Your Meds Are Probably Wrong..... And Its Probably Gonna Hurt.

Peter G Levine
The Stroke Recovery Blog

Monday, April 1, 2013

The statistics about medications and falls are pretty clear. The more medications, the more chance of falls. This is as true in stroke survivors as anybody else.

But stroke survivors automatically have two additional things going against them:
1. They are usually on more medications
2. They are more likely to fall in the first    place

But there are other reasons to reconsider medications. In 2008 almost 2,000,000 people became ill or injured because of the use of prescription drugs. These are from "medication errors."

Standard YouTube License @ AARP Official YouTube Channel

Here is a video that outlines the problem and possible solution.

So how do you go about reconsidering medications? The "Brown Bag Medication Review." And you should do it. (My favorite line: “Out of 10-15 brown bag reviews, only 2 were accurate.”) About 50% of the time the meds will, in some way, be wrong.

The idea is you throw all your medications in a brown paper bag.

In the bag should be...

• All prescription medicines (including pills and creams).
• All over-the-counter medicine they take regularly.
• All vitamins and supplements.
• All herbal medicines.

All medications are placed on the counter in the exam room. The physician or pharmacist, with your help, decides which meds to keep, which to pitch and which dosgages to tweak. Also decided...

• Tips for safe and effective medication use
• Answers to your questions about medications

Once the whole thing is  figured out you are given a card that has all the information on it. This information would be available for you to review, and for you to hand to doctors, dentists, etc. who may need to know your medications at a glance.

More info here.

See the original article:
         Your Meds Are Probably Wrong. And Its Probably Gonna Hurt.
         in The Stroke Recovery Blog