Valentines Day: Heart Month Heart Medicines: Mistakes Can Break a Heart

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When it comes to heart medicine, too many people cause heartache by:

• Taking the wrong medicine.
• Leaving heart medicine where a child can reach it.
• Skipping a check-up to monitor levels of heart medicine and its effects.
• Treating symptoms with herbal medicines and teas, without checking with your doctor.

Medicines for heart disease, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol are helping Americans live longer, healthier lives. But the more medicines we take, the greater the risk of side effects and interactions. Treating ourselves with herbal medicines and supplements may also lead to poisoning or drug interactions. And any medicine left within reach of children (or pets!) is dangerous.

Here are a few examples:

• A small child died after sucking the coating off a single blood pressure pill.
• An elderly man took the same dose of heart medicine for many years. Suddenly, he was "out of it", had trouble seeing, and was brought to the emergency room. His usual dose of heart medicine had become too much for him; as we get older, our kidneys and liver don't work as well. Because he skipped regular check-ups, the drug accumulated to a toxic level in his bloodstream.
• After several hospital admissions, doctors learned that their patient was brewing herself a tea according to an old family formula. It turned out that this tea was from her foxglove plants. This plant, Digitalis purpurea, is the source of the heart drug digitalis. Unknowingly, she was poisoning herself with heart medicine. By not telling her doctor of her self-treatment, she became sick enough to need hospital treatment several times.
• Taking a cold medicine caused a man's blood pressure to soar! He also had a terrible headache. This man was being treated for high blood pressure. He didn't read the cold medicine warning label. People with high blood pressure should not take some cold medicines.

Everyday life is full of chances to make mistakes with our medicines. Here are some steps to keep adults and children safe with heart medicines.

To protect children:

• Store medicines in their original child-resistant containers. Lock them where children can't see or reach them.
• Take medicines where children can't watch. Children learn by imitation.

To protect adults:

• Take your own medicine ONLY. Do NOT take medicine prescribed for anyone else.
• Take medicine exactly according to label instructions. If you don't understand the label, ask the person who prescribed it or your pharmacist.
• Figure out a way to take your medicines on schedule. Your pharmacist or other health care provider can help with labeled containers, medicine logs, or some other method that will work for you.
• Take a list of all of your medicines – or the medicines themselves – every time you visit your doctor.
• Have all of your prescriptions filled at the same pharmacy. The pharmacist can check for possible drug interactions.

If someone takes too much medicine, or the wrong medicine, use the webPOISONCONTROL^® online tool for guidance or call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222 right away. Help is available 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Poison Control will tell you exactly what to do, right then and there. All help is free and confidential.

Rose Ann Gould Soloway, RN, BSN, MSEd, DABAT emerita
Clinical Toxicologist