Taking prescription medicines can improve your life in many ways as these can help alleviate pain and manage symptoms of chronic illnesses. Prescription medicines can also lower blood pressure and prevent infections. Although beneficial, you should, still, be careful when taking prescription medicines because these can have serious side effects and can lead to dangerous, and even fatal, problems.
If you’re going to take or is currently taking any prescription medicine, it’s vital that you know how to remain safe. Taking too little or too much of your medicine, for example, can only do more harm than good to your health. There are a lot of things that you can do in order to help yourself be safe while taking prescription medicine, and you can start by following these tips:
- Follow Directions Given By Your Doctor
One way to stay safe when taking prescription medication is to make sure that you follow instructions given by your doctor. Your doctor will usually give you a list of things you should avoid or limit when taking prescription medicine. You’re expected to follow all of those to ensure the efficacy of the medicine and your safety while you’re taking it.
Often, doctors will prohibit their patients from taking excessive amounts of alcohol and caffeine when taking prescription medicine. These drinks can interfere with some medications, resulting in increased heart rate and jitters. Depending on your current health condition and the type of medication you’re taking, your doctor might advise the same or add more things to avoid. - Follow Instructions On The Label
There are other ways that you can stay safe when taking prescription medicine, and one is to make sure that you follow the directions on the bottle. If you take too much or use the medicine inappropriately, you may suffer from some pretty serious problems. This is why you need to follow the directions on the bottle and don’t try to self-medicate. This is where you’ll find yourself running into trouble if you’re not careful.
If certain sections of the label is vague or unclear to you, make sure to ask your doctor about it. Ideally, you should have a clear idea about how your prescription medicine works before you start taking it.
- Keep A List
And, while some people are only advised by their doctors to take one prescription medicine at a time, others are required to take several in a week or month. If you’re one of the latter, remembering what, when, and how to take all of your prescription medicines properly can become a challenge. This is especially true if you’ve never done the same in the past.
To make things easier for you and ensure that you remain safe all throughout, keep a list. This list should contain all of the information about your prescription medicine, such as what time of the day and how you should you take it.
Moreover, keeping a list will also make it very easy for you to share this information with your doctor. This list can come in handy, especially if you’re advised to take different medications at once.
- Educate Yourself About Potential Side Effects And Drug Interactions
As a patient, it’s important that you also exert effort to learn more about the potential side effects and drug interactions when you use certain medications. These pieces of information can help keep stress at bay as you’ll know how to manage your expectations once you start taking prescription medicine.
You can gain a lot of information about the potential side effects and drug interactions of your prescription medicine by reading the label and asking details from your healthcare provider. For example, if you’re advised to take nitroglycerin (medicine known to treat chest pain caused by heart diseases), you should know that this medicine should never be taken with erectile dysfunction drugs, such as Cialis or Viagra, as the interactions can be fatal.
If you’re regularly seeing different healthcare professionals, make sure that they’re all aware of the types of medications you’re using. This way, they’ll better know which medicines to prescribe to you to prevent side effects and interactions.
- Never Take Medication From Someone Else
It’s very common for people who belong in the same family to develop the same disease or illness. If your parents have been diagnosed with diabetes, more often than not, you’ll also develop the same disease over time.
However, regardless of how much you know the person and how similar your health conditions are, you should never take medications from them. The medications used by your parents to treat symptoms of diabetes will not guarantee to give you the same results once you start taking them. Keep in mind that aside from the health condition, a healthcare professional will consider many other things to recommend medications to a patient.
If you want to remain healthy when taking prescription medicine, never take one unless given or approved by your doctor. Although convenient (especially if you ran out of your stocks), using medicines that aren’t meant for you will only do more harm than good.
- Make Sure You’re Taking The Right Dose
Medicines come in many forms and can be taken in many ways. Today, you can take prescribed medicines in liquid or tablet forms. Some medicines are also applied topically or directly injected into the body.
Another way to ensure your safety as you’re taking prescription medicine is to make sure that you’re taking the right dose. Your medicine should be accurately measured using a dose cup, measuring spoon, or oral syringe. Moreover, never split pills in half unless advised by your doctor.
Prioritize Safety
The innovations of the healthcare industry has made it easy for every human being to take care of their health. The availability of prescription medicine, for example, has allowed people from different parts of the world to remain productive even when their health isn’t at the best condition.
However, if you want to maximize the effects of prescription medicines to your body, you have to follow certain steps. Prescription medicines are generally beneficial, but you need to take certain measures to ensure that your safety isn’t compromised as you’re using these.