Prescription Drugs
Prescription drugs can be one of the most expensive things for senior citizens. There is a way to get some relief from the high costs of our drugs.
Pending legislation may supply some relief, but we can also help ourselves out along these lines.
Canadian pharmacies can no longer legally be used to obtain drugs. Drugs over the internet have a high risk of adulteration. Or they may not even have any medicine in the them even though they are a lower cost.
Although prescriptions and medicines can make you feel better and help you get well, it's important to know that ALL medicines, both prescription and over-the-counter, have risks as well as benefits.
The benefits of medicines are the helpful effects you get when you use them, such as lowering blood pressure, curing infection or relieving pain. The risks of medicines are the chances that something unwanted or unexpected could happen to you when you use them. Risks could be less serious things, such as an upset stomach, or more serious things, such as liver damage.
When a medicine's benefits outweigh its known risks, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers it safe enough to approve. But before using any medicine--as with many things that you do every day--you should think through the benefits and the risks in order to make the best choice for you.
There are several types of risks from medicine use:
- The possibility of a harmful interaction between the medicine and a food, beverage, dietary supplement (including vitamins and herbals), or another medicine. Combinations of any of these products could increase the chance that there may be interactions.
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The chance that the medicine may not work as expected.
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The possibility that the medicine may cause additional problems
For example, every time you get into a car, there are risks---the possibility that unwanted or unexpected things could happen. You could have an accident, causing costly damage to your car, or injury to yourself or a loved one. But there are also benefits to riding in a car: you can travel farther and faster than walking, bring home more groceries from the store, and travel in cold or wet weather in greater comfort.
To obtain the benefits of riding in a car, you think through the risks. You consider the condition of your car and the road, for instance, before deciding to make that trip to the store.