Polypharmacy — being on multiple medications simultaneously — is one of the most under-addressed risks in modern healthcare. If you're taking five or more medications prescribed by different doctors, there is a meaningful probability that some of them are interacting, some are redundant, and some should have been stopped years ago.
How the problem develops
Each specialist prescribes within their domain. The cardiologist adds a statin and a beta-blocker. The rheumatologist adds an anti-inflammatory. The psychiatrist adds an antidepressant. The GP adds a proton pump inhibitor to protect against the anti-inflammatory. Nobody steps back to look at the complete picture.
Over time, medications accumulate. Side effects of one drug are treated with another drug. Interactions go unnoticed because no single prescriber sees the full list in context.
What an independent review involves
A proper medication review isn't a pharmacist glancing at a list. It involves checking every drug-drug interaction using clinical databases, assessing whether each medication is still clinically necessary, identifying side effects that may be caused by interactions rather than the underlying condition, reviewing dosages against current guidelines, and flagging medications that may be contributing to symptoms the patient is experiencing.
Common findings
In the medication reviews I conduct for clients, common issues include proton pump inhibitors that were started as a short-term measure and never stopped, antidepressants at doses that haven't been reviewed in years, overlapping medications that work through the same mechanism, drugs that were appropriate at diagnosis but are no longer indicated, and nutrient depletions caused by long-term medication use that nobody has tested for.
What I deliver
A structured report that maps every medication, its indication, its interactions, and my assessment of whether it should continue, be reviewed, or be flagged for discussion with the prescribing doctor. This is not prescribing — it's intelligence that gives you and your GP the information needed to make better decisions.