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Health Info

Medication experiences

Blog entry posted by rpatel51 in Health Info on October 8, 2024 - 10:53am
Key words: Health Info, Healthinfo, Medication Experience, Healthy Tea, Pharmacist.

Medication experiences

As a Pharmacy intern, from Touro College of Pharmacy, part of my research was to interact with people of Harlem and discuss about their medication experiences and health care needs. Initially when talking to few people on 124th street, I was initially shocked with the level of knowledge they have about the medications. But on the other side I was also disappointed with some false beliefs they had and I was also worried about their internet source of information.

Below is a dialogue interview I had with a R.C; a resident of Harlem. R.C is a woman in her early 40’s and was resident of Harlem since 22 years.

 

Me:  Introduction (Introducing myself)

Me: How are you doing today?

R.C: I am fine, Thnx

Me: Can you share with me about your medication experiences?

R.C: Yeah, I am kind of, on 3 pills every day and I feel healthy.

Me: Can I ask you on what pills are you on?

R.C: Yeah, I am taking Metformin, Centrum Vitamins and Cod liver oil caps.

Me: Do you take any other herbal medications?

R.C: Yeah, I have 8 different types of tea, that I got from China Town and they are good.

Me: 8 different types????

R.C: Yeah, they work for different organs of my body and they have anti-oxidants that make me healthy.

Me: Would you like to share with me what organs it works on?

R.C: one for liver, one for heart, one for skin, kidney, weight loss, liver and so on..

Me: Whom did you get this information from?

R.C: One of my friends takes it and also I confirmed the information on internet, before purchasing.

Me: Do you recall what web site was it?

R.C: I used Google to find the site.

Me: How long are you taking this for?

R.C: Since a month

Me: Do you feel any difference?

R.C: Not yet

Me: As a pharmacy student I would recommend you to visit your Pharmacist or healthcare professional and talk to them about your medicines. As per my knowledge, all these tea vendors make false claims about these properties of tea and sometimes they may be harmful to you.

R.C: Whom should I talk these to?

Me: Talk to your pharmacist today and also discuss about this to your doctor on your next visit.

This was a small interview experience I had with R.C.

Internet is a really good source of information but unless someone knows the reliable sources, information may be misleading.

 

 

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Comments

Posted 3 weeks ago

bkligler wrote

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The author makes several important points--and as a physician with many patients who use herbs and supplements I agree with much of what he suggests. it is very important to discuss the use of herbs and supplements with your pharmacist or your physician. It is also good to be skeptical about many of the claims made on the Internet by manufacturers of natural products.
However, to say that all the manufacturers make false claims is probably going a bit too far--although some of the claims on the Internet are inflated, other sites do have reasonably good information.
I would encourage patients to use one specific site (not Google!) to access reliable information about herbs and supplements: www.nccam.nih.gov. This is the website of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institute of Health, and has the best objective information available about herbs and supplements.