When I make a trip to the drugstore, I don’t usually struggle with the choice between name-brand medication and generic drugs—I tend to base my choice on the active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs)1 listed on the package. But only recently have I come to realize that the excipients listed on a drug’s packaging also play an important role. In fact, as my clients […]

We’re seeing bad weather this year in the Pacific Northwest, with frigid temperatures that seem to have made the cold and flu season worse. As freezing rain coated the roads last week, I found myself scavenging through my medicine cabinet for something to soothe my cough. In my hunt, I stumbled across two identical bottles of cough syrup: […]

I am a member of what people call the “sandwich generation.” I’ve spent the past decade caring for my own family while looking out for the needs of my aging parents. My father is now 92, and his cardiologist and I have gotten to know each other pretty well over the past several years as we refine his medications. I realized […]

  Because of advances in pharmacology, the medical landscape in the United States has changed. Illnesses that were once considered terminal are now manageable. Symptoms that once that greatly reduced quality of life can now be kept at bay. And conditions that only years ago were considered shameful have now been largely destigmatized thanks in […]