Keep Your Doctor in the Know!
In a telephone survey of 1,559 people age 50 and older, conducted by AARP and the National Center For Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, researchers found that 69% of those who use complementary approaches do not share that information with their doctors.
Nearly 75% of those interviewed take one or more prescription medications, and 20% take more than 5 prescription meds – and yet their doctors have no idea what they may be taking over-the-counter that might affect the medications they receive.
Apparently, many people don’t feel any sense of urgency about bringing up their vitamin supplements or other therapies. Some say it’s because their doctors don’t ask, other say there is not enough time or that they didn’t know they should. It may be that people don’t feel their doctors will want the information or know what to do with it.
But this information may be critical to your safety and the effectiveness of your treatments. For instance, certain vitamins and herbs should be stopped for several weeks before surgery, to minimize bleeding complications. Or something you take may inhibit the effectiveness of a medication or even increase its impact. Calcium can interfere with the absorption of certain medications. The timing of your supplement and medication intake may need to be taken into consideration.
Be sure your doctor and your pharmacist know about all vitamins and herbs that you take. An easy way to do this is if you’re a Stop Aging Now customer, is to print out the ingredients for the products you are taking by visiting the product’s page on our website, clicking on the “Ingredients” tab and then clicking the “Print This Label” link. You can even print information on recent medical research which explains why you’ve decided to take certain supplements. Or you can take your supplement bottles with you to the doctor’s office.
If you find a lack of interest on your doctor’s part to take note of this information or to take it seriously, then maybe it’s time to look for a medical professional who does show an interest in nutrition, vitamin supplementation or any other alternative modality that you’ve chosen to improve or protect your health. It’s time for this communication gap between patients and their doctors to be bridged and you may be the one who needs to take the first step.
