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WORST PILLS, BEST PILLS NEWSLETTER ARTICLES

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Potassium Increases Due to Drug Interactions Can Be Dangerous
November 2008
One of the most common drug interactions occurs when patients take two or more drugs that can each increase blood potassium levels. The resulting condition, hyperkalemia (increased blood potassium levels), can cause nausea, fatigue, muscle weakness or tingling sensations, as well as heart abnormalities, showing up as an abnormal electrocardiogram. In some cases it can be fatal. The article lists 50 drugs which, especially when used in combination, can cause hyperkalemia.
Massive Misprescribing of Inappropriate Drugs to Hospitalized Elderly Patients
September 2008
A nationwide study published in spring 2008 in the Journal of Hospital Medicine showed that nearly half (49 percent) of almost 500,000 hospital patients older than 65 have been prescribed one or more of 92 drugs known to be unnecessarily unsafe for older patients. 10,000 of these patients had four or more of these inappropriate medicines prescribed during their hospitalization. Among the most common categories of adverse drug reactions these inappropriately prescribed drugs can cause are excessive sedation, abnormally low blood pressure and bleeding. We list the 92 drugs in the article and give further details about the kinds of side effects these drugs can cause.
Dangers of Mixing Alcohol with Certain Medications or Diseases
August 2008
The article discusses 273 drugs that can have harmful interactions with alcohol. Also reviewed are several ways in which these harmful interactions can occur: 1/ Medications Can Increase Alcohol Blood Levels 2/ Additive effects of medications and alcohol. One of the best- known drug-alcohol interactions is when alcohol, a depressant, is taken with other sedative medications, and excessive sedation or depression of respiration can occur 3/Alcohol can increase the blood levels of some medications leading to toxicity of these drugs. 4/ Alcohol also can reduce blood levels of some medications causing them to be less effective. Although some of the interactions between alcohol and medications mainly occur in people who drink heavily (three or more drinks on one occasion), many of these interactions may occur with much lower amounts of alcohol use, such as one to two drinks on an occasion. We strongly urge you to tell your physicians and other health care providers how much alcohol you are drinking so they can effectively assess the risks and advise you about the safe use of alcohol and medications.
SSRIs Can Have Dangerous Interactions With Other Drugs
January 2008
More than 70 million prescriptions a year are filled for these popular antidepressants, including Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Luvox, Celexa and Lexapro. This article gives details about more than 60 other widely prescribed prescription drugs that can have harmful interactions if used with these antidepressants. The two different kinds of interactions are also discussed.
Drug Interactions: Warfarin (COUMADIN)
December 2007
This article explains how to understand the International Normalized Ratio (INR), a test applied to a sample of a patient’s blood to determine how “thin” it is when you are using the blood thinner COUMADIN (warfarin). In addition, the article lists more than 50 drugs or dietary supplements that can interact harmfully with COUMADIN to cause the blood to be too thin (abnormal bleeding) or not thin enough which could result in lessening the effect of COUMADIN in stopping blood clot formation.
FDA Public Health Advisory - Arthritis Drug Valdecoxib (BEXTRA) Removed From Market; Major New Warnings for Other NSAIDs
June 2005
If you are currently taking celecoxib (CELEBREX)you should contact your physician to consider alternative NSAID treatment.