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“Your local pharmacist is not who you think they are.”
Back before my fake freelance writing gig fell through, I tried to maneuver into a niche as a healthcare writer.
One of the articles-for-moms I wrote was about how pharmacists are vastly underutilized as health care providers. (Tl;dr-Lifehacker edition: If you have a medical question or want a second opinion on meds, you should just go up to the counter at a store pharmacy and ask. Pharmacists have 7 years of medical education and they’re free.)
I found a TedxTalk by a pharmacist that addresses this exact underutilization issue:
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Pretty good, although dry to watch if you’re not also a provider.
Pharmacists are important because doctors make mistakes. Doctors make prescribing mistakes at alarmingly high rates. If patients asked more questions and pharmacists spent more time on each individual, it would probably save a lot of lives.
One of the aspects of the profession I noted that the lecturer didn’t address is that the way corporations run retail pharmacies makes the kind of access he idealizes impossible. With immunizations and peripheral paperwork, pharmacists simply don’t have the man-hours to counsel every new patient. Any intern who has done a rotation at a high-volume chain knows this already. But I guess the Talk was already too long to go into a tangent about how for-profit-healthcare is fucking awful.
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Footnote on my ventures in my fake freelance writing career: I was interviewed a few months ago by a health care education group for their company’s blog. They wanted my “expert” opinion on formal education and training for pharmacy technicians.
My answer was, “Don’t go to school because you will be automatically less hireable than precocious college kids willing to work for near-minimum wage.”
They thanked me and then totally did not publish the interview.
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Six Things You Didn’t Know About Your Local Pharmacy
I just dropped $70 to the state to renew my license so this better be worth it.
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Six Things You Didn’t Know About Your Local Pharmacy
From a board-certified and licensed pharmacy technician, here are tips and tricks to getting the most out of your local retail pharmacy:
1. You Can Ask the Pharmacist About Over-the-Counter Products
Most people know that they can ask if they have quetsions about their prescriptions, but most pharmacists are also happy to answer questions about products sold in the store. Having been to school to four to seven years for a Doctor of Pharmacy degree, they are qualified to answer your questions about common ailments and personal medical needs.
Confused about different types of cold and flu products? Need advice about Advil versus Tylenol? Need help in treating poison ivy or picking out a knee brace? Just stop at the pharmacist counter and ask to speak to the pharmacist.
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3. You Can Get Certain Immunizations Right There
Depending on the state, pharmacies will often offer simple shots for common ailments including Influenza (they reformulate for new strains annually), MMR, Tetanus, and Shingles. The pharmacists receive extra training for immunizations and are certified for sterilization and intravenous techniques by the state. Although often covered by insurance, the flu vaccine, for example, only costs about $30 out-of-pocket.
I also included info on discount programs and how to write prescriptions off as health care expenses on your taxes. Click the link to read the rest!
Read more at Suite101: Six Things You Didn’t Know About Your Local Pharmacy | Suite101.com http://suite101.com/article/six-things-you-didnt-know-about-your-local-pharmacy-a410208#ixzz21YmXZEHW
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Share with your mom! Moms and aunts love this sort of article!
I Write About Drugs – Tianeptine
My freelance writing gig–Suite101–which was formerly raped by Google search algorithms, is trying to refashion itself into a sustainable business model. I dunno if it will work and I’ll actually start seeing more money, but I decided to start writing for them again. If anything, it’s a good hub for my more serious writing.
I also decided to concentrate on writing about drugs and Health & Wellness, since I’m technically a health care professional and all that jazz.
I’m normally not big on asking people to promote my stuff, but I do get a portion of ad revenue over there. So please, if you think an article is interesting, retweet and shit (there’s a button on the actual article):
Tianeptine: The Antidepressant that Reduces Serotonin
Everyone has seen that Zoloft commercial—the one with the bouncing, white bubble, a cartoon parable about escaping depression to reclaim a formerly emotionally disrupted life. With its multiple parodies and wide-recognition, the Zoloft cartoon permeated the cultural zeitgeist and brought a mainstream awareness to antidepressant drugs. It famously referred to depression as a “chemical imbalance.”
Introduced by Pfizer in 1991, Zoloft (sertraline) became the next major Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) after Prozac (fluoxetine) and heralded a new age of pharmacotherapy in the treatment of major depressive disorder. With these new drugs came a revamped model for depression treatment, which revolved around the neurotransmitter that has almost become synonymous with happiness: serotonin.
Serotonin is a complicated chemical with a variety of somatic functions. It has receptors in several different bodily systems and the exact mechanism for creating happiness is unknown. What is known about SSRIs is that by inhibiting reuptake or reabsorption of serotonin in the brain, they increase the levels of serotonin.
But there is a class of drugs, also considered antidepressants, which have the opposite mechanism as SSRIs. They are a class titled “selective serotonin reuptake enhancers” or SSREs. Of these drugs that reduce serotonin rather than increase it, there is exactly one that has been manufactured and marketed. It’s available in Europe and it’s called tianeptine…
Read more at Suite101: Tianeptine: The Antidepressant that Reduces Serotonin | Suite101.com http://suite101.com/article/tianeptine–the-antidepressant-that-reduces-serotonin-a409726#ixzz205sp2NNV
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