Why are the usual medicines from the home medicine cabinet fraught with danger
Self-medication for people in the post-Soviet space is the most common thing. Most of us believe that before going to the doctor, you need to try to deal with the disease yourself. This habit, firmly rooted in the minds of our fellow citizens, has led to the fact that home first-aid kits are literally bursting with drugs for various purposes.
We take medications without much hesitation without a doctor's recommendation, without even thinking about the risk we are putting ourselves at.
Unfortunately, medicines from home stocks can bring both relief and serious harm with equal success. The therapist of the highest category, the head of the therapeutic department of the clinical diagnostic center "Medincenter" Olga Sahakyan told reporters what we risk by taking medications at our discretion.
In the average home medicine cabinet, you can find antipruritic, antipyretic, antihistamines, painkillers, disinfectants and sedatives. It may also contain means of narrower specialization, for example, medicines for cough and runny nose, problems with the gastrointestinal tract and to help with poisoning.
To choose the right medicine from your stocks, you need to look at the symptoms of the disease and how intense and often they recur. If you just have a headache or a stomach ache and you have taken a remedy from your reserves, then nothing bad will happen.
But if you are tormented by prolonged, recurring headaches or stomach cramps, then this may well indicate the presence of serious health problems in which you need to see a doctor immediately. The treatment of such diseases can be complex and require an integrated approach.
Especially careful should be taken with antipyretic drugs. Aspirin, familiar to many generations, has a number of dangerous side effects, and for people with problems with the gastrointestinal tract, it is completely contraindicated. Even in a person who has never complained about the stomach, uncontrolled intake of aspirin can cause abdominal pain, nausea and even vomiting.
In children, aspirin can cause severe pathology - Ray's syndrome, accompanied by liver failure and encephalopathy. Other medications for high fever can be no less dangerous, so their reception must be coordinated with a doctor.
As practice shows, the most common reason for the negative effect of well—known drugs on the body is a violation of the dosage. Few people read the instructions for the drug, which indicate doses for different weights and ages, side effects and symptoms of overdose.
A single dose of antipyretic or analgesic in moderate doses will not harm the body, but if the disease does not recede and the remedy has to be used again and again, then you need to contact medical specialists. Ignoring this rule, you have every chance to experience the side effects of the drug.
Few people know that vasoconstrictive sprays, popular all over the world, cause addiction in humans. Any doctor will warn that their use for more than 5 days has a negative effect on the body. This is also indicated in the instructions for each such drug. It must be remembered that dependence on decongestants that relieve mucosal edema is treated much more difficult than a banal runny nose.
Sedatives should be used with caution all the more. Irritability, insomnia, increased fatigue can be symptoms of problems with the endocrine system and even mental illness. By self-medicating, you can get a persistent dependence on these drugs, and in case of overdose or improper combination with other means, even endanger your life.It is very common in our country to take painkillers for any discomfort without understanding its origin. We use one or two tablets of an analgesic drug for toothache and headache, regular painful sensations in women and in many other situations.
But these drugs are dangerous because they cause problems with the gastrointestinal tract, heart and cause fluid retention in the body. They can even cause a hypertensive crisis, thrombosis or a heart attack. Do not forget about allergic reactions to the components of drugs, which are especially often threatened by those who like to experiment with unfamiliar medicines on the advice of home "experts".
All the medicines listed by us can be in a home medicine cabinet and, if necessary, taken in accordance with the instructions. Do not forget about the shelf life of pharmacy products. From time to time, an audit carried out in a home medicine cabinet will get rid of unnecessary and even dangerous medicines and help to replenish stocks of essential drugs in a timely manner.
What exactly should not be at home is antibacterial drugs. Self-activity when taking antibiotics leads to resistance, when the strain of the causative agent of the infection becomes resistant to drugs and treatment becomes much more complicated. Therefore, antibacterial agents can be prescribed exclusively by a doctor.
And remember that many medications in combination with alcohol become deadly!
Keywords: Doctors | Diseases | Medicine | Treatment | Prescriptions | Pills