Show 1064: How Can You Avoid Hazardous Drug Interactions?
The People's Pharmacy
Joe and Terry Graedon
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 12 January 2017
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Medications are often crucial for maintaining our health, but every drug you take has potential side effects and may interact with other medicines. What do you know about these hazards?
Understanding Benefits and Risks:
Our guest, Dr. Russ Altman, suggests that physicians should exercise more restraint in prescribing and patients should ask more questions about the drugs they are expected to take. That way, everyone will have a better understanding of the balance of benefits and risks that accompany every prescription. Both doctors and patients also need to pay attention to potential drug interactions.
Learning about Drug Interactions:
Dr. Altman describes the unusual computer analysis that he and his students employed to discover an unsuspected interaction between the cholesterol drug pravastatin (Pravachol) and the antidepressant paroxetine (Paxil). This combination can raise blood sugar significantly. What other drug interactions are yet to be discovered?
Over-the-Counter Drugs:
When it comes to over-the-counter drugs, too many people assume they are perfectly safe. OTC medicines also have potential side effects and may interact with other medicines in dangerous ways. How can you find out more about the drugs you take on your own?
This Week’s Guest:
Russ Altman, MD, PhD, is the Kenneth Fong Professor of Bioengineering, Genetics, Medicine, and Biomedical Data Science at Stanford University Medical School. He also holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Computer Science. Here are some helpful links for his work:
Lab page: http://helix.stanford.edu/index.html
The PharmGKB resource for pharmacogenomics http://www.pharmgkb.org/
Paper on drug interaction discovery from FDA databases and electronic health records http://tatonettilab.org/resources/tatonetti-stm.html
Paper on interaction between Paxil and pravastatin https://www.nigms.nih.gov/news/meetings/documents/russ_altman_article.pdf
Ted Talk on Drug Interactions https://www.ted.com/talks/russ_altman_what_really_happens_when_you_mix_medications
Ted Talk on Pharmacogenomics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1iKibDqtck
You may also be interested in our post about the Chicago Tribune study of pharmacies dispensing without warning of deadly drug interactions. You can learn more about the frightening interaction between ACE inhibitors and co-trimoxazole here and here.
Listen to the Podcast:
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Joe Graydon. |
| 0:02.3 | I'm Terry Graydon. |
| 0:03.8 | Welcome to this podcast of the People's Pharmacy, where we bring you the stories behind the health headlines. |
| 0:10.2 | This podcast is brought to you by Redux Industries, makers of utterly smooth body cream. |
| 0:16.0 | 800-345-7339 on the web at utter cream.com. |
| 0:30.7 | Many people take a handful of pills every day for blood pressure, cholesterol, or diabetes. |
| 0:37.8 | What happens if they interact? |
| 0:40.1 | This is the People's Pharmacy with Terry and Joe Graydon. |
| 0:47.9 | Most people assume that their medicines are both safe and effective, |
| 0:58.0 | but every drug comes with the potential for causing adverse reactions. |
| 1:02.8 | Today we talk with Dr. Russ Altman of Stanford University Medical School. |
| 1:09.9 | Whenever we use a medication, there should never be an assumption that it's 100% safe and nothing bad could happen. |
| 1:17.3 | A recent study by the Chicago Tribune found that over half of the 255 pharmacies surveyed dispensed deadly drug combinations without any warnings. How can you protect yourself? |
| 1:21.6 | Coming up on the People's Pharmacy, learn about hazardous drug interactions. |
| 1:26.6 | First, the news. In the People's Pharmacy |
| 1:32.1 | health headlines, regular use of pain relievers like ibuprofen or neproxin might increase a woman's |
| 1:39.1 | risk of hearing loss. That's the finding from analyzing more than six years of data from the nurse's health study. |
| 1:45.9 | In this research, almost 56,000 women answered questions about their use of over-the-counter |
| 1:51.3 | pain relievers. Those who used a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug or acetaminopin, |
| 1:57.6 | at least twice a week, had a 9 to 10% increased chance of developing hearing loss. |
| 2:03.2 | There was no connection between hearing and aspirin use. A 10% increase in risk is pretty modest, |
| 2:09.8 | but considering how many people use an insed on a regular basis, it could still end up with a lot |
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