The Secret of Great Health Care
Introduction
Running to the doctor for any cough, sniffle or sneeze is commonplace in America. People have a strong desire to take antibiotics to help themselves get back on their feet. Most of the time antibiotics are not helpful in the management of most health problems.
Today's health care system is fraught with problems. Even though the United States has top-notch hospitals and doctors, we rank very low in the industrialized world in the quality of our health care.
The resources to get great health care are available, they just need to be tapped. How to Use Over-The-Counter Products: A Guide to the Drug Store is a book that is meant to improve your knowledge about how to take care of yourself without running to the doctor.
It is not practical or wise to rely on the health care system to care for all of your medical needs. You have to take responsibility.
One part of taking care of yourself is learning how to use over-the-counter products safely and effectively. It is confusing and difficult. Knowing how to use over-the-counter medications is a skill that has not been mastered by many health care providers.
This ebook will help you understand how to use over-the-counter medications. After reading this book, you will understand how to use over-the-counter medications more effectively and safely. Your ability to use over-the-counter medications will reduce your reliance on health care.
Reading this book and saving it as a resource will save you money and many headaches. Knowing how to use over-the-counter medications will improve your ability to manage common health problems and reduce visits to the doctor and those pesky co-payments that go along with doctor visits.
It will also save you money in prescription drugs. Problems that are taken care of early do not need to be managed with more expensive prescription medications.
Lastly, it will save you money in over-the-counter products. You will learn how to use over-the-counter medications properly and consequently not need to buy multiple ineffective products.
Most importantly this book will improve your health. The origins of this book
I have worked as a nurse practitioner for the last seven years. For the last two of those years, I have worked in the retail health setting. Working in this setting opened my eyes to many problems with health care.
One of the major problems that I saw was people running to the doctor for the common cold. One of the most common scenarios that I encounter is people coming into my clinic and telling me that they have had the sniffles for three days and today they starting coughing up some yellow mucus and now they need an antibiotic.
They often go on to mention that they have tried over-the-counter (OTC) medications without any relief. The problem with their attempt to try OTC medication is that it was the wrong medication. For example, people will have nasal congestion and take antihistamines (Benadryl), which will help with their runny nose, sneezing and watery eyes – if they had those symptoms. Antihistamines do not help nasal congestion.
Over-the-counter medications are generally deemed safe for healthy people, but this assumes that people read and follow all of the labeling of the medication. This is rarely done. Most people just read the label or at most a couple of sentences on the box and buy it.
I can empathize. The first day on my new job in retail health, I walked out on the drug store floor and was blown away by the number of products available. I had been a nurse practitioner for over 5 years and a nurse for many years before that, I should have known that stuff. I was clueless.
Over my next year on the job, I realized that it was not only I, but also many of my co-workers and even pharmacists that were quite confused by the many over-the-counter products.
In an attempt to improve the health care system it is important for health care consumers and health care workers, to know how to use the drug store to stave off illness and reduce visits to the doctor’s office.
This book was written to answer the many questions I get on a day-to-day basis at my job. I hope the book will help educate the public to use the drug store and home remedies better and reduce their number of doctor visits.
Not everybody went to medical school, but people need to have a basic understanding of health in order to get good health care. Misinformation runs wild.
At my current job people come in all day and spew off misinformation that makes me inwardly smile. Sometimes this misinformation makes my job much harder, though. Below is a list of statements that people make. Many people strongly believe these statements but most have only hints of truth in them. Wholly believing these statements can harm your health.
These are just a few examples of the statements that I hear on a day-to-day basis. These statements significantly increase the risk of having problems with the health care system such as developing antibiotic resistance, wasting money and time on doctor visits and increasing your risk of having a negative reaction to antibiotics.
What this book will accomplish
The objectives of this book are to
Help you evaluate your symptoms
Help you understand over-the-counter products
Help you determine which over-the-counter products will help your symptoms
Help you understand what home remedies will also help your symptoms
Help you understand when you need to go to the doctor
Reduce the number of doctor's visits you need to make as you learn to care for yourself better
