Many people have never heard of these savings cards. This is unfortunate as they may be missing out on potentially substantial savings at the pharmacy. Millions of people across the country are saving money on prescription medications by using these pharmacy cards.

What you need to know\r
A prescription drug discount card is exactly like it sounds. It is a card that provides a discount on prescription medications at the pharmacy. These cards should not be confused with prescription insurance coverage. They provide no benefit beyond simple discounts to the consumer. That being stated, these cards can provide substantial savings given the right circumstances.

How do they work? \r
Generally anyone can sign up for a pharmacy saving card. There is usually no qualifying needed. You can get one regardless of age, income health conditions or coverage by insurance. Once you have the card you can use it at any participating pharmacy. Present the card to the pharmacy staff when you drop off the prescription. The discount is given by the pharmacy on your medications by reducing the profit margin made by the pharmacy.

You win by getting a discount on your medications and saving money without having to shop around. The pharmacy wins by attracting more business, filling more prescriptions and potentially selling other items. This is known as companion sales.

Many of these drug cards have no sign up fees and no monthly fees although a few do carry a small fee.

Who should get one of these cards?\r
Pretty much everyone should get a pharmacy saving card. You never know when you may need it. The primary group of people who should get a one is the uninsured. In my practice, about 10% of prescriptions are filled for people with no prescription drug coverage. If you fall into this group, then this is a must.

Even those who have prescription drug coverage can benefit from these. Most insurance plans have a list of medications they do not cover. In this case having one would prevent your needing to pay the full retail price if you still choose to purchase the medication. Also, sometimes your insurance company has a specific copay. For example, you may pay $10.00 for a 30 days supply of a generic medication. But if you were to use a this card, you could end up getting a 3 month supply for $10.00 to $15.00 depending on the medication.

People covered under Medicare part D can definitely benefit from a pharmacy card. Sleep medications and anxiety medications are often not covered under these plans. Using a pharmacy prescription card for these medications would reduce the out of pocket costs for these drugs.

How to you get one?\r
There are many places you can get one. Many employers already provide them to their employees. Check with your job to see if there is one available where you work.

Also, many states and cities are offering prescription discount programs to their residents. Check with your local governments to see if they have one.

Another place you can get one is from large companies you already do business with. For example, sometimes banks provide them to their account holders. AAA has a plan available to its customers and A.A.R.P. also has a card available. There are many more companies who provide these valuable benefits to their customers.

One of the easiest ways to get one is to visit our web site. There you can fill out a very basic form and print one for yourself in less than two minutes. This card is free. There is no sign up or monthly fees. It can be used at over 40,000 pharmacies across the county. Savings can be anywhere from 10% to well over 50% depending on the medication. Here is the direct link to the signup page for the pharmacy prescription discount card.

The human body releases several waste products like sweat, stool and urine. The sweat is eliminated from the body through the pores on the skin, while stool is released during the bowel movements. Similarly, the urinary tract and kidney play a very important role in the excretion of urine from the body. The urine consists of metabolic byproducts like salts, toxins and water that is removed from the body through urinary secretion.

The urinary tract system consists of kidney, uterus, urethra and urinary bladder. The main function of the kidney is to control the concentration of essential nutrients in the blood. Hence, any damage to the kidneys can increase the proportion of nutrients to uncontrollable level. Kidneys are also responsible for maintaining the water balance inside the body, so that every body tissue gets ample water for its sound growth and functionality.

Once, the kidneys filter the waste, the urine enters the urinary bladder and exits through the urethra during the urinary excretion. However, sometimes the urinary tract gets infected due to attack of Ecoli bacteria on the urinary system. Initially, the bacterium resides near the anus but moves towards the uterus due to improper cleaning during the bowel movements.

Eventually, the bacterium enters the urinary bladder and sticks to the bladder walls. Thus, the bug multiplies itself and attacks the bladder walls leading to bladder infection. Later on, the urinary infection is accompanied by several urinary problems like blood or pus in urine, frequent urge to urinate, pain during urinary secretion etc. Hence, the condition can become worse and infect the kidneys in long run leading to kidney damage.

Hence, if you are suffering from urinary tract infection, then you must consult a doctor immediately. You can also consume D-mannose, a natural sugar solution that detaches the Ecoli bacteria from the bladder walls and evacuates the bug from the urinary bladder. Thus, the infection will be cleaned within few days and resume normal functioning of the urinary system.

Steroids are fast catching up with antibiotics as the most abused class of drugs in your doctor’s black bag. There is no doubt that the discovery of steroids over 50 years ago was a major advance in medicine, but a lifesaver?

The problem is, like antibiotics steroids appear to be a miracle ‘cure’. Patients with crippling arthritis or asthma seem to be instantly better on steroids. The wheezing, the swelling, the pain goes away. Understandably the doctors turn to them fast, often first line of attack.

Antibiotics were once reserved for extreme emergency are now being used on the most trivial of conditions. Steroids are now handed out as readily as antibiotics even to babies, at the first sign of inflammation of any sort.

Steroids make up many over-the-counter skin drugs, and are considered the drug of choice for asthma, arthritis, and back problems, bowel problems and for all inflammations or allergic reactions.

Far from being a wonder drug ‘cure all’, steroids cannot cure one single condition. All they do is suppress your body’s ability to express a normal response. In a few instances, this type of suppression will give the body a chance to heal itself. But more often, the effect is immediate, devastating and permanently damaging. Doctors are more commonly realizing how quickly damaging side effects can occur even after a short period of taking the drug.

Unlike antibiotics, steroids are all broad-spectrum, they don’t simply affect the area of the body you wish to treat, but scatter their effects through every cell. This is turn may cause numerous side effects. For 30 years we have known that steroids can routinely cause over activity of adrenal hormones, which produces Cushing’s disease, characterized by a fat abdomen and face. They can also cause muscle wasting, hyperglycaemia, water retention, insomnia, mood changes, osteoporosis, diabetes to list a few. Do you still want to use them?

Steroids in Children

For 30 years we’ve known that prolonged use of steroids for asthma and eczema retards growth in children and delays puberty. Studies have shown children even suffering from chronic arthritis, stunted growth and adrenal suppression.

Steroids may also affect a child’s cognitive performance. Cataracts and glaucoma has been associated with oral steroids.

Bone density has been found to be lower with children the longer they stay on steroids. Even inhaled drugs for such as asthma are found to have adverse effects on bone metabolism and adrenal function. Steroids can cause the break down of bone joints, resulting with joint replacements.

Despite these dramatic effects on such crippling conditions, new research shows that some of these anti-inflammatory effects appear to wear off in time, leaving suffers worse off than before.

Highlighting a few effects steroids can cause, can possibly give readers an opportunity to think before they make the quick decision to pop to the doctors for a quick fix cure, as it can sometimes be more harmful than a cure?

Families often struggle with the need to be sure everything has been done that can be done their terminally ill loved one.  It can be very difficult for the patient and family members as they transition from making decisions  toward cure to making decisions that will help to allow for a comfortable and peaceful death.

When a terminally ill person and/or their loved ones make the decision to discontinue curative treatments and move instead into comfort care in preparation for approaching death, there are several matters which must be considered.

What is Palliative Care

Palliative  is any form of medical care or treatment that concentrates on reducing the severity of symptoms rather than curing the disease.  The goal of palliative care is to relieve suffering and improve quality of life for those who are experiencing serious, complex and terminal illness.

This can include alternative or energy  work such as massage or aromatherapy which may alleviate the side effects of the curative treatments. One example is methods of relieving the nausea associated  with chemotherapy.

Over the past twenty years, the focus on a patient’s quality of life has gained substantial ground. Today in the United States, 55% of U.S. hospitals with over 100 beds offer a palliative care programand nearly one-fifth of community hospitals have palliative care programs.A relatively recent development is the concept of a dedicated health care team that is entirely geared toward palliative treatment, called a palliative care team.

There is often confusion between the terms hospice and palliative care. In the United States, hospice services and palliative care programs share similar goals of providing symptom relief and pain management.

However, the most important distinction between hospice and palliative care programs in the United States is that hospice is a Medicare Part A benefit, thus requiring many aspects of hospice care such as enrollment to be regulated by the United States federal government.

Non-hospice palliative care, however, is appropriate for anyone with a serious, complex illness, whether they are expected to recover fully, to live with chronic illness for an extended time, or to experience disease progression.

As death becomes more imminent, attempts to cure the disease taper off, while palliative care measures increase.

If you’ve been diagnosed with a chronic or life-threatening illness it’s not unusual to routinely get lab work done to check numerous health indicators. If you thought waiting for the results from diagnostic tests were torture then you haven’t waited by the phone or computer waiting for the latest results on your current status. The test results are not only the gauge of how the treatment is working, but for many it’s the barometer of how they’re feeling.

Ever wonder how you would feel if you didn’t know the test results? What would happen if you were feeling well and you were told that the numbers were good even if they weren’t very good? Would you do anything differently? Would you feel any worse just because you were told the numbers weren’t good? The placebo effect is our response to news often used in pharmaceutical trials. It’s not uncommon to find that the patient receiving the placebo responds even though not receiving a therapeutic medication, but the mind can impact how the body responds and the opposite is true.

Are you capable of receiving the lab results and not use them as an indicator of how the body is feeling? In many instances the tests are indicators; those things you need to look into further but not necessarily a health threat. The lab results can be the springboard for conversations with your medical team. Understanding the implications of the lab results is more important than the number. If the lab results indicate the treatment regimen isn’t working that’s a big issue. If the lab results indicate that a secondary condition results from the medication, then although inconvenient you haven’t been condemned to poor health.

It’s important to keep up with your lab work because it’s part of your medical treatment. You have to remember that the numbers are indicators. They are conversation starters about how to maximize the treatment protocol. The hope is that you become conscious of the impact your lab results have on your emotional and physical health. Speak with your doctor about your reaction to your numbers so as a team you can decrease the negative impact of the numbers. Remember that how you feel is as important as the numbers. Your medical provider should couple the lab results with proof of your health and that’s based on how you’re living your life!