Have you ever wondered why, your doctor’s direction is different from the FDA? With many changes in the way medications are prescribed, comes regulation. The FDA is trying to regulate how physicians are prescribing. The patient may come in with food poisoning or a hiatal hernia and instead of looking at their condition on a broader scope, they prescribe a medication that is completely unrelated to the patient’s condition. That is why it is very important to be as descriptive as possible to ensure the physicians accuracy.

While it may be easier to beat the co-pay and take a medication similar to a prescription, keep this in mind. All medications, whether they are over the counter or not should all be passed through your physician. The reasoning behind this, is to ensure that taking prescribed medications won’t interfere with over the counter meds and vice versa.

The time period when you started taking the medication is also very important, as this is sometimes overlooked during your consultation. Taking medication for a long period of time can put a toll on your body and may develop serious side effects and build up resistance or maybe even addiction to the medication. If you are planning on stopping any medication, please let your physician know, prior to just stopping the medication all together. Certain medications, for example Prilosec if taken for a long period of time can build a tolerance and with a sudden stop may bring on a huge surge and increase your acid reflux, leaving you with few over the counter options to alleviate your symptoms. Now, if you’re looking at an alternative like TUMs this can help with anti-acid, but carefully reading and following the instructions is a must. Just because these are over the counter medication, doesn’t make them less lethal.

If your doctor is telling you to take more than the recommended dosage, there may be a specific reason for this. Since you are under your physician’s care, you may benefit from taking more of that specific medication, but take note they will be following you closely and you should follow up with your physician should you feel anything out of the normal.

So, please keep all of these recommendations in mind while at your next doctor’s appointment and being transparent with your doctor will keep the consistency of medication side effects down to a minimum.