Beware of "holiday sickness", you need to know these scientific medication knowledge!

The Spring Festival of the Year of the Rabbit is approaching. With the adjustment of epidemic prevention and control policies, many people choose to go home for the New Year or travel. Irregular life and changes in diet structure are often accompanied by the risk of aggravated diseases. People who are taking medications are also easily affected by this and have health risks. So, during the Spring Festival, how should patients with chronic diseases use medications safely and reasonably? What should everyone pay attention to during medication? In the face of the "high incidence" of the Spring Festival, how can we prepare medicines scientifically? Focusing on these hot issues, the author has compiled a list of scientific medication tips for everyone.

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01

Patients with chronic diseases should take medication regularly

Many patients with chronic diseases experience worsening of their condition during holidays, which is closely related to irregular lifestyles during holidays. For example, skipping breakfast, eating too late for lunch, eating too much for dinner, and unbalanced meals can cause large fluctuations in blood sugar. Many people choose to eat out, and restaurant dishes have more oil, salt, and sugar than home-cooked dishes. These foods are more likely to induce increases in blood pressure, blood sugar, and blood lipids. Some elderly people believe that taking medicine during the Chinese New Year is unlucky, and even if they are sick, they refuse to take medicine, which can also lead to worsening of the disease.

Chronic patients develop good medication habits on a daily basis, but their irregular lives disrupt them. Sudden discontinuation of medication or changes in dosage can easily lead to recurrence or aggravation of the disease, posing health risks. In pharmacy, there is a condition called rebound phenomenon , which refers to the reversal of the disease caused by sudden discontinuation of medication after the symptoms are basically controlled after long-term use of certain drugs to treat the disease. Chronic disease patients need to take medication on time during holidays, without stopping, missing or changing medication without authorization, to maintain a stable blood concentration of the drug in the body, to ensure the therapeutic effect of the drug, to reduce the occurrence of adverse drug reactions, and to avoid rebound phenomena. In order to avoid the situation where the drug cannot be purchased in another place after it runs out, it is recommended to reserve about 3 months of daily supply.

02

Be careful when driving after taking medication

We have all heard that you should not drink and drive, and you should not drive after drinking. However, many people may not know that it is not recommended to drive after taking medicine to prevent "drug driving". "Drug driving" refers to the behavior of a driver driving after taking certain drugs that may affect safe driving. Many drugs can cause adverse reactions such as blurred vision, drowsiness, dizziness, and disorientation after taking them, which affect driving safety. This safety hazard is often ignored by the public.

There are many drugs that affect driving safety. The most common ones are some antihistamines, such as chlorpheniramine maleate in cold medicine. This type of drug has an inhibitory effect on the central nervous system and is prone to side effects such as drowsiness and dizziness. Some other sedative hypnotic drugs, such as diazepam and phenobarbital, can produce sedative hypnotic, convulsion and other effects, affecting driving safety. There are also some drugs for treating hypertension, diabetes, antipyretic analgesics, and antidepressants that may also cause dizziness, fatigue and other phenomena, affecting normal driving. Therefore, when taking medications, everyone must carefully read the drug instructions to understand the adverse reactions and precautions. If you feel unwell or blurred vision after taking the medication, you should avoid driving.

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03

Avoid drinking alcohol while taking this medicine

When family and friends gather together during festivals, good food and wine are always indispensable. If you take medicine while drinking, it will not only increase the burden on the liver and cause liver damage, but also affect the absorption of the medicine. What's more terrible is that a "disulfiram-like reaction" will occur, leading to shock or even death.

Let me explain disulfiram first! Disulfiram is a drug for quitting drinking. After taking it, patients will experience discomfort such as dizziness and nausea when drinking alcohol, and gradually develop an aversion to alcohol, thus achieving the goal of quitting drinking. Some drugs have similar structures or mechanisms of action to disulfiram. Drinking alcohol after taking them will also cause this uncomfortable reaction, which manifests as facial flushing, sweating, nausea, and difficulty breathing. In severe cases, it can induce convulsions or even death. This situation is called a "disulfiram-like reaction."

Many people have heard the saying "Cephalexin and alcohol, just go when you say go", which is because cephalosporins and alcohol have a disulfiram reaction. Drinking alcohol while taking cephalosporins may be life-threatening in severe cases. In fact, in addition to cephalosporins, there are many commonly used drugs that may cause disulfiram-like reactions when taken with alcohol, such as metronidazole, metronidazole, glibenclamide, sulfamethoxazole, ketoconazole, levofloxacin, ribavirin, etc. It is very difficult to list all the drugs that react with alcohol. In order to avoid risks, the easiest way is to try not to drink alcohol when taking drugs.

So, how long should the interval between taking medicine and drinking alcohol be safe?

It takes a certain amount of time for alcohol to metabolize in the body . It is generally recommended not to take drugs that are prone to cause disulfiram-like reactions within 7 days of drinking. Similarly, if you take such drugs, you should also avoid drinking or taking other supplements and beverages containing alcohol within 7 days.

04

Prepare common medicines when traveling

If you travel during holidays, you can prepare the following regular medicines appropriately:

Motion sickness medicine: You can prepare motion sickness medicine such as dimenhydrinate tablets and phencyclnonate hydrochloride tablets in advance and take them half an hour before boarding a boat, car or plane.

Gastrointestinal medication: If you are worried about indigestion after eating too much, you can prepare stomach-strengthening and digestion-promoting tablets. For gastrointestinal spasm, you can prepare belladonna tablets. For diarrhea, you can prepare montmorillonite powder and rehydration salts. For enteritis, you can prepare berberine hydrochloride tablets, norfloxacin, etc.; for constipation, you can prepare lactulose.

Antipyretic and analgesic drugs: Ibuprofen and acetaminophen can be used for fever. Fever may be caused by many reasons, and the cause needs to be identified. If the fever does not subside after taking the medicine for three days, you need to go to the hospital for treatment.

Anti-allergy: If you are allergic to food or drugs, you can prepare antihistamines such as loratadine and cetirizine in advance.

Emergency medicine: Patients with cardiovascular diseases can prepare medicines such as nitroglycerin, and patients with asthma can prepare medicines such as salbutamol aerosol.

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I would like to remind everyone that you don’t need to blindly stockpile medicines. All medicines have a shelf life, and there are strict conditions for the storage of medicines. If they are not properly stored, they will easily go bad. Blindly stockpiling medicines will not only cause waste, but also pollute the environment.

Family medication is extremely important. I hope everyone can use medication scientifically during the holidays, master some knowledge on rational medication use, and spend a healthy and happy New Year.

Author | Li Le, Professor of Shihezi University School of Pharmacy, Standing Committee Member of the Teaching and Popular Science Committee of the Chinese Pharmacological Society

Review | An Luoling, Chief Pharmacist, Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University

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