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TORONTO -- Did you know heart disease is the second leading cause of death for Canadians?
According to Statistics Canada, one in 12 Canadians over the age of 20 are living with diagnosed heart disease and roughly 12 Canadian adults with heart disease die every hour.
These outcomes are improving, but progress is slow — and it’s partially due to lack of education. Thankfully, your pharmacist can help.
Indeed, your local pharmacist can do so much more than just fill your prescriptions. If you have questions about heart health management, your pharmacist has the knowledge to provide holistic care and recommendations.
“Historically, people think of the pharmacy as the place to go when you need medication… but we’ve gone beyond that now,” said John Papastergiou, a pharmacist at Shoppers Drug Mart in Toronto. “The pharmacist’s role has evolved. We can be really involved in aspects of a patient’s care.”
If you’ve recently been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease, your pharmacist is a great resource for learning more about medication and living a healthy lifestyle.
“We can talk to you about everything from your medication, how to take it properly, and the benefits of adherence... to other things involved in heart health, like a diet and exercise,” Papastergiou said. “We can put all these things together and really look at what we want to achieve with regards to patient outcome.”
When it comes to heart health management, the main role a pharmacist can play is educator.
“Your pharmacist can provide a lot of information and a lot of support in terms of healthy lifestyle choices to prevent heart health issues from occurring or worsening,” said Zubin Austin, academic director at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy in Toronto.
“This can range from general information about nutrition and exercise, to recommending over-the-counter products that actually help to sustain good cardiovascular health.”
Pharmacists can also help you manage the side effects of new medications.
“We can monitor you to make sure that the medications are actually doing what you think they’re doing,” Austin said. “And then work with the physician, in the event that the medication isn’t working as hoped or expected, to look at alternatives that better suit that particular patient.”
Your pharmacist can even help you establish heart health goals for the future.
“I also have patients that will sit with me and say (their) goal is to get off some medications,” Papastergiou said. “For hypertension, for example, we look at ways to get this patient’s blood pressure back to normal.”
According to Papastergiou, for some patients, making the right lifestyle changes can lower the required dose of a medication or even get the patient off of a medication completely.
“It goes beyond the pharmacological interventions. We start to look into the non-pharmacological things we can do for a patient that will help them meet their personal goals,” Papastergiou said.
"For hypertension, for example, we could explore the options for getting a patient's blood pressure back to normal. Maybe we could get them to a point where we could reduce the dose or get them off it completely, but it may involve something like weight loss (or) reducing your salt."
If any of your goals involve the help of another healthcare professional, you can also lean on your pharmacist to connect you with other people in your local healthcare network.
“Think of your pharmacy as the hub for healthcare in your local community,” Papastergiou said. “We’ve developed relationships with all the physicians in our area, all the other allied healthcare providers, and… when we’re all working together, that’s when you see the best outcomes for the patient.”
