to go to the emergency room. Upon closer examination of his medications it was discovered that he was suffering from an adverse reaction from the new pain medication. Unfortunately he had to have a catheter inserted to expel the urine and laxatives for the constipation. After multiple hours of severe abdominal pain and discomfort he was discharged from the ER to home and after several days felt much better but this was all so avoidable.
Those 65 and older are more susceptible to adverse effects from some medications due to natural kidney and liver function decline and aging which effects metabolism of medications and supplements in general. Confusion caused by some medications can also mimic diseases in which cognitive function is effected such as dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease, or mild cognitive impairment. As you can imagine, there are cases in which patients have been diagnosed with dementia or worse and it has been attributed to a cascade of medication mishaps once the case was closely examined and a few medications discontinued. For example, an elderly patient is diagnosed with high blood pressure and starts to complain after a few weeks of constipation. He’s then prescribed a laxative to be taken daily. His bowel movements become dependent on the laxative and before you know it nothing is moving efficiently out of the bowel or urinary tract and this can lead to any of the following: hemorrhoids from straining, diverticulitis which can lead to bleeding, vomiting, colitis, rectal prolapse, urinary incontinence, fissures, bowel obstruction and more. And NEXT, you can imagine; another prescription for the hemorrhoids, or the urinary incontinence and or the vomiting when what needs to happen is PAUSE ⏸️ !!! Not tack on another medication for vomiting or urinary incontinence and so on. Let’s stop and review each medication and the possible side effects and if they are still relevant. This needs to be done with your doctor at least once a year and see the below list to know the exceptions. This will help to avoid a lot of medical and pharmaceutical mishaps and a cascade of events like the situation above.
When you more need more frequent medication reviews:
So next time you are prescribed a medication, work with your doctor in keeping the risk low that you will suffer an adverse reaction. Side effects can be inevitable and it helps to discuss what may occur with your health care provider. There are usually multiple medications to choose from, some with a better side effect profile that make them better tolerable. Is it an option to control the illness with diet, exercise, a natural substance?Know what illnesses you have been diagnosed with and which illnesses may make you more susceptible to having an adverse effect to certain medications or supplements. This will help you to be wiser about the use of your medications and supplements so that they actually help to do what they are meant to do….alleviate, heal or improve your health!
