News : Why you should be "Brown Bagging It"� to all of your clinic appointments?

Let's start with the meaning of "brown bagging it."� It's the practice of gathering up all of your medicines including any supplements and over-the-counter products you take on a regular basis, placing them in a brown bag and taking them with you for review by your healthcare provider at your appointment. It's important for you to bring:

• All prescription medicines
• All over-the-counter medicines
• All vitamins, supplements, and herbal medicines
• All topicals, liquids, injectibles, and inhalants, as well as pills

Why? Because your health might just depend on it. If your healthcare provider prescribes medication but is unaware of other drugs or products you're taking, there is a risk of those medicines interacting in a way that is harmful to your health. And just writing them down in list form isn't enough. There are so many medications with similar names that they are easy to get confused. Even a small mistake on your dosage could have serious consequences. The "brown bagging it"� practice also allows you a chance to review not only what you take for medicine, but also how you take it to make sure that you are taking it as directed. For additional information about Virginia Gay Hospital and its primary health care clinics located in Atkins, Urbana, Van Horne and Vinton, visit www.myvgh.org. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYV9PVwuzN0?rel=0]