Since 1991 there has been a group of geriatricians and other physicians identifying medicines that might be inappropriate in people over age 65. Dr. Mark Beers originally led this group, so it is called the ‘Beers Criteria’. This list has been updated every few years. The most recent update was this month.
The medications on this list have SAFER and/or MORE EFFECTIVE options available.
Some of the reasons for medications to make the list include:
- blood pressure lowering medicines that cause more dizziness and falls than other options
- medicines with anticholinergic (very drying) effects that can have several negative effects including worsening memory
- anxiety medicines that cause thinking/memory problems and falls
- depression medicines that cause several problems
- allergy medicines that cause drowsiness, driving accidents, and falls
- medicines that are cleared from the body through the kidneys which slow down with age
- medicines that are cleared from the body through the liver which can slow down with age
- medicines that are ok at low doses but dangerous at high doses
- medicines that can cause delirium
- medicines that can worsen memory
- medicines that can cause constipation
- medicines that can make urination with prostate enlargement even more difficult
This year, for the first time, guidelines for safer options to replace these dangerous medicines were written. This is exciting news!
If you are over 65, please talk with your prescribers about these lists of potentially inappropriate medicines and these lists of safe alternatives.
For a personal evaluation of your medicines, please contact www.medsmash.com.
Biblical Application
In your daily walk with God, what are the most effective steps and activities? What does the Bible say you should do regularly?
And, where are the pitfalls? What should you avoid?
Just as the Beers List guides prescribers to select the most beneficial and safest medicines, the Bible guides our spiritual practices. Your heart, your tongue, your thoughts, your study, your time, and your actions are included in this guidance.
Romans 12:2 ESV
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
James 1:19-20 ESV
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
Ephesians 4:32 ESV
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
James 1:22-27 ESV
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
There are certainly many more verses that guide our lives. These can be a start in developing a strategy to avoid inappropriate, dangerous behaviors and replace them with life-giving, holy options.
Blessings,
Michelle
yourhealthandsoul 