Medication Mayhem for Practitioners

At SAFM we honor that scientific knowledge is always evolving – often at a pace that makes it challenging to keep up and integrate important wisdom into your practice.

This holds true too in the arena of medications – whether prescription or OTC.  For many of our patients and clients, poly-pharmacy is now the norm – with well-skilled pharmacists catching the most dangerous drug interactions. 

Very few practitioners, however, have researched medication-associated nutrient depletions, interconnected side effects, or downstream consequences. Few are aware of the seemingly unrelated yet potent effects that a drug can have on a completely unrelated organ system. Even fewer are educated about the specific ways in which long-term use of a drug – often designed for short-term acute needs – alters basic physiology and biochemistry in negative, disease-exacerbating ways. 

The information is CRITICAL for ALL practitioner modalities. Are you confident in your knowledge?

There are some common mistakes we see practitioners make over and over again. In this video, you will learn which medications are particularly problematic from a functional medicine perspective and what myths persist because the mainstream media has often not caught up to the science. 

Here are some of the things we’ll be discussing: 

• The cycle of dysfunction stemming from NSAID use. Yes, short term use too. Do you know the full impact?  Are you confident you can explain it well to your patients?
• Oral contraceptives and the nutrient deficiency they promote that, ironically, is absolutely critical to maintaining hormone balance. Can you guess which one it is?
• What about the link between birth control pills, homocysteine and nitric oxide:  can you explain this interconnectedness?
• The three most common root causes of most acid reflux and GERD, ones that are notably not being addressed by PPIs. But there’s plenty of downstream dysfunction being promoted instead.  
• The potentially vicious cycle of medications providing short-term relief but ultimately an exacerbation of the very disease process they were prescribed for initially. Yes, seriously.  
• A black box warning on a commonly used medication that surprisingly few are aware of.  But one it’s critical for you to know.
• And so much more! 

Thank you very much for joining in the fun and learning!