Is Compounding Medicine Safe?

Most compounded drugs are not approved by the FDA, which is the governmental agency responsible for ensuring the safety of drugs. However, does this mean that compounded drugs are completely unregulated? More importantly, do they pose any outsized risk for you or your loved one to take? 

In reality, at an individual level, compounded medications are often safer even than most commercially available, mass-produced drugs. 

Read on to learn why this is so, and don’t hesitate to contact The Healthy Choice compounding pharmacy for more information. 

What Are Compounding Pharmacies?

Although it’s true that both regular pharmacies and compounding pharmacies provide patients with medication, the way they do this is quite different. 

Regular pharmacies usually receive and create drugs using preset dosages meant for mass production. Because of this, traditional pharmacies have little room to customize or personalize the prescriptions they fulfill for patients. 

Compounding pharmacies, on the other hand, create custom medications from the base components that go into drugs. 

Because of this crucial difference, compounding pharmacies are able to provide customers with a much more personalized medication—which can be crucial for people for various reasons, as we’ll see below. 

Are Compounded Drugs More Dangerous than Regular Drugs?

Now that we know the difference between compounding and traditional pharmacies, we can answer the question: Are compounded drugs more risky or dangerous than other drugs?

In reality, compounded medications are often much safer than their commercially available counterparts. This is because, among other things, compounded drugs are made with the specific needs and requirements of the individual in mind. 

It’s also important to dispel the myth that compounded drugs aren’t actually regulated. Although it’s true that they aren’t regulated by the FDA in the same way as traditional drugs, compounded pharmaceuticals are still regulated by state pharmacy boards. These boards are tasked with regulating the pharmaceutical industry in their states, and have their hand in all daily compounding procedures. 

Finally, a doctor’s prescription is still needed to purchase compounding medicine, which is just another layer of protection and oversight aimed at ensuring the health and safety of all patients who rely on compounding pharmacies to fulfill their unique pharmaceutical needs. 

How Compounded Medicine Can Work for You

For those who aren’t already familiar with compounding medicine, the question remains: Why do people need compounding pharmacies, after all?

In reality, compounding pharmacies can help in a variety of ways. Some examples include:

• They can provide customers with custom dosages
• They can help customers access discontinued medications
• They can remove the unnecessary dyes, gelatins, or additives that usually go in other drugs
• They can prepare alternative methods of administering drugs, such as transdermal medications instead of pills

Alternatively, compounding pharmacies can help fulfill prescriptions for off-label uses of FDA-approved drugs; for example, Low Dose Naltrexone for people with chronic pain or other immune conditions. 

Regardless of your reason for using compounding medicine, you can rest assured that The Healthy Choice has the top-notch quality and experience you’d expect when taking care of your health condition. Talk to us to learn more.

Learning More About Compounded Medicine

Are you ready to see if compounding medicine is right for you? Talk to The Healthy Choice today to learn more.

Call us at 914-238-1700 now.