Many people take different kinds of medicine depending on what the symptoms are, unless it is a very serious issue that needs doctor’s care. In fact, there are a lot of emergency medicines that you can take and buy in a pharmacy and convenience store without a doctor’s prescription.
There are a lot of questions and wrong information about emergency medicine. Let’s look at the common questions and mistakes when taking the medicine.
Q1What are some examples of emergency medicine?
Emergency medicine is a daily medicine that we can easily intake without doctor’s note. For example, there are antipyretic analgesic (pain killer), or as we know Tylenol or Ibuprofen; ant asthmatic, rhinitis, atopy drug, which is allergic drug; digestive medicine.
Q2 Is it okay to over-take medicine if someone is very sick?
There is no medicine that has no side-effects. If he or she takes too much medicine can become poisonous, for there is a small level of toxicity in each pill. Therefore, it is always important to follow the instructions and do not go over its toxicity limitation.
Ps. Allergy drugs (anti-histaminase) have a side-effect of sleepiness. Many people think that digestive drug does not have side-effect; however, if you overtake than some patients might suffer from skin rash and diarrhea and also give negative effect on one’s liver.
Q3: Are there medicine that should not be taken together at the same time?
- When taking different pain-killers at the same time: headache, stomach and anti-inflammatory drugs are in different format but belong to the same category of pain-killer. Thus, if you take too much of these at the same time, it will overwork the cells in the liver.
- Aspirin and Vitamin C: They are both acidified medicine thus it will make our whole body acidic so it will overdo our stomach.
Q4: How about certain medicine and food?
- Pain-killer and Alcohol: All types of medicine go through our metabolism through our liver and also the alcohol goes through the same route. Therefore, we should not take alcohol when we take pain-killer to protect our liver. .:
- Obstruent and Milk: Obstruent is designed to be digested in our intestines instead of stomach; however, if you drink milk while taking the obstruent, it will take off the coating of the medicine so reduce the effect of it.
Q5: What is the best way to preserve medicine at home?
It is recommended to preserve the medicine in full package. If it is exposed to sun or humidity the components in the medicine might change. And most importantly it is essential to keep the instruction to prevent from overtaking the optimal volume of medicine.
Q6: How to discard the medicine?
Medicine should be separated from regular waste, because it can contaminate water quality. Therefore it is recommended to discard them at any pharmacy near his or her home. Therefore, if there is medicine that passed expiration date or do not take, we need to dispose at pharmacy.
Article by Jeong Mok Lee, a sophomore at Hanyang Business School.
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