[ShamraRahl]

Greetings to all of you. I just wanted to take a moment to introduce myself to this wonderful board. I am currently a 3rd year pharmacy student going to school in Virginia (USA). I am one and a half years away from starting practice as a licensed pharmacist so most of my "book" learning has been completed.

As a retail pharmacy employee for the past six years, I have come to realize that there is a large gap in communication between health care professionals and their patients due to a variety of factors. Browsing these forums for the past few days, I have determined that the air here seems to be more open than in the traditional Dr./Pt setting (perhaps due to lack of white coat syndrome) and believe it would be valuable for me to learn a bit more about the real concerns and experiences of patients that they are not always willing or able to convey face to face.

Something that especially grabbed by attention on these forums were the large number of posts concerning opiate addiction. Granted, as an aspiring retail pharmacist my time will be very limited, and thus my addiction intervention powers will be quite limited, but I really hope I can gain a few ideas to help slow this increasing problem. I am here just as much to learn from all you as I am to give support in whichever ways I can.

Please also allow me to give my basic philosophy related to the use of drugs in health care so that my advise may always be taken with the proverbial grain of salt. Truthfully, I am greatly against the use of drugs in many circumstances. I would much rather see a person use a healthy lifestyle and behavioral modification to treat illness. I realize medications can be beneficial in any number of circumstances, but I want to see that they are used responsibly and strongly adhere to the fundamental principal of the Hippocratic Oath to do no harm. I view natural medicine the same way that I do "traditional" drugs only that they tend to be less purified less regulated versions of them.

Anyway I wish the best to you all and look forward to a mutual exchange of information.

[Lino S Cruz]

Amen, ShamraRahl. I would like to use natural/herbal/food supplement myself but I still have to meet a doctor who supports this "treatment." The explanation is always that these supplements do not undergo sufficient clinical studies/trials. What can you say regarding this?