Effective Ways to Keep Track of 'Medicines on Time'

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Medications play an important part in helping the body recover from a disease or a condition. They are designed to be taken by the patient in a pre-determined schedule which must not be changed. However, due to our busy lives, we often forget to take our medications on time. Seniors also tend to forget to take their medications due to old age.

However, skipping medication is never advised. In certain situations, skipping or forgetting to take your medications can be very dangerous, especially for conditions like heart disease, blood pressure, etc. Therefore, it is very essential for us to take our medicines on time and complete the entire course of drug prescribed by the doctor.

Many people around the world follow different methods to remind themselves to take their medicines. In this article, we have compiled some of the most common, but effective ways to remind yourself to take your medicines. 

1.     Use medication organizers

Medication organizers are an old and trusted way to make sure that you never forget to take your medication. These are available to buy online and, in some pharmacies, and physical stores. Medication organizers, also known as pill organizers, usually contain square shaped compartments for each day of the week or the month. They also come with sub-compartments for sorting medicines according to different times of the day.

A patient should load the pills beforehand into the organizer before starting the medication cycle. After loading the pills, the patient can keep having them regularly without worry. However, it must be made sure that the medicines are loaded correctly and in the right amount. 1MG offers on medicine supplies can help you get great cashback while topping up your medication organizer.

2.     Smartphone alerts

Smartphones have become an indispensable part of our lives. Therefore, it is only natural that we use our smartphones to help us with the necessary activities. Setting a daily reminder at fixed times of the day can help the patient to remember to take their medicines. Setting an alarm at a fixed time of the day for a few days will automatically help develop a habit of taking the medicine at that particular time of the day. 

3.     Visual reminders

Placing visual reminders for taking medicines at strategic places of the house can help remind you to take your medicine. These visual reminders must be bright in color and must be placed in places which are frequently visited in the house, like- the fridge, beside the bedroom lamp, etc. However, repeatedly seeing the same visual reminders at the same place will make the user less responsive to them. Therefore, it is advised that these reminders must be frequently changed to maintain the efficacy of the process.

4.     Associate with daily activities

Our day cannot be complete without doing certain tasks, like- taking out the garbage, switching off the garage lights every night, locking the doors, etc. if we start to take our medications just after we finish doing these daily activities, it will slowly become our habit to take the medicines right after doing these tasks.

Certain medicines require that the patient is on an empty stomach, or have the medication after having food. Associating certain types of medications with certain daily activities will definitely prevent forgetting medication doses.

5.     Strategic placement

Another way to make sure that the medications are taken by the patient is to place the medicines in strategic locations around the house so that they easily come into view. The strategic placement of medicines makes sure that the user never forgets to take the medication. For example, some medicines can be kept near the car keys so that the user does not forget to take them before leaving the house.

You can buy multiple small doses of medicine and place them around the house. One gets amazing 1MG coupon code on online purchases of medicines and other health products.

6.     Medication reminder app

In this day and age, there is an app for almost everything. There are smartphone apps available that are specially designed to remind users of their medications. These apps keep track of the amount of medication present with the patient, the number of medicines consumed and when the medicines will run out.

These apps automatically alert the user before the medicines are over so that the patient can easily stock up on medications. The reminder function of these apps is also provided by online pharmacies.

There are many ways that a person can keep track of the medicines to be taken. It is best to stick to a single method of reminding oneself, rather than shuffle between different methods. Even if a single method of reminding is adopted by the user, there will be no more missed medicine doses.