Sites That Help the Medicine Go Down
Although the Web could feed an acute case of hypochondria, several sites offer a healthy dose of useful information. Of course, what’s online is supplemental and should not take the place of a physician’s advice.
Has your doctor prescribed a new medication? You can check for potential interactions with other drugs or even foods at https://www.drugchecker.drkoop.com. For example, if you take Cozaar, a blood pressure medication, you’ll find that there’s a “medium food interaction” with grapefruit juice, which the site says hinders metabolism of the drug.
But beware, the site has not been updated since February.
At https://health.yahoo.com/health/drugs_tree/medication_or_drug/0705, you can find helpful general information on drugs, including storage instructions. You also can get downloadable health-related applications for hand-held computers. CBS HealthWatch (https://www.cbshealthwatch.com) offers a similar service, plus health-related news and feature articles.
Ordering and buying medication online is convenient but does require caution. The Food and Drug Administration (https://www.fda.gov/oc/buyonline/default.htm) offers guidelines on determining who’s a reputable seller on the Web and how to detect fraud.
Along the same lines, you can go to https://www.nabp.net/vipps/consumer/listall.asp, the National Assn. of Boards of Pharmacy’s site. The NABP is a professional association representing the state boards of pharmacy in all 50 states. After you indicate whether you’re looking for over-the-counter remedies, prescription medications or medical devices, the site brings up a list of online pharmacies.
You also can verify the licenses of bricks-and-mortar pharmacies in California at https://www.pharmacy.ca.gov. By clicking on License Verification, you can check the status of an establishment and find out whether it has been the subject of disciplinary action.
If you are into having needles stuck all over your body, you can visit https://www.cmbm.org/resources/links.html for links to acupuncture as well as other alternative-medicine sites. Links to specific types of alternative approaches also are at https://health.yahoo.com/health/alternative_medicine.
The Web also makes it easier to connect with clinical trials and experimental treatments. Check out Yahoo Health’s section at https://health.yahoo.com/health/clinical_trials. You can search by specific condition or select the category of illness to get a list of links to related studies throughout the country.
At WebMD (https://my.webmd.com/clinical_trials), you’ll find an international listing of more than 7,500 clinical trials recruiting patients. It also lists U.S. government-funded trials and drug treatments recently approved by the FDA.
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Michelle Maltais is a broadcast producer and copy editor at The Times.
