Recommended Web Sites

Buying Prescription Medicine Online - The FDA offers tips on how to buy the right drugs online.

FDA 101: Product Recalls - Learn about how and when the FDA or companies will issue a recall.

Harmful Interactions: Mixing Alcohol and Medicine - Click here to read about the harm you can do by drinking alcohol while taking certain medicines.

Help With Prescription Drug Costs - The Social Security Administration offers this advice.

Just Ask: A Dozen Questions To Help You Understand Your Medicines - Bring this handy page with you to your next doctor visit, or to the pharmacy.

Medicare Prescription Drug Plans - Click here to have Medicare help you select the proper plan to suit your needs.

Medicines In My Home - This is an interactive and educational program about the safe and effective use of over-the-counter medicines for both teachers and students. 

Use Medicine Safely and How To Give Medicine to Children and Medicine and Older Adults - The FDA talks about safe use of medicines.

Antibiotics: Facts You Should Know - The American Medical Association offers this information.

Over the Counter Medicines - The American Academy of Family Physicians talks about the different types of OTC (over the counter) medicines.

Safe Use of Medicines - Learn how to take your medicine the right way, every day.

Taking Medicines - NIH Senior Health talks about how to take your medicine properly, and how it works.

About Herbs, Botanicals and Other Products - This site from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center provides objective information for oncologists and healthcare professionals, including a clinical summary for each item and details about ingredients, adverse effects, interactions, and potential benefits or problems.

About the Medicines You are Taking - The Mayo Clinic describes how medicines come to market and what happens after.

Adverse Drug Reactions - The Merck Manual describes what happens when you have an adverse reaction to medicine.

Antidiarrheal Medicines - The American Academy of Family Physicians has created this handout.

Avoiding Medicine Mishaps:Tips Against Tampering - The Mayo Clinic gives you tips on how to identify medicine that has been tampered with, and how to keep medicines safe.

Buying Medicines and Medical Products Online - The FDA furnishes these tips and warnings for consumers who purchase drugs online.

Caregiver's Guide to Medications and Aging - Great advice from the Family Caregiver Alliance.

Cholesterol Lowering Medicines - Click here for information on statins and other medicines that lower cholesterol.

Consumer Drug Information - Each of the Consumer Drug Information Sheets posted on this site gives general information about newly approved prescription drugs. Only information about drugs approved since January 1998 appears on this page.

Consumer Reports: Best Buy Drugs - The information on this website can help you learn about more affordable drug treatment options to discuss with your physician.

Cough Medicines: Understanding Your Options - The American Academy of Family Physicians has created this handout.

Cracking the Code: How To Read Your Prescription - Learn all about it here.

DrugDigest - DrugDigest is a noncommercial, evidence-based, consumer health and drug information site dedicated to empowering consumers to make informed choices about drugs and treatment options.

Drug Information - The Medical University of South Carolina offers excellent information on drugs, including a drug identifier searchable by color and markings on the pills.

Drug Information from MEDLINEPlus - This site contains a guide to more than 9,000 prescription and over-the-counter medications.

Drug Information from Mayo Clinic - The Mayo Clinic drug index covers 8,000 prescription and over-the-counter drugs and also offers useful articles about medicines.

Drug Interaction Checkers - There are a number of these sites on the Internet where you can put in the different medications (and some include supplements too) to see if there is potential for dangerous interactions. See what they each have to offer:
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PDRhealth Drug Interaction Tool
Drugs.com Drug Interactions Checker

Drug Name Confusion: Preventing Medication Errors - The FDA has created this fact sheet.

Drugs@FDA - A new, easy-to-use web site to help consumers and health professionals find information about FDA-approved drug products.

FDA Drug Safety Initiative - Click here for all sorts of information on drugs from the Food and Drug Administration.

FDA Warns Against Buying Drugs in Mexico - Many drugs from Mexico have been proven to be either inactive or dangerous.

Generic Drug Pricing - A television station exposed the fact that drug pricing is not regulated. You can, and should shop around for the best prices in prescription drugs. See this article at the urban legends site for more information.

Generic Drugs: Saving Money at the Pharmacy - The Federal Trade Commission offers this advice about requesting generic versions of drugs in order to save money.

Get Smart! Know When Antibiotics Work - The CDC offers this information.

Got a Sick Kid? Don't Guess, Read the Label - The FDA gives advice on how to properly dose your child.

How to Dispose of Unused Medicines - The FDA tells how to dispose of these substances safely.

How to Reduce Your Medication Costs - MedicineNet offers some tips that may help you reduce how much you pay for medicines.

How to Use Medicines - PharmWeb gives detailed instructions on using such medicines as: ear drops, eye drops, a nebulizer, etc.

How Your Genes Make a Difference - Click here to read about why some medicines work for some people and not for others.

Laxatives - The American Academy of Family Physicians has created this handout.

Medicine and Your Child: How to Give Your Child the Right Dose - The American Academy of Family Physicians has created this guide to medicating children properly.

Medicines By Design:The Biological Revolution in Pharmacology - The National Institute of General Medical Sciences has created this interesting article about plant-based medicines throughout the ages.

Medicines for People with Diabetes - Excellent information, with forms you can print out and personalize, for diabetics from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Diseases.

Medicinal Herbs and Nutraceuticals - See this huge chapter on other types of medicines in the Merck Manual.

MEDLINEPlus: About Your Medicines and
MEDLINEPlus: Pain Relievers and
MEDLINEPlus: Antidepressants and
MEDLINEPlus:Over the Counter Medicines and
MEDLINEPlus: Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage - The librarians from the National Library of Medicine have assembled these links to quality resources.

Multiple Medicines - Many older folks take more than one medication, read about the possible interactions.

Over the Counter Drugs - The Merck Manual provides this extensive information about medicine you can buy without a prescription.

Partnership for Prescription Assistance - The Partnership for Prescription Assistance brings together America's pharmaceutical companies, doctors, other health care providers, patient advocacy organizations and community groups to help qualifying patients who lack prescription coverage get the medicines they need through the public or private program that's right for them.

PDR Family Guide to Over the Counter Medicine - The nationally known PDR (Physicians Desk Reference) gives information on most of the current over the counter medicines at this site.

Prescription Drugs With the Potential for Abuse - Click here to read more about potentially dangerous drugs.

Proper Use of Fentanyl Patches - The FDA talks about how those patches work, and how to use them best.

Quick Facts about Medicare’s Coverage for Prescription Drugs - Learn the basics here about the different Medicare Prescription plans.

Request a "Brown-Bag Check-up" - Talk to your pharmacist about arranging to have him/her look over all of your medicines to be sure you are taking what you should be when you should be.

SafeMedication - This site, maintained by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, offers consumers valuable information on the safety and administration of medications. Some of the links are in PDF format and will require an Adobe Acrobat Reader for viewing.

Steroid Medicines: How To Stop Safely - Click here for more information from the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Talking to the Pharmacist - Although this information has been prepared by KidsHealth for parents, it is good advice for everyone on the importance of the pharmacist in your good medical care.

Trade Name and Generic Drugs - The Merck Manual provides this guide the names of medicines.

Truth in Advertising: Rx Drug Ads Come of Age - The Food and Drug Administration describes some misleading advertisements drug companies are using to push their products.

U.S. Poison Control Centers - KidsHealth provides the national number for the poison control centers. Write this down and post it by the telephone, don't wait to look it up on the web if you have a pharmaceutical emergency.

Using Antibiotics Sensibly - The Mayo Clinic discusses when is the right time to take antibiotics, and when it is wasteful.

Walgreens Pharmacy Online - Walgreens offers tremendous amounts of drug information in English and in Spanish.

What Medicines Are and How They Work - This information was prepared by KidsHealth specifically for kids, but adults can learn from it too.

What You Need to Know to Use Medicines Safely - Plenty of fact sheets from the FDA are at this site. Topics include: over the counter medicines, ensuring safe use of medicines, and facts about some specific drugs.

Why Drugs Cost So Much - MedicineNet offers this information on the research and development that is required before a drug goes up for sale.

Your Medicine: Play It Safe - The Agency for Health Care Policy and Research and the National Council on Patient Information and Education have assembled this advice for those taking prescription medications.