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>> Hello I'm Jennifer Lundquist.

Welcome to HealthLine.

I'm so glad you joined us tonight.

I guarantee you will walk away from the show smarter people always learn more after watching this program have the privilege of hosting the show tonight and just in case you're new to our show, it is live here in the studio.

That's what we're going to keep a phone number up at the bottom of the screen for you throughout the program so that you can call in and ask a question if you like.

We are doing a topic we haven't done something like this in quite while it's about pharmacy.

We have a pharmacist with us here tonight and she will be talking about all kinds of things that maybe your pharmacist can help you with.

Maybe you didn't realize that and questions maybe that your pharmacist can answer for you or things that can assist you with.

So she's going to take your questions live during the show.

You can call in that number (969) 27 two zero.

If you're outside of Fort Wayne it is still free.

You just have to dial 866- in front of there.

You have two options when you call in.

The first option is you can you talk to a call screener no matter what you won't just get thrown on the air.

So you talk to a call screener, they will get an idea of what you want to ask and then we can have you on the show asking your question live if you prefer to not ask it live, that's perfectly fine.

Just tell the call screener what you'd like me to ask our guest and I will do that for you if you're calling live, don't hang up right after you ask your question because our our guest would might want to ask you some questions so she can better answer your question.

So just keep that in mind.

Let's go and introduce you to our guest again.

She is a pharmacist.

This is Libby Stabler.

Thank you so much, Libby, for coming on.

>> Thanks for having me.

Happy to be here.

Appreciate all that you are going to help us with tonight so I think at some point in their life , even if you're super healthy person, you go to the pharmacy at some point.

>> Absolutely.

And it's changed so much over the years.

Of course you're quite a bit younger than me.

But you know, I remember the days when we called the drugstore so that's what that's what it was.

It was a drugstore and it wasn't really these chains that we have now.

I mean you never used to go to a grocery store and get your medicine.

That just was unheard of .

You had to go to a separate little store and it was a totally different experience.

And now you know, there's so many different ways to get your medicine even online pharmacies and things like that.

So the industry's definitely changed quite a bit.

But the one thing I think has stayed the same is that personal interaction and I know I like to go to the same pharmacy because I know the pharmacists they have a few and I feel comfortable asking them questions.

So I don't know if you want to talk about the importance of trying to develop a relationship with your pharmacist, especially if you have a need to be at the pharmacy a lot.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

It's very important to get to know your pharmacist as well as you can.

The better your pharmacist knows you, the better they'll be able to help you with all of your health concerns that you may have.

So if you get to know them on a personal level, I can guarantee you they want to get to you also.

So just take the time, get to know them, ask them any questions.

All the pharmacists that I know that went into pharmacy went into it because they really like to help people so they're there to help you don't be afraid to ask questions if you have them and you guys are constantly having to be educated because you know my my husband works in the pharmacy industry and I mean he's always getting literature that he has to read because there are always new medications coming down the pipeline and sometimes when you go to see your doctor you their time's pretty short.

You know, you may not be able to ask them something or you don't think about it until you get to the pharmacy and so you guys have a wealth of information you can share I would imagine.

>> Yeah, I like to say that pharmacists are arguably one of the most accessible health care professionals that there is you there's a pharmacy on every corner just about so you can go into the pharmacy, you can call the pharmacy and ask any question that you might have, especially in areas that are a little bit more rural or underserved.

It may not be easy to get into the doctor as quickly as you may like so your pharmacist can be there in the meantime to help you with anything you might need.

You can find something over the counter to get you through for a little bit or the pharmacist can even help you decide if you may need to go and seek a higher level of care.

Maybe the emergency room.

>> So yes, there are many, many things that pharmacists can help with yet you don't have to you I used to think oh I want to bother the pharmacist if I'm not getting like a prescribed medicine, you know, if it's something over the counter a lot of times especially once I had children, you know, our pediatrician would say oh we'll get this or go get such and such a thing.

And it was maybe something I never bought before.

And so I always asked the pharmacist and they were very helpful.

>> Yeah, you shouldn't hesitate to ask the pharmacist.

You know, that's exactly what they're there for .

That's a big part of their job and that's the part the most pharmacist really like pharmacists in the community or retail setting.

They're not just there to count out the pills that go in your prescription bottle.

They want to talk to you about your meds medicines, make sure you really understand them and even if it is something over the counter, they can take a look at your medication list.

If you go to that pharmacy all the time, make sure nothing is going to interact with that over the counter medicine that you're getting.

So that's again another benefit of getting to know the pharmacist that you're interacting with.

>> I'm glad you said that about looking up what you have because this time of year I'm thinking a lot of people are probably on vacation and you could be out of town and maybe have an issue medication wise I imagine if you call your pharmacy ah I don't know what the rules are like if you were at a different you know, if you're in Florida on vacation and you normally go to a pharmacy here in Fort Wayne can they share information?

>> Is that allowed and to help the customer?

Yes, absolutely.

So especially at the larger chain retail pharmacies they can look up your medication list even if you're in a separate state as long as it's that same pharmacy they're able to look up all your medicines and so they can still do that check for any interactions that you might have now if you're going to a different pharmacy, they could still call that other pharmacy that you go to in Fort Wayne and I know a lot of pharmacists would be happy to do that still OK?

>> I wasn't sure if there was some kind of rule about sharing information but yeah, you know, you think about a you never know what can happen when you're on vacation.

So we did have somebody who wanted to ask a question for them.

So Scott called in and he wanted to know is this is interesting is cranberry juice good for cleaning the kidney?

And I was just wondering if there are any maybe other benefits of drinking cranberry juice.

>> Yeah, that's a great question.

So cranberry juice there is a little bit of information out there about anything that is not a prescription medication, does not have as many studies behind it, not as it's not monitored by the Food and Drug Administration but there is a little bit of data about cranberry juice possibly helping to clean out your urinary system.

>> I will say that if you have other health issues though it may cause issues in other areas .

Cranberry juice does contain a lot of sugar so if you have any issues with blood sugar it could be an issue there.

>> But otherwise there is a little bit of evidence.

There's not a ton of evidence but I would say that it might be worth a try.

>> All right.

Good deal.

Thank you, Scott, for your question.

And just a reminder now, Scott chose to just have his he called in with a question and had me ask it for him.

Obviously you do that which is great or you're more than welcome to call in and ask the question live as well.

So that's why we keep that number for you at the bottom of the screen.

We only have Libbey here until just about eight o'clock and she's got a wealth of information she can share with you.

So again it's (969) 27 two zero outside of Fort Wayne dial that same phone number but just put 866- in front of there and it will be a free call.

You brought up something that I wanted to ask you about something like supplements or things that are not regulated by the FDA.

I you can't watch anything or listen to radio or anything anymore without hearing commercials for this can help improve your memory or this you know, help you lose weight or whatever and a lot of people don't realize those are not regulated by the FDA.

>> So I don't know if they come to you with questions about that or what do you say to somebody?

Should they not even do that even though you can buy it?

>> Should they not do that without talking to their doctor?

My recommendation would be to at least ask the pharmacist at the pharmacy where you're picking up the medication because they can give you a little bit of an idea of if there may be some studies behind that supplement.

But yes, it is important to keep in mind that those supplements and vitamins and things like that are not regulated by the FDA so they don't get all of the testing and studies that prescription medications do.

So they they don't have all of that evidence behind them that the prescription medications do.

So I my recommendation is just to ask the pharmacist or ask your doctor before you start any supplement, especially just to make sure that you're not going to have any drug interactions with the other medications that you're taking.

>> Sure.

All right.

We also got a call from somebody again they wanted me to ask for them.

So this was a Colin this is a great question.

He wanted to know does he need to know the name of a junior Eric drug to request it if the name brand is too expensive, that's a great question.

So unless your doctor writes on your prescription that the brand name has to be dispensed, if there is a generic medicine available the pharmacy will automatically dispense that medication as a generic medication.

If there is not a generic available then yes they would have to you the brand name drugs are under a patent for so many years until they're able to be generic but you do not have to specifically request the generic or know the name of that medication to get it.

>> Unless your doctor specifies that you need the brand name you will automatically get that generic medication.

I used to always wonder if the generic was as effective as the name brand and I don't know does it vary by drug or in general are they all pretty much the same would you say?

>> I would say that the generic and brand are essentially equivalent and they are the same effectiveness.

We we think that the generic drugs are just as good as the brand drugs.

They're just generic.

So they have gone past that patent time.

Yeah, yeah.

They're able to be generic and then eventually they get to be more affordable for people thankfully.

>> Yeah that is one thing I've known about drugs is after I don't and I don't know if it's different for each drug but I don't I'm just throwing this out there like after ten years you name brand than than competitors can make the generic is that exactly.

>> It kind of varies how many years it is depending on how many indications that drug has and how how many new indications it gets and then some drugs will be brand name only for quite a long time and others will be a little bit quicker.

But overall yeah, it's much more affordable when you can finally get to that generic medication.

>> So if it is a newer medication and it's something that's working for you, you might end up having to just stick with that.

>> You may have to.

There are programs that help patients especially like Medicare patients can get assistance on their medications through the manufacturer which is very helpful.

So I like to tell patients about that if they can get any kind of assistance from the manufacturers.

A lot of times for people who are commercially insured there are coupons also that can be used to at least bring down the price of the medication.

>> So those are good to keep in mind also.

Yeah, I mean everybody's feeling the pinch today from inflation and so if you're looking for ways to to cut your costs I know I personally experienced that a few weeks ago my son just needed a cream for a dermatology issue he was having and this tiny little tube it was going to be like two hundred dollars and we have we have insurance but even with that and so you know, God bless the pharmacists he said hold on a minute, let me do some digging and all he had to do and he double check with our doctor was changed it to a 30 day supply instead of like a 60 day supply and it lowered it by like seventy five percent.

It was great.

Yeah.

Otherwise I would have been like Oh gee are you kidding?

I'd have to I wasn't going to get it.

I was going to tell my son just kind of way but yeah it's just amazing and I mean they he took extra time to do that but again it's a pharmacist I've known for a few years and so I mean I can't stress as a customer enough like how much I appreciate having that relationship.

>> Absolutely.

There's a lot of tips and tricks that your pharmacist might know.

So don't be afraid to ask especially if you walk up to the counter you're about to pay for a medication and it's way more expensive than you expected.

Don't be afraid to ask and see if maybe something was processed incorrectly or there's always a chance that there might be a coupon that they could add on.

It just got overlooked because the pharmacies get very busy as everyone knows.

So don't be afraid to ask.

>> I was always told to avoid the hours of one to four.

Those are the worst times especially during flu and cold season.

That's probably not a bad idea if you go later or earlier.

I've always been told it's better.

I'm glad you brought up the thing about asking because the the one thing is like sometimes if the line is really long I know you know you've got all these people waiting behind you sometimes a pharmacist to say to me hey, can you come back?

Because where I buy it is that I can buy other stuff, I can go grocery shopping or whatever.

So he'll say Can you give me 20 minutes, you know, and so sometimes you have to wait a little bit but I mean if you're saving a lot of money it's so worth it.

>> Oh yeah for sure yes.

Just communicating and letting them know that you can come back is really helpful because you know sometimes there's a line and things get backed up so just be patient and kind of communicating with the pharmacist is helpful.

>> Another reason that it's really good to get to know your pharmacist that you're working with.

Sure.

All right.

Well we have somebody else called in.

We have a lot of shy folks tonight.

I think that's all right.

But we love having the questions so this is from Erika.

Erika wants to know what can my pharmacist deny a prescription that my doctor wrote or put on hold for any reason?

>> Sure.

Interesting.

Yeah.

So good question again, the pharmacist can't necessarily deny a prescription.

The only way that they could I guess deny it would be if something is incorrect about the prescription.

There are certain laws that we have to follow and certain things that have to be on each prescription you know the directions for use the name of the medication, the strength, the number of tablets they want to dispense.

So there are a lot of different things that are required by law to be on the prescription.

That's the only reason that they could really deny it.

They can put a medication on hold and typically they'll do that if it's too soon for your insurance to cover that medication.

So maybe you got the medication refilled and your doctor went ahead and sent a prescription a little bit early.

>> That might be a case where they would put it on hold.

I know some pharmacies will also put a medication on hold if you it's going to be to expensive and they're not sure if you would want to get that.

So maybe if it's like three hundred dollars plus they might go ahead and put it on hold and then ask you when you come in to see if you actually want to pay that much for I think a lot of people I'm sure appreciate that too.

So just to make sure quick question do are there doctors that handwrite prescriptions anymore?

Because I know mine just I'm at the office then he's like all right, you know which pharmacy is OK and they just emails it in so it's all typed up and probably pretty easy to read I would think I would say for the most part it's electronic every once in a while there still are some handwritten prescriptions.

You know, some doctors prefer to just do it that way.

Yeah.

Or you know, if you're leaving an office that's maybe like an urgent care or like you know, somewhere that you don't go back to that frequently they do a quick handwritten prescription for the most part I would say the doctor's office will do electronic prescriptions.

>> That's got to be easier because I know sometimes you can not read them.

I mean I'm sure you guys see everything but yeah, I would sometimes show up with a paper and I'd say I'm not really sure what this is so and I'm the patient sometimes you have to be a detective a little bit figure out what it says or call and ask, you know.

>> Yeah but yes, I hear you.

All right.

We have another person who want me to ask something for them.

This was from Carol.

>> She wanted to know how important is it to take routine medication at the same time every day?

>> All right.

Yeah, great question too.

As far as regular medication.

So like a blood pressure medication, a diabetes medication, any heart medication that you're taking regularly if you can take it around the same time every day, that's usually the best case scenario if you're off by a couple hours it's not going to hurt in most cases.

Now there are some medications where it's a little bit more important to be more exact with it.

But as far as just your typical medications taking them around the same time every day is just allowing them to work the best that they can for you.

Most medications last a certain amount of time in your body.

If it's a once a day medication it usually lasts about 24 hours roughly.

So taking it at about the same time every day is just to benefit you the most so that you're covered by that medication at all times.

>> And I think I always see when you're waiting in line all the things like the little pillboxes or you know things to keep track I mean because sometimes there are people especially with chronic illnesses or maybe somebody who's older and just has a bunch of issues going on.

I mean that can be very confusing.

>> I think those are probably helpful for sure divided up and absolutely.

I love using the pillboxes or some people will set reminders on their telephone, their cell phone, you know, even some patients will use just a regular calendar and use a little checkmark whatever they've taken their medicine.

It's not easy to remember.

I know I've taken medications myself and especially if it's more than once a day it's difficult to remember to take that medication on time.

So any kind of technique or tool that you can use to help you remember is really great.

>> We had to make a spreadsheet when all because we were talking before the show.

You know, when you have multiple children if they somebody pick something up, pretty much everyone else will.

And you know, we used to make a spreadsheet to keep track of who took you know, who took their meds and when and how much and yeah you do you do whatever you have to do so yes.

>> All right.

We have another call from I apologize if I'm not pronouncing is correct but I think it's BS.

Why don't you know what your thoughts are on the X app and not use that so I'm not familiar with it.

>> I don't know that I'm familiar with that exact app.

I know that most pharmacies do have an app where you can refill your medications within the app or request refill.

I'm not sure that I know exactly what the app is so if you want to call back and tell me a little bit more, I might be able to I might be able to answer that a little bit better.

>> OK, or I guess it's they're putting a message on the computer.

I guess it's about saving OK, savings apps.

I know I've seen people go on their phone when they're at the pharmacy and look up.

I mean there are different programs I guess are separate from insurance.

>> I think I know what she's talking about.

You can't say the name brand we're not supposed to mention names of brands are specific like websites like saving websites.

But I think I know what this person's talking about as far as yeah you can sometimes check other prices and and they can I don't know do they just process it through that.

>> Yeah.

>> Save you know the app that I believe you're talking about is a savings app and you can look up many different pharmacies on that app and see what the price of your medication or prescription might be.

So I think it's a very helpful app and there may be multiple of those apps that you can that you may be able to use.

But yeah, I think it's helpful because one pharmacies price may be a little bit cheaper than another pharmacy.

I will say that that is not including your insurance.

So that's important to keep in mind this would just be for that pharmacies price of the medication and your insurance may make it a totally different price whether that's better or worse than the cash price.

But I think it's a great tool to use especially if you have one of those medications that comes back being very expensive for you.

>> So it's a great tool to have yeah.

Know and we didn't even talk about this before the show but I mean you've had to have you don't even just have to have all the science which is a ton of information to do your job but you've got all this other stuff that you've got to deal with the insurance new medications coming down.

I'm just and all these rules and regulations I mean I don't know if you wanna explain to people so you probably did four years of undergrad.

Right.

And then pharmacy school on top of that.

>> What does that involve?

So I did a little bit differently.

I went into a direct entry program where I was able to do six years at once.

Six years is the minimum for a pharmacist right now.

OK, some people will do four years of undergraduate, get a bachelor's degree and then go into graduate school and do another four years.

So six to eight years typically for a pharmacy degree and also now something it's kind of more up and coming especially in the last decade or so is that people have the option to do a residency.

Oh, and that's something that's not required.

It's kind of like what a medical student would do after medical school.

It's required for them to go into whatever specialty they want to do.

But now there are residencies that are optional for pharmacists as well and that's typically for pharmacists that either want to work in a hospital setting or those that want to specialize.

There's pharmacists popping up in many different specialties now there may be a pharmacist in your doctor's office.

There may be one in your cardiologist office oncology pharmacists.

There's pediatric pharmacists.

So all of those specialties you could do a one to two year residency to be able to get a little bit more specialized.

>> That is interesting because we've talked about that in the show before.

So much of health care today is especially if you have something serious going on like cancer, you get a team of people and I think what's nice about that we've had different guess on doctors and nurses and yeah, they focus on all these different things so that the patient gets the whole package, you know, and you're not just trying to, you know, get one thing from one office and one from another.

And so yeah, I could see we're having someone who's specializes in the pharmacists.

>> That would be great.

Yeah.

It's great to have that health care team where everybody's working together to help the patient and you know that way you have multiple sets of eyes on all of your medications, all your testing and everything else so that hopefully nothing gets missed and you can get the best care as possible.

>> So it's nice that there is that extra training available for pharmacists now too.

Yeah, you guys have to do a lot of stuff that's for sure.

I'm going to try and quickly we only have a couple of minutes.

I'm gonna try and quickly squeeze one more question and Kathy called and she wanted to know what is the preferred method to dispose of expired unused portions of medicine or does it depend on the medicine?

>> That's a question I get a lot it kind of depends on the area where you live.

Often the sheriff's department takes back medications most of the time there are certain pharmacies that have boxes or doctors' offices that have boxes where you can drop off unused medications.

I will say that your community pharmacy or your retail pharmacy if you purchase the prescription, they typically cannot take that back into the pharmacy just for safety reasons.

I was going to ask like yeah.

Is there any way to even if you had like a brandy like sometimes you know you get medicines or it comes in different boxes you couldn't you can't like donate it.

>> They still typically cannot take it back.

It's just for safety reasons unfortunately especially with some of the more expensive medications you hate to see those go to waste but yes, the safe they're the best thing to do and the safest thing to do is take it to your sheriff's department or to a drop off box and sometimes there are local collection days.

>> That's what I've heard.

Yeah, you can do it like they give you hours where you could just drop it off.

>> I think the state police post has done it and yes I believe so.

>> I believe so.

And sometimes they'll have people set up at multiple different locations so you can drop off at a grocery store or a gas station or wherever they have people taking medications .

I know they just say don't ever flushed down the toilet and don't put it in the trash because it could end up in the wrong.

>> Exactly.

That's the best advice I can give.

Sure.

All right.

We are almost out of time but real quickly sometimes people hear rumors about shortages of medication.

Is it I don't know if you've experienced this but it kind of comes and goes and so just call the pharmacy ahead of time, can they that's the thing to do I would say is try to request your refill as early as possible.

>> That way it gives the pharmacist time when there's shortages it may take a little bit longer to order the medication.

So just being aware that you're about to run out, try not to wait until a day or two before but maybe if you could give them about a week it's sometimes a little bit easier to get that medication in on time.

That way you don't have to go without a medication.

Right.

There's also I mean communicate with your doctor's office and they can always change you to a different medication because unfortunately there have been quite a few shortages recently.

>> That's true.

So sorry the show is come to an end.

Libbey Stabler Pharmacists, thank you so much.

Wonderful to have you on.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you and thanks to all of you who called in tonight great great questions.

>> I hope you learned a lot.

I know I did take care.

>> Have a good rest of the week with you back next Tuesday