Five Things I Wished I Learned in Pharmacy School
Don't get me wrong. I learned A LOT in pharmacy school - mostly around medications, mechanism of actions, interactions and disease management and I'm grateful for that. A pharmacist’s task is to ensure that the medicines prescribed to patients are suitable for them. We also advise patients about medicine use such as how to take it, what possible reactions can happen and answer other questions they may have. All these require communicating and understanding the patient. Unfortunately, in most cases in real life, time is little, and we only end up dispensing or selling to them without much interaction. I find this kind of service very limited and lacking. I wanted to help my patients push much further to holistic health, but then I only know a bit about nutritional science, lifestyle interventions and supplements. Only the common and simple ones like drink water, eat a balanced diet and exercise.
This is when I searched more and bumped into Functional Medicine. And I loved it!
I was able to learn more about HEALTH management, instead of DISEASE management. I loved learning about how all the vitamins and minerals come to play as cofactors in each biochemical process in our bodies to function. I loved the science of mind-body medicine and how coaching works wonders in empowering patients. I came to appreciate our God-given bodies more and more. Most especially, I’m glad to see how all these fit perfectly with my practice.
Now, as a Pharmacist practicing Functional Medicine, my task is to marry together the patient’s health history, lifestyle and triggers, prescribed medications and supplements and see everything under a health management mindset and root cause lens. This field of practice has been done for many years in other countries, but it seems quite new in the Philippines. In fact, there is a research article published that says many pharmacists reported lacking nutritional knowledge and believed that it should be incorporated into the curriculum. From this research, only very few are knowledgeable about it. In my journey, I learned more about this in seminars, books, journals, speakers, and other doctors & healthcare practitioners. All these I learned from Advanced Functional Medicine Clinical Practice (AFMCP) and Functional Medicine Coaching Academy (FMCA).
Throughout the journey, I’d like to share my lightbulb moments.
1. Most if not all diseases begin in the GUT. More than 2,000 years ago, Hippocrates who is the father of modern medicine, said this. From fatigue, headache, anxiety, acne, brain fog and even difficulty sleeping... There is a great correlation between your gut bacteria and its integrity to your overall health. Your GUT is that important!
2. Supplements are literally NOT created equally- if you look very closely. While the active ingredients may sound the same, it greatly depends on many things such as bioavailability and absorption. For example, Zinc has many forms. Zinc oxide may be cheaper, but it is also less well absorbed. Zinc citrate or gluconate would be the better option. Moreover, in every pharmaceutical product, there are excipients, additives, preservatives, and colorings that are not needed by the body and can even be harmful. Before, I used to think that these are necessary in manufacturing BUT they are not really necessary and there are safer alternatives.
3. Nutrients - from vitamins and minerals are very VERY important in all biochemical processes. And surprisingly, many people are VERY deficient with these- from vitamin C, B, D, zinc, magnesium and many more- unless you are perfectly healthy living in a perfect world- which we are totally not. The nutrients and minerals from our soil have been greatly depleted through time.
4. Antibiotics are beneficial for many illnesses BUT in some situations, you can opt them out and find safer alternatives that work while not destroying your good microbiome. They are NOT your gut's friend. It's sad to see that many people usually abuse this like candy, and even without consulting from their doctors. It’s no surprise that AMR (AntiMicrobial Resistance) is announced to be one of the top 10 global health threats according to the WHO.
5. Your genes and your family background do not define your destiny. Your actions do. While genes can predispose you to chronic diseases like heart disease, Alzheimer's, type 2 diabetes, predisposition is still not destiny. In fact, 90% of our health is determined by the environment- food, stress, toxins, movement. There is a way to turn on or off gene expressions. That’s how much we can influence our genes and our future.