Medications

This article is a follow-up to the article on Diphtheria and why is it deadly. Vaccination against diphtheria is usually combined with vaccination against pertussis (whooping cough) and tetanus under the name of DTaP or TDaP. Recently, DTaP or TDaP is further combined in with the polio vaccine known as DTaP-IPV or TDaP-IPV. It is a single injection that is recommended to be administered at 1, 2, 5 and 18…

Sympathomimetic toxidrome is a syndrome where patients suffer from toxic effects that is exerted upon the autonomous sympathetic nervous system.   Wait, now you are confusing me. To know what sympathomimetic toxidrome is, we first need to understand the term “sympathomimetic” and the sympathetic nervous system. Have you ever felt your heart beating very hard and fast when you’re watching a horror film? Or sweat profusely when waiting for your…

Low-dose aspirin or more commonly known as “baby aspirin” is an anti-platelet medication. It is commonly prescribed to people who have had or have a high risk of a heart attack or a stroke. It works by preventing platelets from forming a clot efficiently thereby reducing the risks of heart attacks or a stroke. In order for low-dose aspirin to work effectively, it has to be taken daily. However, sticking…

Skin whitening is a huge industry as both men and women are progressively getting more conscious of their outlook. Although many manufacturers claim that their products can whiten skin despite little scientific evidence, none of them are as controversial as skin whitening injections. In order to stop such sham, he Ministry of Health, Malaysia even went as far as publishing a report on Vitamin C injections.     Myths and…

Pain is an extremely common condition that everyone will experience many times over the course of their lives. For the young and relatively healthy, we may suffer pain as a result of direct physical trauma such as from sports, physical activities or from certain acute conditions such as period cramps. For people in the older population, pain unfortunately becomes more common as our body suffers from the wear and tear…

References: Tiong, J., Loo, J., & Mai, CW. (2016) Global Antimicrobial Stewardship: A closer look at formidable implementation challenges. Microbiol. 7:1860. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.01860 http://www.who.int/antimicrobial-resistance/news/WHO-GAP-AMR-Newsletter-No-30-September-2017.pdf?ua=1

Have you ever been to the pharmacy requesting for a certain medicine, only to be asked by the pharmacist to come back with a prescription? Yet at the same time, the pharmacist can sell you other medicines without a prescription?

Some quick facts about warfarin and INR: An anticoagulant (blood thinner) prevents formation of blood clots in blood vessels by making your blood take longer to clot. Warfarin is the most commonly used oral anticoagulant. Your response to warfarin will be checked via blood test called International Normalized Ratio (INR). INR is a standard test used to measure the time taken for the blood to clot. The dose of warfarin…

While medications can help to treat diseases, they can cause unwanted side effects when used incorrectly. The lack of knowledge pertaining to medicines is generally the cause of their inappropriate use. Therefore, health care professionals are duty-bound to empower their patients in order to prevent medicine-related problems.    What is the medicine and what is it supposed to do?   This may sound like a simple question but surprisingly, many patients…