Buying Meds Online: Is It Safe?

Buying Medications Online

Guest Post by FDL

photo by thyroid.about.com

A lot of us don’t like taking pills. I work with someone who hates taking pills. I mean really hates it to the point of being phobic.

She looks at the little white devil clutched between her thumb and forefinger and sighs heavily. Finally, with one last heaving sigh, the little white orb passes through her lips and with a giant grimace followed by an exaggerated swallow after a sucking gulp of water and a steadying sigh, life continues.

Yeah, its a phobia.

If we honestly need to take a medicine, any medicine, then why not pay the least possible price for the highest quality concoction available. How are we supposed to know if medicines we purchase, at any price, are what we are paying for?

• The WHO reports that a whopping 10% of MEDICINES PURCHASED ONLINE are counterfeit.
• Do you know where your pharmacist, local or otherwise, is getting meds from? Could they be in that 10%?

Hold on. Let’s look at this a little more closely.

• In an article in the WSJ, turns out the 10% is bogus.
• Buy from a US pharmacy, at the grandest new super CVS, a dot com or in a cubicle in a liquor store, the FDA has your back.

Buying Meds From US Online Sites Is OK

If you buy prescription meds, you’re ok if you follow the guidelines set out by the FDA. Ok, I’m good with that. I can buy online or anywhere else for my prescription meds.

What about price? For my blood pressure pills, I had been taking the same beta blocker for many years, with several increases in dosage-bad genes I guess….

I was now paying $30 a month for this little combo drug and my pressures were once again rising. Ugh! I wanted a better blood pressure with a cheaper price tag for the fix. I talked with my doctor about switching to a cheaper class of drug that would give the same or better results. On the Walmart $4 plan, where my doctor and I looked, he chose one and I made the switch.

I checked with my local pharmacy, an independent, and found that the prices there are just as good as those at Walmart. Great! My Walmart does not have a drive through and my pharmacist is a friend. Two good reasons to stay with my independent. I decided it was just simpler to stay local and not bother with online or the local big box. all I have to do is verify my local guy gets his meds from a US company.

OK. Whew! I’m satisfied with the price and safety of my heart health medicine.

Supplements and Vitamins-Where do those come from?

What about supplements and vitamins. No prescription needed. Who’s got your back on that one? Like me, betcha know lots of folks who swear by all kind of supplements. Got to wonder why we are not all cured of everything-but since we’re not, can you buy non-prescription meds safely online?

I began to think about all this when I found out I need to take a Vitamin D supplement.

BTW, have you had a dexascan? I am old enough, lucky me, to have my first one of these tests. The test is a non-invasive expensive breeze. My results were pretty crappy. The diagnosis led to further testing which showed my vitamin D level was wretched. Sooooo now I take massive doses of VitaminD3-Extreme. After a few months of loading doses, I am now down to taking 4 pills a month of the 50,000 IU D3.

This dosage is not available OTC at any of the local stores in my town, only through my pharmacist. The 50,000′s at my local pharmacy cost a dollar a pill. A DOLLAR A PILL! My tightwad antennae began to ping.

My online research:

• Vitamin D products are every where.
• Very few places sell 50,000 IU or mega vitamin D3
• There are many, many people out there in the same boat: needing Vitamin D in ‘extreme’ doses

I found a site that sells exactly what I am looking for. Looks reputable. How do I KNOW they are? A recent article in the WSJ, made me feel pretty good about buying any kind of drug online from a US marketer, statistically. But what about this particular site? For prescription drugs, the FDA has our back.

If you buy dietary supplements or vitamins, online or otherwise, buy US. US companies selling online have to follow good manufacturing practices (GMP’s), as set forth by the FDA. What the FDA doesn’t control is whether or not the miracle claims are necessarily accurate.

All this is related to many things. In other words, supplements may interact with other meds you are taking. They may cause adverse reactions which can be reported to the FDA. If a product itself turns out to be unsafe, think Phen Fin, it may be pulled from the market. Your adverse reaction may simply be due to taking too much or taking a supplement which butts heads with something else you are taking.

Vitamins and Supplements:

• Be careful.
• Only take supplements and vitamins that you have carefully researched.
• Before you add a dietary supplement to your regimen, determine its dosage and prescription drug interaction safety. Know what meds they shouldn’t be mixed with. Blood thinners, and Black Kohosh for example….
• Is it possible that a dietary change would accomplish the same thing??

Now, go buy good yet cheap.

FDL

FDL writes for Fast Declutter Your Home,  a blog dedicated to ridding your home of clutter, on the cheap!

Tags: buying medications online, counterfiet medications, how to make sure your online meds are safe, online meds vs local pharmacy

This entry was posted on Friday, October 15th, 2010 at 9:52 am and is filed under personal finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.