Your Medicine Cabinet, Part 1: The Basics
If COVID hasn’t taught us the value of having a well stocked medicine cabinet that can last us through the course of a mild illness, I don’t know what will. Building a good medicine cabinet requires a lot of key information such as allergies, past and present medical history, etc. What basics or more advanced supplies you keep in your medicine cabinet and travel medicine pack should, ideally, be personalised and carefully curated for you and your household members. Not to mention, it’s important to do a date check every three months. However, notwithstanding some necessary nuance, there are some fundamentals to building a handy medicine cabinet.
Here we’ll start with the basics. Some key factors to consider before building your medicine cabinet are how far you live from a hospital, how close you are to a well-stocked, late night pharmacy, and your accessibility to great telemedicine, so you can be prescribed exactly what you need after factoring in your symptoms and health history. Having all the above very close at hand means you need less stuff at home. I’ve found that no matter how great my own home medical cabinet is, my local late night pharmacy, a 10 minutes Deliveroo ride away, is invaluable, so it might be helpful to take a minute to locate your closest pharmacy that offers quick home delivery.
However concierge your doctor or close your pharmacy, there will be many occasions where you really can't muster up the energy to get out of your pyjamas or find the time between that splitting headache coming on and rushing out to the meeting you're lat for. So, for those kind of occasions, here’s a reasonable list for starters for how to stock your basic, non-prescription home medicine cabinet for adults. Take this along to your local pharmacist at a not so busy time of day and help them help you stock up:
IMPORTANT: Please get professional guidance if you’re not very familiar with the medicine and follow the instructions exactly. All medicines can have potential side effects and it’s best to consult your doctor before taking any medicine!
Pain Relief, Headaches and Fever reduction
Paracetamol / Acetaminophen (Panadol, Tylenol) – The number one go-to for headaches, fevers and congestion. Specific formulations available for children, but we'll cover off kids in full in future. This can be taken with Aspirin or Ibuprofen.
Acetylsalicylic acid (Aspirin) – Effective anti-inflammatory painkiller but cannot be taken by patients who are on blood thinners, and may irritate the stomach. So you might have to take this with meals or even with an ant-acid. Be careful to not take aspirin, naproxen, or ibuprofen within 8 to 12 hours of each other as they all work in the same way. Get stomach friendly versions if you can.
Ibuprofen or Naproxen Sodium (Neurofen, Motrin, Advil) - Very effective painkillers for adults and children aged 12 and over. Your pharmacy may even stock a child safe version of Motrin. There is a version called Flarin which is gentler on the stomach lining.
Migraleve - (or equivalent migraine relief with paracetamol, codeine phosphate and buclizine hydrochloride) - this specific combination is effective for Migraine and severe headaches and not easy to obtain or administer in safe doses separately.
Diarrhoea and GI medications
Omeprazole / Pantoprazole (or equivalent over the counter proton pump inhibitor) - Ant-Acid previously only available on prescription. As someone who gets heart burn with some foods or alcohol, even with apple juice or taking ibuprofen, having this at home is extremely useful.
Bismuth subsalicylate (Pepto Bismol): A good to have for nausea, diarrhoea, heartburn, and upset stomach.
Imodium: This medication stops diarrhoea. You don’t always need or want to do that though, as your body is naturally getting rid of pathogens when you have diarrhoea, but having said that severe diarrhoea may warrant the use of Imodium. Comprehensive FAQ on when to use Imodium can be found here.
Rehydration Fluids Electrolytes (Rehydration Salts, Dioralyte): This is a must have and should also be packed into your travel medicine kit too. More on travel packs in future episodes. These mixes can quickly rehydrate you, especially after severe vomiting or diarrhoea.
Calcium Carbonate Tablets - These can temporarily neutralise stomach acids which can back up and cause heartburn.
Gaviscon - Both products give longer-lasting relief.
Laxatives: Best to use when suffering from constipation. There are many varieties of these. Depending on your history of constipation you should get advice on which is the best to take. Your pharmacist can
Activated Charcoal: Good to use for GI ailments/food poisoning
For Coughs and Colds
I’m sure everyone has these medicines stocked after COVID, but there are different kinds of coughs, and thus each kind warrants a different medicinal treatment.
Cough Syrup with Dextromethorphan - Useful for a dry, hacking cough. Big-name brands include Robitussin Maximum Strength Cough, DayQuil Cough, and Delsym.
Cough Syrup with Guaifenesin - Use if your cough is producing mucus; since it is an expectorant it helps loosen mucus secretions. Some big name brands are: Mucinex, Robitussin Mucus + Chest Congestion, and Tussin Expectorant.
Vapour Rub - I have never quite understood how this works, possibly by 'distraction' and opening up the airways, but it is almost zero risk and worth having or trying if you have a cough or stuffy nose.
Decongestants (such as pseudoephedrine) - These are normally found in combination with paracetamol
Honey and Ginger - can help soothe symptoms too, though I am not sure how ginger works, honey for sure is a an antibiotic, anti-fungal and anti-inflammatory.
Strepsils - Has antiviral and anesthetic medications contained. Always be sure to note the number of days that your cough has lasted. Anymore than a week accompanied with a fever may be a sign of bronchitis or pneumonia and must be immediately treated by a doctor.
Anesthetic spray - for very sore throats. Take care not to continue for a super sore throat without professional advice or testing for Strep sore throat.
Wound Care Medications
There are so many kinds of wounds. You will need different medicines for a knife wound as opposed to a burn wound for example. So it’s always handy to have:
Burn relief cream - though the very best thing for burns is plentiful cold water
Antibiotic or antibacterial ointment - such as Neosporin
Plasters, Steristips and Skin Glue - this will be covered in more depth in a future issue
QuickClot: Available as a coated gauze. These can quickly stop bleeding on larger wounds.
Skin, infection and allergy
Oral antihistamines: Diphenhydramine (Benadryl), Loratadine (Claritin), Cetirizine (Zyrtec), and Fexofenadine (Allegra) for hay fever, insect bites and can be a supplement to pain relief with infections.
Anti-itch creams: These usually contain antihistamines, steroids, and/or an anaesthetic.
Anti-Fungal creams: For fungal infections like athlete’s foot and yeast infections, some over the counter medicines like clotrimazole, miconazole, and butenafine hydrochloride can be helpful. Not every country will sell these over the counter, you might need a prescription.
Epi-Pen: If you’re one to have serious allergies it’s good to stock on, Epi-Pens. They do expire quickly though, so it’s a good idea to check the date regularly!
Sterile water: Good for cleaning out sinuses, wounds, and eye irrigation.
Iodine / alcohol for cleaning infected wounds
Eyes
Saline Solution: Good for cleaning out sinuses, wounds, and eye irrigation.
Broline eye drops: (propamidine isetionate); for minor eye and eyelid infections
Insomnia / Jet Lag
Melatonin: Over the counter sleeping pills like melatonin are available in the US. Melatonin can be used occasionally to fix sleep cycles that have been interrupted by jet-lags or stressful situation. Don't use when driving. It's also only on prescription outside the US (in the form of Circadian).
Magnesium: There is evidence that some of us experiencing sleep issues are because of sub optimal magnesium levels. Tablets, sprays for the skin or magnesium bath salts may well help.
This 'Basic' Medicine Cabinet is by no means an exhaustive but you could end up with a whole pharmacy in your home if you want to be fully comprehensive and in date with everything let alone survive a zombie apocalypse!
In future episodes we'll be looking at...
Biosensors and home diagnostics devices
Home tests - we all know about COVID tests but there are lots more
Prescription medicines kept for emergency use in advance of medical need
Travel, Jet Lag and Remote Envrionments
Minor Trauma and Injury First Aid
Basic life support equipment and training
Advanced trauma and life support
Supplements and natural alternatives for the prescription-averse
Bio-identicals to prescription medications
Managing sports injuries, considerations for different sports
Our aim, hopefully by the end of this series and with some online or in person training, you won't need us to live-supervise your very capable self for many medical matters.