Taking Your Medications Correctly

As we welcome 2026, let's make "taking medication correctly" our New Year's resolution. Taking medication correctly is actually an investment in and protection of your health. Here are a few points to share:

Taking medication is not shameful.

Many clients feel ashamed of needing to take medication and secretly skip their doctor's prescriptions. I always like to remind clients that they should be grateful there is medication available to treat or control their condition. For example, a blood test indicates high cholesterol and the doctor decides cholesterol medication needs to be started. Often at the pharmacy counter, with the prescription in hand, the client will ask, "I don’t want to start taking this medication, can I?" Of course you can, but the consequence is that cholesterol will continue to rise, potentially leading to stroke and heart disease. Taking cholesterol medication as directed can help prevent stroke and heart disease, prolonging health and enhancing the quality of life for you and your family.

Take medication as directed. 

Some medications for chronic diseases require long-term use to achieve a stable condition, such as blood pressure medication and cholesterol-lowering medication. Some clients like to adjust medication doses on their own. For example, reducing their blood pressure medication  dosage on their own whenever blood pressure is normal upon checking, unaware that their blood pressure will slowly rise again after two to three weeks. When blood pressure is back up,  then briefly increase back to the doctor's prescribed dosage, reducing the dosage again once blood pressure returns to normal.  Fluctuating dosages like this will never achieve the intention of blood pressure medication to stabilize blood pressure.

Do not cut medication in half without consulting a pharmacist

If you are taking long-acting or enteric-coated tablets, do not cut them in half without consulting a pharmacist. Long-acting tablets have a special design on their coating.  Upon swallowing, a fixed amount of medication will be released every hour in the stomach/intestinal system. Cutting them in half causes damage to this design, resulting in the entire dose within the tablet to be released within one to two hours, causing a surge of an excessively high dosage (the same applies to medicated patches) which may lead to toxicity. Certain medications can be destroyed under acidic medium; hence enteric coatings ensure that the tablet is dissolved and released only upon reaching the intestine, not in the stomach. Cutting the tablet in half will cause it to be destroyed by stomach acid.

Choose the right time to take medication.

If you need to take multiple medications, consult with your pharmacist to choose a, appropriate time when you are less likely to forget and to avoid drug interactions.

Next time you pick up your medication, consult your pharmacist to check if your medication habits and methods are correct.