Allergic to your medications?

Millions of Americans are on medications, and the majority of the time, people are on multiple medications. Due to the rise in allergy diagnoses each year, it’s likely that people will find that they are allergic to the fillers in their medications.

Why do these fillers in medications exist? Sometimes it’s to extend the shelf life of the product, and other times it’s to maintain the consistency or the color of the medication. Are they always necessary? Probably not. I personally wouldn’t care which color my pill was if it got the job done.

So what do you do if you find that your allergy medication has ingredients that you cannot tolerate? Regardless of how small the amount is, people can still react to food dyes, lactose, gluten, corn starch, or sodium lauryl sulfate (otherwise known as SLS). Sometimes, the reactions can make side effects of the medicine worse!

The best thing to do is to ask your doctor to prescribe medications without all of the fillers. Some brands are getting on board with this notion, by offering their medications free of fillers to begin with. For example, Tirosint, a medication for hypothyroidism, already offers their medication free of fillers. However, if there aren’t any alternatives for your medication, it’s best to ask your doctor to write a prescription for a compounding pharmacy. Compounding pharmacies offer many types of services, including providing alternative dosing amounts, compounding the ingredients in a different form, or dosing medicine without all of the fillers.

If you have any other tips, please feel free to share below in the comments. Thanks for reading!

Gluten in medications?

Are you unintentionally ingesting gluten in your medications?  Surprisingly, manufacturers don’t have to label whether or not their medications are gluten free.  In fact, Abbott recently stopped labeling Synthroid as gluten free, and will not confirm whether or not their product is gluten free.  If you write and ask, they won’t put anything in writing, and will give you quite a long speech on the phone explaining this fact.  This is concerning due to the fact that many people that have hypothyroidism also have Hashimoto’s,  which is exacerbated by consuming gluten!

Tirosint, which is another product on the market for levothyroxine, is gluten free, though, and advertises that they do not contain gluten, lactose, dyes, or the other fillers that drug companies usually add to their medications.  This might be the best alternative to Synthroid at the moment, although it’s still relatively new.  If you’re unable to handle gel caps derived from gelatin and glycerin, you may be able to ask your pharmacist to compound Synthroid without all of the added fillers.

 

What are your thoughts?  Have you tried any of these and have any testimonials that you wish to share?

 

Thanks for reading!