YOUR HEALTH
===========
(IN THE ABOVE PHOTO DR MAHIPAL GHEMAWAT)
By Dr Mahipal Ghemawat
=====================
Healthcare is becoming costlier and costlier. The physicians too have restricted contact time with their patients so that they can see more patients. Hence it is increasingly your own responsibility to watch and understand the treatment you are getting and to scrutinize your medications. It is recommended that you prepare a list of all your medications, including over-the-counter ones, and questions in writing. You should carry this list (updated each time) whenever you have any medical appointment with your physician or any medical professional and ask all the questions.

According to the daily newspaper BOSTON GLOBE, every year more than 1.5 million Americans are harmed by medication errors. It is also estimated that on the average one medication error occurs every day for each hospitalized patient.

YOU ARE YOUR BEST DOCTOR

1. Before I moved to sunny California, I was living in Boston where my fingers used to get bruised and cracked because of harsh cold. My hematologist prescribed one medicine (three 10 mg tablets, one of which I had to take in the middle of night). Then I read THE PILL BOOK (generally available at every pharmacy) and found that that medicine also came in ER (extended release) form. When I asked my hematologist about it, he said, "Oh, ya, it is avalable in ER form" and only then he prescribed the ER form. This proved most suitable as I no longer had to get up in the middle of night to take one of the three pills and, more importantly, the medicine from the pill got into my system very, very slowly, throughout the 24-hour period, resulting in the least amount of side effects.

2. Constitutionally, I am a very thin man and when I put on 4-5 lbs in a month or so some years back, my wife happened to remember reading that this weight gain may be related to less active thyroid. Of course, my wife was right and I was put on for medication for hypothyroidism.

3. All the medicines have instructions how to take them. For example, synthroid for hypothyroidism should be take on an empty stomach and then not to eat aything for at least 30 minutes. Similarly, Fosamax for osteoporosis is to be taken on an empty stomach and then neither to eat nor to sit nor to lie down for at least 30 minutes.

If, unfortunately, one is diagnosed with a new illness, remain calm & read about it whatever you can so that you can be treated better. When my wife was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, our younger son did not cry at all; he collected all the literature on the disease and mailed the same to us.

Some 15 years back, once I visited my landlady's house in Long Island when I found her medicine bottles sitting near the kitchen sink, bathed in bright sunllight coming thru the window. And some of the bottles were of light amber color, allowing light to penetrate them. Most of the medications have storage instructions, i.e., protection from moisture, light and temperature. Medications should never be stored in bathroom because of moisture. Wrong storage can cause medication to break down, lose potency, and, in rare cases, even become toxic.

Some 5-6 months back, on one Wednesday, I met one ICC member here at Sunnyvale who was carrying his medicine in a piece of folded paper, thus exposing it to moisture for at least 3 hours.

Weekly planners are probably not air tight & hence can let moisture react with the medications.

Further, when a medicine loses potency, the doctor has to prescribe a higher dosage, which may have more side effects or he has to change medication.

You should pay heed to the fine print. I have come across an over-the-counter calcium which has written CALCIUM CITRATE in large bold letters but underneath this heading was, in fine print, that it was a combination of calcium citrate and calcium carbonate. You may be knowing that calcium citrate can be taken with or without food while calcium carbonate needs to be taken with food because it gets digested only when acid is released in the stomach after food enters it.

The best way to help the doctor is to tell all the details about all your problems and follow all the instructions. Also, try your best to maintain a good health & weight. Maybe, you have to impose some restrictions on yourself. Once, while shopping I picked Lemon candy (my favorite) which were meant for the customers to pick. However, being little diabetic, I did not eat it even though I was living all alone at that time as my wife had gone to India.

Please make it a habit to exercise. Whenever you walk, walk a little faster. Climb stairs if you can. For those who are still having no problem with their walking/climbing, take two steps up the stair in each stride, holding the side rails, as I always do. This gives a more complete movement to your hip joint. Also try to reach something on the upper shelf by stretching your arm. Every little bit helps.

A new strain of bacteria L. reuteri has been reported,. Taking daily doses of L. reuteri reduced reports of illness by 60 percent. It is right now available in one kind of yogurt only.

For protecting myself against mosquito bites while walking in the evenings, and specially in India, I have found one ANTI-MOSQUITO GUARD very effective. It is rechargeable with solar/household light.
(Writer is a Educationalist and deep Thinker.)
************