Archive for March, 2014

Joe and I just got back from a pharmacy conference. One of the hot topics that we keep hearing about is drug induced nutrient depletion. Put simply, many of the drugs we take to combat certain diseases cause us to lose much needed vitamins and nutrients.

I’m going to try to talk a little bit about different medications and the supplements you should take with them over the next few weeks. But in this posting, I want to just concentrate on the effects caused by taking statin medications to lower cholesterol.

There are a number of statin medications that can lead to side effects caused by nutrient depletion. These side effects include:

• Muscle Pain
• Joint Pain
• Muscle Cramping
• Liver Damage
• Mental Confusion
• Memory Loss.

The cholesterol medications that can cause these problems are:

• Advicor (niacin extended-release/lovastatin)
• Altoprev (lovastatin extended-release)
• Atorvastatin Calcium
• Caduet (amlodopine and atorvastatin)
• Crestor (rosuvastatin)
• Lescol (fluvawstatin)
• Lipitor (atorvastatin)
• Livalo (pitavastatin)
• Lovastatin
• Mevacor (lovastatin)
• Pravachol (pravastatin)
• Pravastatin
• Simvastatin
• Simcor (niacin extended-relase/simvastatin)
• Vytorin (ezetimibe/simvastatin)
• Zocor (simvastatin)

There are also a few Beta Blocker medications for the heart which can also cause nutrient depletion similar to what is caused by statins. These are:

• Atenolol
• Bystolic
• Carvedilol
• Coreg
• Coreg CR
• Labetolol
• Metoprolol
• Metoprolol XL
• Toprol XL

Taking these medication leads to reduced levels of Coenzyme Q10, HDL (good cholesterol), Omega 3, 6, and 9 (components in HDL), Vitamin D, Vitamins B6, B12, and Folic Acid.

To combat the nutrient depletion that these medications cause, a pharmacist, who is also an independent pharmacy owner in Brooklyn, developed a supplement called Statinzyme that contains nine essential vitamins and components. If you had to buy each one of these in a separate pill, you’d spend half your morning choking down supplements. But with Statinzyme, you take two capsules daily with food to alleviate the side effects from your prescribed medication.

We are recommending and selling Statinzyme in the pharmacy now. If you have any questions about it, please stop in and talk to Joe.

To find out more about Statinzyme, please go HERE.

We have a new fourth year pharmacy student with us for March. His name is Jeremy Church and we know you will make him feel very, very welcome (as you do all of our students!).

Here is what Jeremy has to say about himself:

Hello, everyone! My name is Jeremy Church and I am a fourth year pharmacy student at The Ohio State University. I am excited to be here at Plain City Druggist for the month of March.

I was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. I went to a small liberal arts college on the east side of Columbus called Ohio Dominican University where I earned my bachelor’s degree in chemistry. During my undergraduate career, I knew I enjoyed chemistry and math, but I didn’t really know how that was going to translate to the real world. In my junior year of college, I discovered pharmacy as a career by taking a career survey from my guidance counselor. Shortly after the survey, I began working in the community pharmacy setting and have loved pharmacy ever since.

I have a few reasons why I picked this site as a rotation during my final year.

First of all, when Joe came to OSU to discuss his store, Plain City Druggist sounded like a great opportunity to learn how an independent pharmacy operates. I have an interest in having my own independent pharmacy later in my career.

Secondly, my father is from Plain City, Ohio, so I have been in town a few times to visit a few of the places he enjoyed growing up. I thought it would be nice to work in the community where he was raised.

When I am not doing anything pharmacy related, such as rotations or work, I am usually trying to stay active. I enjoy going to the gym a few times a week and playing volleyball and basketball at least once a week. I started playing volleyball about 3 years ago and since then have pretty much been playing year-round (indoor and outdoor).

Well, I hope this gives you an idea of who I am. I am excited to meet all of you and help in any way I can!