How can you tell if your medicine is contaminated?
Q: I have just read that the Food and Drug Administration will be asking some drug companies to recall metformin. How can I tell if my diabetes medication is being recalled? My pill bottle does not list the manufacturer anywhere on the label. How can we as patients know if our medicine is safe or not?
A: You have discovered one of the weakest links in the drug supply chain. Pharmacies do not have to put lot numbers on the label of the amber pill bottles they dispense.
As a result, it can be very challenging to determine if a particular medication has been recalled unless the pharmacy contacts the patient directly. That often comes from the corporate office and can take weeks or months after a recall.
In the case of metformin, the FDA recently announced that some extended-release formulations had unacceptably high levels of the probable carcinogen NDMA. You should not stop taking your metformin suddenly, but you can ask your pharmacist to verify that your formulation is not contaminated with NDMA. If it is, request a refill with a product that has been tested and found to be safe.
Learn more about ways to manage blood sugar elevations in our eGuide to Preventing and Treating Diabetes. This electronic resource is available in the Health eGuide section of PeoplesPharmacy.com.
Q: Does wearing a mask protect you from airborne viruses or protect others from you if you have a virus? Or both?
A: There is still surprising controversy surrounding this incredibly important question. Most public health experts agree that droplets or aerosolized particles are the primary source of transmission of the coronavirus. Speaking, laughing, cheering, coughing or singing can spread the virus to others.
An article in the Annals of Internal Medicine (May 22, 2020) acknowledges that there remain unanswered questions about transmission. Nevertheless, these international experts suggest that many face masks can reduce the amount of virus a carrier puts into the air. Cloth coverings may also reduce the risk that people will breathe in lots of virusladen aerosol particles. We think that the sooner all health workers and the public at large have access to high-quality N95 face masks the better.
Q: I am extremely susceptible to chigger bites. I have been spending a lot more time in my yard this spring and want to share my preventive strategy with your readers.
I tuck my pants legs into my socks and spray my shoes and socks with DEET insect repellent. I tuck my longsleeved shirt into my gloves and spray up to my elbows.
As soon as I go inside, I throw my clothes into the laundry and wash with hot water and immediately take a hot, soapy shower. If I get a bite anyway, I quickly apply a strong anti-itch steroid gel my dermatologist prescribed. It helps prevent blistering.
A: Thanks for the tips. They all make sense.
Other readers recommend dusting shoes and socks with “flowers of sulfur.” This sulfur powder is available in hardware stores, some pharmacies and online.
One woman shared this story: “When I was a young woman and took my girls to Girl Scout camp, I would use yellow sulfur powder in a sock, and dust the girls and my shoes and pants legs after dressing. We were in the woods, the fields and picking berries. The sulfur kept the chiggers away.”