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2021 was a year of drought, wildfires,
flooding, tornados, hurricanes, cyclones,
and 19 major earthquakes.
If a disaster forced you to leave home in a
hurry, what would you take with you if
you had only minutes to decide?

Even though summer is over we will continue to sweat. That’s because perspiration is crucial to keeping our bodies cool yearround.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, sun care product sales were on the increase from 2017 to 2020.

As of this writing, the COVID-19 pandemic in the US is showing signs of letting up, and as more people are vaccinated we are once again beginning to travel.

Each year in the United States the third full week in March is proclaimed National Poison Prevention Week. This year Poison Prevention Week is March 21-27. According to the newspaper, Southeast Missourian, it all started in Cape Girardeau, Missouri:

Various studies report that anywhere from 30% to 50% of Americans have symptoms of insomnia at some time in their lives.

In January 2020 I discussed conventional
over-the-counter medicines for treatment
of the common cold. This is a good time
to discuss natural medicines and their
place in treating the symptoms of colds
and flu.

This article is about treatment for dry skin
caused by environmental conditions, particularly present during the winter months.
In North America, most homes are heated
by forced air which circulates throughout
the home via air vents and ducts. This
constant movement of dehumidified air
across our skin surfaces causes dehydration.

A 1998 article in the Journal of the Ameri-can Medical Association stated regarding drug interactions in all age groups, “If medication-related problems were ranked as a disease by cause of death, it would be the fifth leading cause of death in the Unit-ed States.” And things have gotten worse, not better since then.

Heartburn, or more commonly acid indi-gestion, has been experienced by most everyone at one time or another, and the symptoms can be so distressing that they are frequently confused with the symp-toms of a heart attack.

There is nothing in this newsletter that you wouldn’t be able to find on your own, given the plethora of information on the Internet about influenza. Having said that, the purpose of this issue is to condense information that is available from many sources into one place to help you make an informed decision about protecting yourself from an influenza infection this season.

Pharmacists would like to answer this ques-tion with “yes.” Unfortunately, the answer seems to be “maybe.” Many over-the-counter (OTC) drugs were at one time prescription drugs. So this question with regard to equivalency of generics to brand names is basically the same for both pre-scription and OTC drugs.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refers to home health testing kits as home use tests. The availability and popularity of home use tests began in the early 1970s with the introduction of a home pregnancy test. It was slow to take off in the United States due to fear about possi-ble erroneous results and doctor’s con-cerns that patients could not accurately interpret the test readings.

Now that many of us are wearing masks due to the pandemic and our smiles are not visible, our eyes are more important than ever. To keep our eyes bright and healthy looking there are many high quality products available on pharmacy shelves.

For serious or chronic pain, which is disabling, most people will consult their physician, and rightly so. This discussion is about over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers taken by mouth that are made available to consumers to treat mild to moderate pain.

By now, you probably think you’ve heard as much about washing your hands as you want to hear. But the simple truth is, the best way to prevent infection from the coronavirus (COVID-19), or many other diseases, is to wash our hands frequently.

Have you ever started to open or use a tube of antibiotic ointment, pain reliever medicine, or bottle of eye drops only to see that the date on the package was expired? You ask yourself, hmm…should I use it or not? Will it hurt me if I do?

This is a tough topic to discuss in just a few words. Cough can be a serious symp-tom in children and adults, but most of the time it is related to another condition, like the common cold.

The “cold” season usually runs from late summer to early spring, but you can catch a cold anytime of the year. The common cold is caused by various viruses, so no over-the-counter (OTC) medicine (or prescription drug for that matter) will cure your cold.