Medications

Most people consider their pets as a much-cherished member of the family. We may share a slice of pizza with our pet dog or a can of tuna with our cat, but that does not mean it is safe for them to share our medicines as well (be it intentional or accidental).   This is because the way our pets metabolize (breakdown) these medications may not be the same as…

Your mind can sometimes work in a mysterious way to influence your health. Of greater interest is the fact that such conditioning effect of mind can work to either positively (known as placebo effect) or negatively (known as nocebo effect) affect your health. It may seem a little far-fetched, but this has been widely reported by many clinical and scientific studies. For instance, you’ve probably already heard of patients showing…

It can be really handy to have some common over-the-counter (OTC) medicines around especially when you are on holiday abroad. There is no one-size-fits-all list for a travel medicines kit, however, here are some pointers to help you organize a medicines kit for your next travel.   How is your personal health? Current medications: Are you on any long-term prescription medications (such as for high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, heart…

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…