William Simonson, PharmD, BCGP, FASCP Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs) are among the most commonly used pain relievers. They are frequently used to treat pain and fever from many different long- and short-term medical conditions such as arthritis, menstrual cramps, headaches, colds and influenza.1 In 1984 ibuprofen was the firstRead More >
Cranberry products for urinary tract infections
William Simonson, PharmD, BCGP, FASCP Oregon State University, USA With the advent of the Antibiotic Stewardship Program, signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2014, antibiotic use will fall under increasing scrutiny. The interdisciplinary health care team will increasingly collaborate to reduce, and ideally eliminate, irra-tional and unnecessary use of antibiotics. This includes incorrectlyRead More >
An aspirin a day…Does that make sense?
William Simonson, PharmD, BCGP, FASCP Oregon State University, USA We all are familiar with the saying, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” but we are more likely to take an aspirin (ASA) a day. Nearly 40% of US adults older than 50 years of age use aspirin for the primary prevention of cardiovascularRead More >
Antibiotic stewardship: Revisiting quinolone antibiotics
William Simonson, PharmD, BCGP, FASCP Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA There is ample evidence that antibiotic use in various health care environments is often inappropriate. For example, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) up to 70% of nursing home residents will receive one or more courses of systemic antibiotics in a year,Read More >
Does Calcium Supplementation Increase the Risk of Cardiovascular Disease?
I’ll start this post by mentioning two scenarios: In the 1973 movie “Sleeper” Woody Allen’s character, the owner of a health food store, awakens in a future world after a 200-year cryogenic hibernation only to find that the doctors of the future have found without a doubt that the secret to a long and healthyRead More >
Anticholinergic Properties of Medications and Their Adverse Side Effects
As a person ages they are more susceptible to the adverse effects of medications for a variety of reasons including decreased renal and hepatic function, the presence of multiple health conditions and increasing sensitivity of pharmacologic receptors in the body.1 In this column I will review the subject of anticholinergic properties of medications and willRead More >