ADVERSE DRUG INTERACTIONS, HOW CAN I BE MORE CAREFUL?

http://researchyourmedication.cancer.im

The first step to take in protecting yourself from harmful drug interactions is awareness that they can occur, and that they are serious.  Here are some steps you can start taking right now to reduce your exposure to unintentional poisoning.

Watch What Goes Into Your Mouth

Nothing that goes into your body should be taken unobserved while in treatment for cancer.  That was part of the lesson in Cancer MAP Step 10, Adopting an Anti-Cancer Diet.  Here is the rest of the lesson.  Take note of the kinds of food you eat regularly, and the amount and quantities of beverages you consume.  If you introduce a new food into your diet, make a note in the diary you started in Step 4, Organizing Your Medical Records. If you start feeling ill or just not the way you were before, if nothing else has changed, it could be the new food.  Especially take note of any exotic, non-preserved foods you consume, like that sushi you had just once for old time’s sake.

Don’t forget those herbal remedies and other homeopathic products you take regularly.  These include dietary supplements like Coenzyme Q10, Echinacea, Garlic, Gingko, Ginseng, Milk Thistle, Saw Palmetto, Shark Cartillage, and St. John’s Wort.  After all, you take these products because they can have an effect on your health, which means they react with the cells inside your body.  That makes all of them drugs, and susceptible to interaction with other medications.

Ones that you may want to avoid or use extremely carefully because they can have significant side effects on their own include Belladonna (deadly nightshade), Wolf’s Bane (with can be toxic to the heart), Ephedra (which can lead to heart palpitations, high blood pressure, stroke, and psychosis), Mandrake (strong hallucinogen), Periwinkle (contains many of the chemicals used in chemotherapy), and Wormwood (convulsions and unconsciousness, extreme mind-altering effects). 

http://www.mdanderson.org/education-and-research/departments-programs-and-labs/departments-and-divisions/clinical-nutrition/food-drug-interactions/index.html

Watch Dosages Carefully

Develop a system for yourself to ensure you know when you last took your medications, and how many you took.  Buy as many “days of the week” pill containers as you need.  This is especially important for the times when you may be most sick, and most likely to forget whether you’ve taken a set of pills or not.  It can also help those caring for you in your support network to know where you are in your medication regimen. 

As mentioned before, many of the drugs used in the treatment of cancer are highly toxic and their efficacy is tied closely to their proper use.  Unlike a dose of some other medicines, which can be missed and made up later, many of these drugs must be taken on a precise schedule.  Do not put yourself in a situation of underdosing, and undermining a medicine’s effectiveness, or overdosing, and risk doing damage to yourself.

Keep Things Labeled

Most pharmacies today do a good job of labeling the products they dispense.  Some even offer to color-code your medications so you can more easily tell them apart.  Take full advantage of these services.  Use your diary to help keep track of what colors you’ve used for what medications. 

If you have a hard time reading the small print on the labels, use a felt-tip marker to write the name in large print on the reverse, or print out labels in larger print with the name of the medication and the frequency of the dosage.

Use Internet Web Resources

Cancer.im encourages the use of websites such as iguard.org, which allows you to enter several medications and check for interactions.  These websites often depend on user input, so your ability to share your own experiences can help enrich other people’s knowledge as well.  They also depend, however, on your knowledge of your own medications.  Use your diary to write down what medications you are on so that you can always refer to your notes. 

Double-Check

Most importantly, remember that everyone makes mistakes.  The more medical professionals who know what medications you are on, the more likely someone is to catch any potential problems.  Remind your doctors of what you are taking.  Tell the pharmacist.  Let nurses know.  Someone else may catch a problem that another person overlooked