Call 708-350-4767 to speak with a licensed insurance agent.

Call 708-350-4767 to speak with a licensed insurance agent.

Are You Taking Too Many Prescriptions?

Posted by Tina Konieczki, February 17, 2023

If you’ve noticed concerning symptoms lately, your first assumption might be that you’ve developed a new health condition. And you should definitely talk to your doctor about your concerns, so that you can explore possible health problems together. But another common cause for mysterious symptoms might surprise you: You could be taking too many prescription medications.

Called polypharmacy, taking more than five prescriptions at once can dramatically increase your risk of side effects. Regardless, the number of people over age 65 who take more than five prescriptions daily has tripled in recent years, from 14 to 42 percent (according to CDC data). And nearly 20 percent of older adults are taking more than 10 prescriptions daily.

We think of serious side effects as rare, but more than 750 adults over the age of 65 are hospitalized for this type of complication every single day. For those taking more than five prescription medications daily, the risk of serious side effects is 88 percent higher than in those taking fewer medications. Plus, your risk of falls rises 7 percent for each medication that you take.

And occasionally, a patient who sees multiple providers might be prescribed medications that each provider does not even know about. This situation can be gravely dangerous, as some drugs interact with one another and cause potentially serious or deadly effects.

When new symptoms appear, it makes sense to rule out side effects from a medication, rather than prescribing yet another. And sometimes a lifestyle change can address the source of the discomfort, so that more drugs are not needed.

Of course, you certainly should not quit taking anything without speaking to your physician. But if you’ve begun to experience strange symptoms, broaching the topic of your prescription medications with your doctor is a good idea.

Need more information on your insurance options?

Contact us online to learn more

Contact Us

Close Accessibility Tools
Accessibility Controls Reset
Content Adjustments
Font Size

Default

Line Height

Default

Content Scaling

Default

Highlight Titles
Highlight Links
Highlight Forms
Align Left
Align Center
Align Right
Focus Mode
Color Adjustments
Desaturate
Monochrome
Contrast

Default

Saturation

Default

Accessibility Statement

Despite our attempts to make this website accessible for everyone, there may still be some pages or sections that are not completely accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or do not have a suitable technological solution to make them accessible. Nevertheless, we are always striving to enhance our accessibility by adding, updating, improving its options and features, and incorporating new technologies.

We want to provide our users with the best experience possible, so we strive to support as many browsers and assistive technologies as possible.

If you wish to contact this website's owner, please use the contact form on the website.

Our User Interface Adjustment Options

Font adjustments - With this tool, users can modify font size, style, letter spacing, and line height for improved alignment and readability.

Color adjustments - Users can customize their color contrast profiles to light, dark, desaturated, and monochrome.

Content highlighting - Users can prioritize key elements such as links, forms, and titles.

Content focus - Users can enable focus mode to highlight the current page information based on their mouse movement.

Close