People’s Pharmacy: Can you trust Canadian online pharmacies?
Q: My insurance company will no longer pay for two of my brand-name medications. I am allergic to certain fillers in generic drugs and thus cannot tolerate some.
I am thinking about ordering these two brand-name meds from Canada. I have perused Canadian pharmacy sites on the internet, and some look very good. I wonder if you might know of some Canadian pharmacies that people have had good luck with in relation to the quality of the medication received. We cannot afford to continue paying the outrageous U.S. prices for these medications.
A: Although generic drugs must have the same active ingredient as the brand-name equivalent, they often contain different binders, fillers and colors. This can cause serious problems for people who are allergic to such ingredients.
Savings on brand-name medicine purchased from a legitimate Canadian pharmacy can be dramatic. Sadly, a nice website does not guarantee that an online pharmacy is truly Canadian. Fake online sites might sell counterfeit or substandard medicines.
We have prepared a Guide to Saving Money on Medicine that provides more details on the benefits and risks of shopping for medicines online. It is available for purchase electronically at www.PeoplesPharmacy.com.
Q: I have found that blood-pressure measurements are usually taken soon after you arrive at the doctor’s office. Part of white-coat hypertension could be that you’re stressed from getting to the office (finding parking, walking, filling out forms). Taking the blood pressure later in the visit might provide a more useful reading.
A: Thanks for this advice. Another reader shared her solution to this challenge: “I resolved my white-coat hypertension by arriving well ahead of my appointment. I get a coffee and then have time to sit and relax a little with my iPad or a magazine. This gives me a chance to recover from the stress of heavy traffic so I can avoid the anxiety of being late.”
We would discourage the coffee, however. Some research suggests that drinking coffee can increase blood pressure for a few hours (Clinical Nutrition online, March 31, 2016).
Q: My husband has been taking amiodarone for several months. In the past few weeks, he has been experiencing extreme nausea and vomiting. He also has developed a severe cough that seems to be getting worse. He has extreme shortness of breath, fatigue, and weakness and numbness in his fingers and hands.
He was placed on amiodarone because he has congestive heart failure and went into cardiac arrest. My husband now has liver and kidney problems along with everything else, and I firmly believe this medication is the root cause.
I intend to take him off it beginning today. He currently takes two tabs daily. I am going to lower his dosage to one tablet daily beginning today, and after one week, lower it to one-half tab daily.
I also want to take him off Coumadin and atorvastatin. I believe that all these drugs are killing him faster than the illness itself. I will keep him on the blood-pressure medication and the medication for his stent, but nothing else.
A: We urge you to get in touch with your husband’s physician. His symptoms are concerning and could well be due to amiodarone, which can cause lung damage (Clinical Medicine Insights: Case Reports, Oct. 9, 2016).
Discontinuing amiodarone or any of your husband’s medicines is not a do-it-yourself project. Once his physician hears about the serious symptoms he is experiencing, we suspect that his regimen will be adjusted.
In their column, Joe and Teresa Graedon answer letters from readers. Write to them in care of this newspaper or email them via their Web site: www.PeoplesPharmacy.com. Their newest book is “Top Screwups Doctors Make and How to Avoid Them.”