What really happens when you mix medications? | Russ Altman

If you take two different medications for two different reasons, here's a sobering thought: your doctor may not fully understand what happens when they're combined, because drug interactions are incredibly hard to study. In this fascinating and accessible talk, Russ Altman shows how doctors are studying unexpected drug interactions using a surprising resource: search engine queries.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more.

[kwabenakesseh]

Pharmacy student here! Loved this talk! My mini research topics have been around this.

[bassisku]

Finally some quality talks, I want education not useless garbage.

[Talon]

This is exactly how Big Data should be used. Great talk. Very appreciated.

[bassiroucamara]

People should understand that ted does not care about the youtube comment section.

[BeyondTheBath]

As a Public Services Librarian and Institutional Data Oracle, I found this FASCINATING.

As someone who lost a friend due to drug interactions (from a MD who prescribed the drugs together, and my friend had an adverse reaction), I think this kind of research is long overdue.

[maryyockey]

Ah, loved this talk! I have always wondered about this topic for many different reasons, and from a personal story! Medications in general can have many different and potential risks to them. One medication alone can have anywhere from 1-20+ different types of side effects with it. The more medications you add into the mix, the more complicated things can get.
Altman made a comment that if a patient is on a type of medication, then becomes depressed, a doctor may put that patient on an anti-depressant drug. Sounds great, and could get the job done. Right? Not necessarily. Do those two drugs clash? How will they react with one another? Which makes me think of my mother.
Depression runs in my family. My mom has had depression for as long as I can remember, and a couple of my aunts and uncles have also suffered from depression as well. There was one point in my life where I can remember that my mother was taking 6 different pills a day. All prescribed to her by the same doctor. She didn't think anything of it, rather than that is what her doctor prescribed, so that is what she was taking. However, one pill alone was 875 mg, which is a lot. My mother is a small woman. Just above 5 feet tall, and around 105 pounds, nothing big by any means. Until she was always tired, taking multiple naps throught the day (which was unlike her), and occasionally getting sick a couple times a week. I noticed, but didn't say anything. Until my dad had enough of it, and took her to the doctors. After 7 months of taking 6 pills a day, the doctor cut it back to just two. I had my mother back. She was fine, full of energy and life. So, here is my question, why 6? Six took my mother away, two I gained my mother back. Why do doctors always think more is better? Clearly, they did not know what mixing all of these would do to her tiny body, yet, I thought it was excessive to begin with.
More research and funding needs to go into this topic because it is something almost everyone goes through. I alone take two different pills each day. My brother takes two, and so does my mom. However, there are more people out in society that probably take a handful more than just two a day, that could be potentionaly putting harm to their body by doing so.
Overall, I agree with what Altman is saying when it comes to this topic on mixing medications. More studying needs to go into it, and more eyes need to be focused on this topic.

[kunlin]

"Let's call him Nick because that's his name" lol

[BryanSpringborn]

I am on 10 meds and have always believed that some combination of them impact me differently.

[paulj.brosnan]

Great talk here. I want to see more of this. Less PC nonsense. More educated practical talks.

[willlegrandiv]

Wow amazing subject! Fascinated by this especially knowing so many people taking multiple medications.

[Bullring]

Thank God, TED's back. Why don't the put the other emotional stuff on a separate channel? Keep this one for the science.

[pastorcoreyadams]

Great TED Talk. More like this in the future. Very enlightening and useful.

[youtubeepicuser]

This is a great video. I was looking for how they interacted: where in the body, why, train of events etc., but I found something almost as interesting

[dajosh]

Good TED talk. I dig it, we need more research on this!

[rajeshgupta]

that was a good, confident and informative talk.

[raccoon]

beautifully presented and a good topic

[pierrevillemaire-brooks]

A very enlighten testimony. I hope his ideas will go a long way because more and more  people are using  the internet trying to help them selves about health issues ... because after all, individual physicians can also make mistakes and/or be mistinformed.

[ModdedTalent]

Very excellent Ted Talk. I don't know much about medicine but this was super easy to follow with a good message too.

[PembaLopchan]

this is amazing.. doctor's are looking at this just now.. but doctor's in Nepal are already looking into it and prescribe the medicines.. :) but keep up the good work..

[Cnadian]

Why do people still use internet explorer?