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Page: << Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 "Cough and cold preparations are a common mistake," Juris said. "You might be taking a cold preparation that includes acetaminophen, and you also take acetaminophen [pills] for headache. So, you are overdosing it right there. So, it's not just looking at the label for directions, it's also making sure that you are not combining products and increasing the recommended dosage."
Other OTC products on Varlotta's radar include the painkillers Advil or Motrin (two or three OTC pills equal the dose in one prescription-strength pill, he noted), a host of poorly regulated herbals and dietary supplements, and Voltaren, an anti-inflammatory muscle cream that many of his patients bring back with them from Europe.
Voltaren isn't approved for OTC sale in the United States, Varlotta said, but it can cause real problems for Americans who bring it home.
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"People come back, and they are given a prescription by their doctor for another anti-inflammatory, so that means they're now using the cream plus the anti-inflammatory, and they end up getting gastrointestinal problems, bleeding," he said. "And then I tell them: 'Let me see the cream.' And sure enough, it's Voltaren or some other cream they've brought back."
The bottom line, according to the experts, is that every drug -- even a nonprescription cream -- comes with some level of risk.
"Just because it's OTC doesn't mean that it's entirely safe and that it can be used against the directions that are being set out by the makers," Varlotta said. "People should know what they are taking, both orally and on their skin."
More information
There's more on preventing accidental poisoning at the American Association of Poison Control Centers.
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