subject: Performing a Medical Symptoms Check - Using Your Medical History! [print this page] Performing a Medical Symptoms Check - Using Your Medical History!
Considering past problems has a remarkable effect in knowing a diagnosis for your symptoms. Significant illness, operations or accidents in the past, may be connected to your new symptoms. For example, gradually developing pain and swelling in a joint maybe caused by arthritis, which is caused due to a previous bone fraction. Also you need to think of any other health problems that you might had, and the effect of the new symptoms on them. Example: stress, anxiety and depression can get worse if someone have problems with alcohol.
How about medications? Modern medicine is based mainly on drugs; doctors can't deal with many diseases without drugs, which can be effective in relieving pain and its symptoms. But almost any medicine may have side effects. These side effects may be a direct result of the drug itself or due to interaction of different types of drugs resulting in more side effects.
Side effects for commonly prescribed drugs:
Antidepressants: This is often happening when you first start taking them, these symptoms include light-headedness, feeling a little 'spaced out', headaches, tummy symptoms and problems with sleeping. These side effects may end after 2 weeks at most.
Aspirin-type medicines such as ibuprofen or diclofenac: These medicines can be a bit tough on your stomach; taking them with food helps.
Blood pressure lowering medication: Tiredness and problems with erections in men may happen with some blood pressure medicines.
Painkillers: Some codeine-containing drugs commonly cause problems with constipation, so you may need to ask you physician about using additional laxatives.
Side effects that results from combined drugs:
Combined oral contraceptive pill and antibiotics: If you're a woman taking the combined oral contraceptive pill, also starting to take certain antibiotics can make the pills less effective and put you at risk of becoming pregnant.
Statins and macrolide antibiotics: If you take a cholesterol-lowering drug belonging to a group of drugs called statins, also taking a type of antibiotic of the macrolide group (such as erythromycin or clarithromycin) increases the risk of muscle aches.
There is something called 'Contraindications', where someone has certain health conditions, but needs to avoid taking new drugs while having certain health problems. You need to think about contraindications when you start taking a new drug and having new symptoms making you feel unwell. Another important issue about drugs is 'Allergic reactions'. This includes feeling symptoms like rash, itching or difficulty breathing after taking new medicine. You can have an allergy to certain medicines just as some people are allergic to certain foods or insect bites. If you know or suspect that you suffer from an allergy, make sure that your doctor and other people close to you know about the condition.
These are some important hints that might be useful when preparing your own medical symptoms check. There are still some other topics that we can talk about in another article to complete the medical symptoms check list.
