Archive for the ‘Plain City Health’ Category

At the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, the group, which represents the interests of independent drugstores (like Plain City Druggist) and community pharmacists (like Joe and me) gave an important talk about the wastefulness of mail order pharmacies.

In a slide show of photos that were sent in by community pharmacies participating in the “Dispose My Meds Program” (where customers brought in unused medications for safe disposal), NCPA showed thousands of dollars in medications that mail order pharmacies continued to send to patients all the while charging the patients’ prescription plans. These were medications that the patient did not order, want, or need and ended up bringing to their local pharmacy for disposal.

Sometimes a patient was deceased, but the mail order pharmacy continued to send medications even after being told numerous times about the error. The medications continued to be billed to the insurance plan.

Other times, patients were set up on “auto-shipping” plans and received medications even when they did not need refills, just so the company could bill for and receive payments for the medicine.

Who pays for this medication waste? The business purchasing the drug plan that requires mail order, the patients themselves, and, ultimately, all of us who must cover the mounting costs of health care.

To read the full article and see lots more photos of wasted medicines (and, ultimately, wasted money), go HERE. The photo at the beginning of this article shows an example of medication waste with mail order.

And read the NCPA blog posting about this HERE.

You can also watch a video about mail order medication waste HERE.

Beyond the waste of money in unused medications, mail order pharmacies offer false savings to the companies that choose them to provide their constituents with a medication plan. While many people have the perception that going with a mail order company is cheaper for them (they get a 90 day supply for the same co-pay as a 30 day supply–which we unfairly cannot provide the patient), there are many reasons why this is NOT the case.

For one thing, many of the mail order companies get rebates from drug companies when they use their “brand name” medications. Many mail order companies have gotten into trouble via lawsuits for switching patients to more expensive brand name drugs to increase their rebate checks, passing the costs on to the companies purchasing the prescription plans and thus, ultimately, the patients.

Community pharmacists are known for trying to save patients money by switching from more costly brand drugs to equivalent generic medications. Community pharmacies don’t get any giant rebates from drug companies for doing what is right for their patients.

This is just one instance of the way mail order companies are actually more expensive than local community drugstores. To read an article that details the many, many “False Savings of Mail Order,” go HERE.

You can read lots more disturbing articles about mail order companies and the “PBMs” or “Pharmacy Benefit Managers” that provide these plans and often own the mail order companies (talk about a conflict of interest!) HERE.

If you would prefer to have the choice to get your medications from your local pharmacy and are tired of these giant companies dictating prices and limiting access to pharmacy services, please consider writing your member of Congress. Right now, we need you to write and oppose the merger of Express Scripts and Medco, which will lead to one of the most enormous mega-mergers in pharmacy history.

To read more about why this merger is a threat and to write your Congressional representative to oppose it, please go HERE.

When Joe and I were in the process of opening the new pharmacy, we talked about having a soda fountain in the front. We even looked at gorgeous, antique wood, marble, and glass soda fountain fixtures that had been pulled from a pharmacy that had closed. The counters and cupboards were from a different era, created with intricate carvings and stained glass that you just don’t see in pharmacies today. 

Long before we opened Plain City Druggist, Lucas Drugs, which is shown in the photos here, boldly advertised not only that they sold medicine to the Plain City community, but sodas, too. Joe and I missed our opportunity for a drugstore/soda fountain combo shop by being born a little too late.

Because Joe and I had considered a soda fountain (we were talked out of it by several naysayers), I was really interested to hear a story on National Public Radio (NPR) about the revival of soda fountains and old-time concoctions. 

As the story recounted, soda fountains came in to being, because the medicine pharmacists mixed for their patients was so nasty tasting it required something sweet to help it go down more easily. In the time before pharmaceutical companies mass produced the now familiar bottles of pills and syrups, pharmacists made all of the medications on the spot for their ailing customers. Medicine in hand, those customers would then approach the soda fountain for flavoring.

Perhaps, like Mary Poppins, they also sang, “Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down in the most delightful way.”

Today, we do the same thing when we compound medicines. We don’t have a soda fountain, but we do have a whole shelf of flavoring to help remove the bitterness from some of the medicinal liquids we make. 

From the past, NPR’s story then jumped into present day and went on to tell about modern “mixologists” who have discovered old pharmacy soda fountain recipes and are reviving them in restaurants and bars across the United States. There are a few recipes for flavorful beverages on the NPR web site. You can find even more information about old fashioned concoctions on Darcy O’Neil’s web site, Art of Drink. 

O’Neil’s book, Fix the Pumps, tells the history of soda fountains and O’Neil provides an abridged history on the site under the heading “Soda Fountain.”

Soda fountains are no longer a memory from the past, however. They are becoming trendy, as people acquaint themselves with flavors their older relations once relished.

Maybe Joe and I weren’t born too late. Maybe we were just ahead of our time a few years ago when we thought about reviving the soda fountain in Plain City. 

To read the NPR story and also listen to the broadcast that I heard, go HERE.

Athlete’s foot is the most common skin infection in the U.S. with more than 25 million people afflicted every year. Caused mainly by fungi known as dermatophytes (Greek for “skin plants”), athlete’s foot is usually localized at the outermost layer of the skin and rarely penetrates to the inner tissue. Yet, with a minor injury to the skin, the fungi can find their way deep into the tissue and the infection can lead to serious consequences including toe or limb amputation.

Athlete’s foot is contagious and can be spread by direct contact or by walking barefoot in areas such as locker rooms and around swimming pools where the fungus has been deposited from other feet. Stuffing the fungus (and our feet) into shoes lacking proper air circulation then allows the fungi to grow.

With the Midwest summer being sweltering hot and humid this year (as it usually is), our feet get exposed to sweat for prolonged periods. The moisture in the inner surface of the shoes creates the ideal environment for the fungi to grow and multiply. Often these fungi are eradicated upon exposure to air or sun. However, lack of proper hygiene significantly increases the chances of acquiring the fungal infection.

Diabetic patients and patients who are taking immunosuppressive medications are at a significantly higher risk for experiencing complicated fungal infections, not only because of the impaired circulation of blood to their feet, but also because of the inability of their body to fight infections.

Because prevention is the best treatment, taking precautionary measures to avoid infection is the key to having healthy feet.

First, we suggest keeping the feet dry at all times. Using a drying powder can help close the pores and prevent sweating.

Additionally, wearing and regularly changing loose fitting socks that are made out of natural cotton or wool can also help in absorbing the moisture.  Synthetic socks often contain ingredients that increase perspiration of the feet and do not absorb moisture well.

Another trick to prevent athlete’s foot is to expose the feet to sun light and air for a few minutes every day. Washing your feet with hot water can also help.

Athlete’s foot infections are easy to identity and usually do not require medical attention. The infection is found most often between the fourth and the fifth toes.  Itching, scaling, and maceration (softening and whitening of the skin after being consistently wet–the way your toes and fingers look after soaking in a bath tub) of the skin is often seen. Inflammation or blistering might also occur. 

In the more serious infections, the infection is accompanied by pustules or ulcers on the sole of the foot, as well as thickened, white scales that can cover the entire foot. These types of infections require medical intervention and your doctor should examine your feet if you have these symptoms.

For simple, uncomplicated athlete’s foot infections, over-the-counter products most often eradicate the fungi and clear the infection. Antifungal agents, not antibiotic topicals, should be used to treat the infection. Our crew at Plain City Druggist can you help you select the right product. The infection usually gets cleared up in one to two weeks. If this is a recurring infection, however, using the topical creams for an additional week or two is advised. 

Interestingly, the infection can sometimes spread to the palm of the hand, but only one hand at time. Often people present with two feet and one hand infected. No one knows why only one hand gets infected!

Forks Over Knives is a movie that claims it “could save your life.” And, indeed, the movie offers information about diet and healthy eating habits that could keep many people off the surgery table and away from a surgeon’s scalpel.

While Joe and I earn our living from the fact that people are ill and require medications, we would love it if our friends and family did not have to take so many pills and never had to suffer from diabetes, heart disease, or many other conditions that are now being linked to our fast food, highly processed diets.

Joe and I plan to see Forks Over Knives this weekend. I’ll give you a review and tell you a bit more about the findings in the film after we watch it. But don’t wait for us–go to the movie yourself and do something good for your health (but stay away from the tub of buttered popcorn and giant cup of sugary cola while you are there)!

Another great place to get information on diet and health locally is The Wellness Forum. Dr. Pam Popper of The Wellness Forum in Columbus is also featured in the movie.

The movie will debut in Columbus this Friday, June 3, at the AMC Lennox Town Center 24 Theater located at 777 Kinnear Road.

To read more about this important film and view the trailer, please visit the Forks Over Knives web site HERE.

Saturday, April 30, will be a drug disposal day where you can turn in old or no longer used medicines for proper disposal. For those of us in Plain City, the closest location to take our medicines for disposal is Dublin Methodist Hospital.

To look for other locations that might be closer to you, go HERE and put in your zip code or county and city.

The Madison County Sheriff’s office will also be participating in the drug disposal day. At that time, they will also be collecting old cell phones for the 911 Cell Phone Bank program. This program provides emergency communications for the elderly or victims of abuse who need the help within our community.

Collection of expired and unused drugs, as well as cell phones, will be held on April 30 between 10 am and 2 pm at two locations in Madison County: the Madison County Sheriff’s Office located between Garfield Avenue and Elm Street in London and across from the West Jefferson Police Department in the village parking lot near the gazebo.