This summer the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a number of warnings, which should also concern caregivers and elders in their charge.
The best FDA drugs has announced new warnings for three different classes of drugs:
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Those for pain and inflammation.
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Those that lower cholesterol
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Those that help treat anemia in some patients.
Pain and Inflammation Drugs
It is a group of drugs commonly called non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs. You will recognize the brand name, Aleve, Motrin, Advil or Nupine as well as their generic name, Naproxen or ibuprofen and many people use them to good effect.
Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs
The "family" of medications most commonly used to lower cholesterol is called statins and includes some very well-known brands that many of you have seen advertised on television and in magazines. Others of you or the people you care for may also be taking these medications.
Medications that Treat Anemia
The third FDA warning was about some of the dosing for drugs that are used for people who may be anemic or suffer from chronic kidney disease or be on chemotherapy of some sort. As you may suspect, this is a relatively smaller segment of the adult population, and as you will see here, it gets even smaller as we are mainly talking about people with chronic kidney disease.