Community Update helps keep you informed about issues around medicines use as they relate to individuals and the community.

In this issue

• Prevent cardiovascular disease by knowing your heart and stroke risk score
• Managing pain when you take other medicines
• Learn about your medicine brand choices
• In-language community education seminars
• New bilingual resources

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Prevent cardiovascular disease by knowing your heart and stroke risk score

Australians are urged to pay as much attention to their heart and stroke risk score as the footy score this autumn, according to NPS, which has launched a new campaign focusing on cardiovascular disease.

Cardiovascular disease is Australia’s biggest killer, responsible for more deaths every year than either cancer or road accidents. It affects 1 in 6 people — a figure expected to increase to 1 in 4 by 2050.

A large number of Australians are thought to be living with undiagnosed high cholesterol, putting them at risk of developing heart disease in the future. There aren’t always obvious signs of cardiovascular disease, making it a ‘silent killer’, but an easy way to determine if a person is at risk of developing cardiovascular disease is by finding out their heart and stroke risk score.

A heart and stroke risk assessment done by a GP takes into account risk factors such as blood pressure, age, cholesterol, and smoking status. It tells a person their risk of having a cardiovascular event — for example a heart attack, stroke or blockage in a blood vessel — within the next 5 years. A score of 15% and over puts you in the high risk category. The lower your percentage score, the less chance you have of getting cardiovascular disease.

Australians aged 45 years and older and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders aged 35 years and older are particularly at risk and most likely to benefit from a cardiovascular health check from their doctor.

If a person already has risk factors for developing cardiovascular disease, such as high cholesterol, there are ways of preventing it from becoming worse. Their GP will prescribe lifestyle changes and possibly medicine to lower their cholesterol or blood pressure.

It’s critical that people continue with the recommended lifestyle changes and take medicines as prescribed, even if they don’t feel unwell or they think their health has improved. Research shows 1 in 4 Australians stop taking cholesterol-lowering medicines within the first 12 months, often because they don’t realise it’s making a difference.

Medicinewise tips to lower your cardiovascular disease risk

• Quit smoking and avoid second-hand smoke.
• Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise each day.
• Avoid adding salt to foods. Choose ‘no added salt’, ‘low salt’ or ‘salt reduced’ foods where possible.
• Eat a variety of foods including vegetables, foods containing whole grains, lean meats, oily fish, fruit, low fat dairy, vegetable/seed oils, nuts, seeds and legumes.
• Instead of butter, choose spreads and margarines made from canola, sunflower or olive oil and dairy blends ‘tick approved’ by the Heart Foundation.
• Take prescribed medicines as directed by your doctor.

If you are found to have or be at risk of cardiovascular disease the Managing My Heart Health: At a glance leaflet can help you keep track of your progress in reducing all your risk factors over a 1 year period, including medical and lifestyle risk factors. It’s a free, compact resource developed by the National Heart Foundation and endorsed by NPS.

Read more about cholesterol and your heart and stroke risk.

Managing pain when you take other medicines

NPS is encouraging people with chronic conditions to speak with their doctor, pharmacist or health professional before taking over-the-counter medicines so they can avoid adverse events from mixing medicines. This message is part of the ongoing Managing pain campaign aimed at helping Australians manage pain safely and effectively.

People with chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, asthma or arthritis are most likely taking medicines to treat or manage their condition. If they are taking multiple medicines there is more chance of these medicines interacting with each other to cause an adverse event. This can be avoided by always checking with a doctor or pharmacist before taking any new medicine, including prescription, over-the-counter or complementary medicines, vitamins and supplements.

People with chronic conditions also need to watch out for adverse medicine and disease interactions — called contraindications. If a person’s condition affects their stomach, heart, liver or kidney or is related to their blood pressure then there are some pain medicines which could make their symptoms worse or cause harmful side effects. Always ask the doctor or pharmacist which over-the-counter pain relief medicines are safe in this situation.

Knowing the active ingredient in pain medicines, both prescription and over-the-counter, will also help avoid adverse events. Some medicines may contain the same active ingredient, putting a person at risk of an accidental overdose. Deliberately doubling up on pain medicines in the hope of gaining greater pain relief can also put a person at risk of devastating side effects like stomach bleeding, kidney or liver damage. If a current treatment plan isn’t managing your pain effectively, it’s best to seek advice from your doctor or pharmacist on other options for pain management.

Medicines List can help keep track of all the important information about your medicines, like what it’s for, what strength you take, how much you use and when you take it. It also makes it easier to share this information with your doctor.

Download your free Medicines List.
Read more about chronic conditions and managing your pain.

Learn about your medicine brand choices

Medicine names can be confusing but knowing the active ingredient in your medicines is an important step to being medicinewise. It can help prevent medicine mix ups and accidental double dosing. It can also give you the skills and knowledge to identify if an error has been made by your doctor or pharmacist.

Most medicines have an active ingredient name and a brand name. The same medicines can be sold under several different brand names. For example, the brands Panadol, Panamax and Herron all contain the same active ingredient — paracetamol.

Not all pharmacies stock all the brands of a medicine, and hospitals often use different brands to the ones available in pharmacies. This can make it hard if you don’t go to the same pharmacy each time or if you’ve been in hospital and you don’t know your medicines by their active ingredient.

Different brands of medicines may not look the same, but that’s because the inactive ingredients may be different. The inactive ingredients are the fillers or the ingredients that hold the pill together. It’s the active ingredient that’s important because it’s what makes the medicine work in your body. The active ingredient will always be the same in medicines that are interchangeable.

Changing between different brands can have benefits but it can also have risks, mainly if you’re likely to get confused about what your medicines look like. Talk to your doctor or pharmacist about whether changing between different brands is a safe option for you. Ask them to point out where the active ingredient is on the medicine pack or label so you can work it out for all your medicines.

An easy way of keeping track of your medicines, the brands you use and the active ingredients is by keeping an up-to-date Medicines List and recording all the names of your medicines.

Download your free Medicines List.

Read more about medicinewise choices.

In-language community education seminars

A series of seminars for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds will be held between April and September 2011across Australia.

The seminars will cover 2 topics: The safe and wise use of medicines and Managing pain and will be held in Italian, Greek, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, Spanish, Vietnamese, Arabic and Macedonian. They will be presented by bilingual health professionals.

The seminars are funded by NPS and will be delivered by more than 20 community organisations. For more information about community education seminars contact Carrie Sutherland on 02 8217 8756.

New bilingual resources

As part of our continuing work with culturally and linguistically diverse audiences, NPS has produced the following resources in additional languages.

	The Medimate brochure is now available in Croatian, Macedonian and Korean.
	Medicines List is now available in Croatian and Spanish.

Both resources are also available in Arabic, Chinese, Greek, Italian and Vietnamese.

Download or order your free Medimate brochure and Medicines List.
 

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Information from NPS — at no cost to you!

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