More than 90 percent of adults over 65 take at least one prescription, and two thirds take more than three a month. A medication review is how you find out which ones you still need.
A medication review is a single appointment where a provider goes through everything you take and decides what you still need.
Your liver and kidneys process drugs more slowly with age, so a dose that worked for years can start doing more than it used to. Adding drugs is easy and reviewing them almost never happens by itself.
Here are the six questions to ask, the one list that makes the visit work, and the side effects that get mistaken for getting older.
Six Questions That Change What You Walk Out With
A review is not a complaint. It is a scheduled look at whether each medicine is still earning its place.
The National Institute on Aging publishes the questions to bring. These six do the most work.
- What medical condition does this medicine treat? If you cannot answer this for every bottle in the cabinet, the review has already earned its slot.
- Do I still need to be on all of these? NIA says to ask this at every visit, alongside telling your providers about every new prescription, over-the-counter medicine and supplement.
- Will this cause problems with anything else I take? That includes over-the-counter drugs, vitamins, supplements and herbal remedies, including ones you use only occasionally.
- What side effects should I expect, and what do I do about them? Write them down as they happen so you can report them accurately rather than from memory.
- Is it safe to stop this abruptly? NIA puts this on the list for a reason. Some medicines are unsafe to stop suddenly, so the answer decides how any change happens.
- Is there a less expensive alternative? Generic drugs contain the same active ingredients, are of equal strength and quality, and are usually cheaper and more likely to be covered.
The pharmacist answers a second set: whether it is safe to drive on it, whether to take it with food, what as needed actually means, and what to do about a missed dose.
Filling everything at one pharmacy is what makes those answers reliable, because it puts your whole record in one place.
The One Page That Makes the Visit Actually Work
Both NIA and the FDA give the same instruction, and it is the least glamorous item here: write it all down.
The list holds every medicine you take, including over-the-counter drugs, vitamins and dietary supplements. For each one: the name, the amount you take, and when you take it. For prescriptions, add who prescribed it and why.
Keep one copy at home and one with you, in a wallet, purse or phone, and show it to every provider you see, including physical therapists and dentists.
NIA adds a detail worth copying: learn the active ingredients, so you do not take two products that contain the same one.
Some medications can cause side effects that mimic other health problems, such as memory difficulties, dizziness and sleepiness.
Take the medication review sheet with you
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⬇ Download your plan (PDF)When the Side Effect Gets Blamed on Getting Older
This is the part that costs people years of unnecessary decline. A drug causes fogginess or unsteadiness, and everyone in the room calls it age.
The FDA names the three that get mislabeled most: memory difficulties, dizziness and sleepiness. Its instruction is to ask whether any new problem you are experiencing could be caused by your medications.
Providers already have a reference for this. The Cleveland Clinic explains the Beers Criteria as a list of medications with side effects that can outweigh their benefit in people over 65.
You do not need to memorise it. You need to ask whether anything you take is on it.
Three Medication Beliefs Worth Dropping Today
Three corrections worth carrying into the appointment.
If it worked for years, it is still right. Not automatically. The FDA is direct that even if your medications have worked well for you over the years, they might need to be adjusted or changed later in life, because the liver and kidneys handle drugs differently with age.
Stopping a drug is my call to make. It is a shared one. NIA says not to stop a medicine because of uncomfortable side effects before talking with a provider, and asking whether it is safe to stop abruptly is one of the questions to bring.
Supplements do not count as medications. They do here. NIA says it can be dangerous to combine certain prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicines, supplements and other remedies, and to mention everything, even ones you use infrequently.
To your health,
Ageless Coach
Age Strong. Live Long.
This article is education, not medical advice. Never stop or change a prescription on your own; that decision belongs with the provider who prescribed it.