The nutritional ramifications of pharmaceuticals in human bodies

Our origins

Working in a post-Acute, Rehabilitation and transition Aged Care facility in the 1990’s, we frequently saw elderly people prescribed 12+ different medicines – never mind the number of tabs they consumed on a daily basis, and for some of these people it may have been 30+ tabs per day. The elderly people were often frail, dealing with many losses, were often losing weight, had poor appetites, and were not always responding well to rehabilitation interventions. What is the impact of all those different medicines on their nutritional health and how much is it impacting their responses? were questions I often asked.

Access to information on the impact of prescribed medicines on nutrition factors was extremely difficult in the 1990’s due to factors such as -

• no internet,
• long delays between request for research articles and their receipt,
• limited research,
• finding the articles as the published research was scattered through a broad range of publications,
• and more.

Out of curiosity and frustration I started to pull together the research, summarized it, and organized it into a table for quick access. I then told my staff that we would now include this information in all our clinical assessments and they asked “how” - more work was required, and twenty plus years later the “how” has mostly been sorted out.

Our philosophy

Our philosophy is to provide as much of the credible research that is accessible to us, in one place to increase ease of use for busy clinicians, and consequently enhance improvement in the outcomes of those in their care. With that proviso in mind the information is presented in dot points and then referenced so the source can also be easily accessed.

Ultimately this website is about providing resources to both easily accessible information and how to apply it in a clinically-meaningful format.

And perhaps it is time to share some of our expertise!

Our credibility

So what is the credibility behind the person promoting awareness of this oversight in healthcare? And the answer is –

• Bachelor of Applied Science (food science & nutrition),
• Graduate Diploma in Dietetics,
• Graduate Diploma in Health Education & Promotion,
• Thirty plus years clinical experience in both the Public Health system (Australia and overseas) and the residential Aged Care sector – one sees and learns a lot.

If you have read this far then you must be a curious and probably a visionary clinician – I hope you find our resources are useful to your practice.

Yvonne Coleman