Prescription Pitfalls
Prescription medication use (pharmaceuticals, drugs, etc.) is on the rise. We see patients on a daily basis experiencing side effects from medications. We are happy to help patients not only manage side effects, but wean off of medications if they have worked to have an alternative or lifestyle plan in place to replace supplemental medications (not the life-saving ones!).
We are not anti-prescription by any means, we love life-saving medications!
What we don’t love is unmanaged polypharmacy- patients who are on multiple meds, have multiple side effects, and no one has investigated, offered help or alternatives. Naturopathic medicine offers many alternatives or adjunctive support to meds. We have natural solutions for pain, allergies, blood pressure control, cholesterol and blood sugar support and more.
Our physicians are also knowledgeable about newer drugs, a drug that may have the same therapeutic benefit with fewer side effects or natural ways to manage common side effects. Our physicians also can tease out what medication may be causing a chief concern, such as insomnia.
Here is a short case study…
One of our physicians saw a 60 year old woman who has suffered with insomnia for many years. She was put on a thyroid medication (very commonplace) but without a diagnosis of hypothyroidism, or low thyroid function. Labs had always shown a healthy thyroid! Diet, lifestyle and supportive supplementation were not really budging the sleep problem. Steadily, we started to wean her off of the thyroid med while monitoring labs. Thyroid function remained excellent, and the patient’s sleep steadily began to improve. Root cause here: this patient was receiving excess thyroid hormone DAILY and didn’t need it…this is stimulating and confusing to the body. Treat the cause and always investigate!
Check out this drug interaction checker to see if there are any issues with your current medications. Our physicians are happy to discuss medication management and help with side effects or changing to a more beneficial medication or an alternative plan of care.
