March 1, 2021
If a medication makes you sick, your compounding pharmacist can help
Your knowledgeable compounding pharmacist is a valuable resource when patients with digestive disorders cannot be helped with traditional manufactured pharmaceuticals. Compounding custom medications is necessary for some patients to improve symptom control, slow disease progression, avoid allergens and increase quality of life. Your compounding pharmacist can work closely in the triad with the prescriber and the patient in order to formulate the ideal dose for that individual patient.
For patients with gluten or lactose intolerances, it is crucial for them to have their therapies free from these irritants. Compounded medication can be made gluten or lactose free to enable those patients to get the benefit of their therapy without making them feel worse due to their intolerances.
Infants and children also benefit from the ability of a compounder to formulate liquids that taste good and are at their proper dose with less chance for measurement errors resulting from starting with a concentration intended for an adult. One great example of where compounders can make a huge impact is infants and children with reflux issues. Appropriate commercially manufactured doses do not exist for every drug and must therefore be compounded in order to serve this patient population. As any parent can attest, an infant with reflux is painful for not only the infant, but the entire family!
When a patient’s commercially manufactured product goes on the FDA shortage list or is discontinued, oftentimes the medication can be compounded for them so they can continue their course of therapy and maintain their quality of life.
Your compounding pharmacist is also an expert in older medications that can be used for new purposes. One such example is low dose naltrexone. When full dose naltrexone was brought to market more than 50 years ago to treat opioid addiction, they did not know at that time that lower doses could be used successfully to treat Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. One particular study concluded that “LDN therapy appears safe and effective in subjects with active Crohn’s disease. Further studies are needed to explore the use of this compound.”
Another recent study found that “Low dose Naltrexone induced clinical improvement in 74.5%, and remission in 25.5% of patients” and concluded that “Low dose Naltrexone treatment is effective and safe, and could be considered for the treatment of therapy refractory IBD patients.”
Your compounding pharmacist is also trained in functional medicine and is able to help you choose high quality vitamins and supplements such as probiotics and enzymes to aid the digestive system.
For patients with digestive system issues, having access to a reputable compounder is crucial to their quality of life and disease control. Customized compounded medications may be considered when the prescriber feels that is the best choice for treatment success for that individual patient.
Should you have trouble finding your commercially made medications, hand sanitizer, or immune boosting vitamin supplements, please consider contacting a compounding pharmacist near you. They’re happy to help you with your health concerns, especially during this difficult time.
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