Do you feel like you’re swallowing handfuls of pills every day? Do you not take them all or take them wrong because it’s hard to keep track? It’s a common problem for people living with chronic disease, like arthritis. And it’s even worse if you add other medications for other conditions, like heart disease or diabetes, to your arthritis meds regimen.
Rheumatologists offer these tips to make your daily arthritis pill routine easier to swallow.
Review your meds with your physician. Ask if you need everything you’re taking. Different doctors may have prescribed overlapping medications. Or you may find that a single combination pill can replace two separate drugs, or that you can take a lower dosage.
“Patients often assume that I remember each and every one of their medicines. We simply can’t do that,” explains Robert Katz, MD, a rheumatologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. “So it really is good to ask the question, ‘Are there any of these medicines that I could discontinue or cut down on?’”
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