Know your medicine, know your pharmacist – National Consumers League

October is Pharmacists’ Month!  Whether you fill your script regularly or you interact with a pharmacist for that once-a-year bug you get, chances are, you underestimate their ability to help you improve and manage your health!

In our changing society, chances are you – as a health care consumer – have several choices when deciding how and where to fill your prescription.  We can choose between the local mom-and-pop shop, the chain with multiple locations, or the mail order pharmacy.

Still, do you know what your pharmacist can do for you? Pharmacists are medicine experts, and we as consumers need to make better use of this skill.  We continue to take more and more medicines (not to mention supplements like vitamins), and we often don’t understand what they’re for, how they work, and how they interact with one another. That’s where the pharmacist can help! The pharmacist can help up manage our medicines and provide information about the medications we take. By talking to the pharmacist – we can often learn interesting things about our medication regimen (we’re taking two of the same thing, one pill we’re taking makes another work funny, etc.).

Check in with your pharmacist to see what they’re doing to celebrate this month. Maybe you’ll find an interesting health screening, get your flu vaccine, or learn about a new service they can provide. The pharmacist is one more member of your health care team working to help you achieve your greatest level of health.