Medications can snowball as we age. Pill organizers pile up. Prescriptions that are no longer necessary can mix with other drugs to create concerning side effects.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce you get to six or seven prescription medications, you get a nearly 100% chance of some sort of side effect or intolerance,\u201d said physician K. Eric De Jonge<\/a>, director of geriatrics at MedStar Washington Hospital Center.\u00a0<\/p>\n Paula Span writes \u201cThe New Old Age<\/a>\u201d column for The New York Times and KFF Health News. She joined WAMU\u2019s Health Hub<\/em> on Sept. 30 to talk about common medications \u2014 from aspirin to benzodiazepines \u2014 that some older patients are overusing.<\/p>\n Span shared tips for keeping loved ones safe and said it\u2019s important for patients and caregivers to be proactive.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDoctors prescribe medicine based on the evidence available at the time. But science doesn\u2019t stop,\u201d Span said. \u201cYour doctor might not be up on the latest research. And patients get into a routine. They may not question if they still need the drugs they\u2019ve been taking.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Experts and pharmacists say: Check with your doctor to make sure the meds you\u2019re taking are still right for you.<\/p>\n \t\t<\/p><\/a>\n Not all older people need benzodiazepines, antibiotics, or daily aspirin \u2014 and taking them can carry increased risks.<\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n This article<\/a> first appeared on KFF Health News<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Medications can snowball as we age. Pill organizers pile up. Prescriptions that are no longer necessary can mix with other drugs to create concerning side effects.\u00a0 \u201cOnce you get to six or seven prescription medications, you get a nearly 100% chance of some sort of side effect or intolerance,\u201d said physician K. Eric De Jonge,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":15889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15888"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medical-article.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe New Old Age\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n3 Common Drugs Older Adults Might Be Overusing<\/a><\/h2>\n