Med Knowledge
I spoke with a number of friends and family about regarding their knowledge of OTC and prescription medication. Most people I know don’t take a regular prescription medication but do use OTC meds occasionally. Of the five I spoke with, most had a reasonable estimate of what each dose and max dose per day should be for ibuprofen and acetaminophen. One concern arose when my friend said she takes two acetaminophen when she has a headache, but when she showed me the bottle I saw that is was extra strength, 500 mg/pill. She did not know that these pills were a higher concentration of medication and did not report treating them with the consequent caution. Related to this, I just bought a bottle of acetaminophen and I couldn’t find any that wasn’t extra strength despite looking in two stores. I hope consumers know what their getting and how to use it. Another friend told me that he has been on one prescription for many year (he didn’t share what), but said that he didn’t know the dosage until he had been taking it for about 5 years. I think that this is pretty common, people have their medication and maybe know how to use it but don’t necessarily pay attention to the details of what it is. This could be a problem if one day the doctor changed the dosage and they got a new dosage of pill but didn’t know to take more or less of the medicine. A couple of my roommates pretty much never use western medications and only use herbal remedies. They are both pretty healthy fellows, but occasionally I find some of their practices concerning, even more so because the products they use are unregulated. For example, I once watched my roomate put pieces of dried herbs under his eyelids to “open his tear ducts”. I don’t remember what the herb was, but I do think the potential for mechanical harm from dry scratchy plant material directly on the cornea poses a risk. Another friend likes to take colloidal silver as a regular dietary supplement, a practice which no scientific evidence supporting it and poses the risk of silver accumulation in body tissues (Bauer, 2014).
Bauer, B. (Aug 5, 2014). Mayo Clinic Consumer Health: Expert Answers. Retrieved from:
http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/consumer-health/expert-answers/colloidal-silver
/faq-20058061
