← Beyond The Script
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- [00:07]
Dr. Jake Goodman
Ruby,
- [00:09]
CVS Pharmacy Announcer
is there anything I could be
- [00:11]
Dr. Jake Goodman
doing to help support my immune system?
- [00:13]
Marshall Carter
Can I do any health screenings here at the pharmacy?
- [00:16]
Dr. Jake Goodman
I was wondering if I should get a vaccine if I'm sick or take a rain check.
- [00:20]
Marshall Carter
Can I come to you for advice even if I'm not sick?
- [00:28]
Dr. Jake Goodman
We all have questions about our health, especially when we're trying to stay healthy in the first place. Proactive health or preventative care can feel a little abstract. What actually counts, what really makes a difference, and where do you even begin? That's why iHeartRadio has teamed up with CBS for Beyond the Script, a place to ask real life health questions and get clear, practical answers from pharmacists who have these conversations every single day in communities across the country. I'm Dr. Jake Goodman, a board certified psychiatrist and health educator. And in today's episode of beyond the Script, I'm joined by a CVS pharmacist to talk about how pharmacists can help you stay ahead of potential issues before they become bigger problems. When people hear Proactive Health, they often think about annual checkups or maybe a vaccine here or there. But prevention is about so much more than one appointment a year. It's about the daily habits, screenings, medication reviews, and small adjustments that can protect your long term health. There's so much health information out there, so some helpful and some confusing and it's not always clear what's worth your time. That's where pharmacists come in. They're some of the most accessible healthcare professionals out there and they can help you think through the medication safety, the screenings, lifestyle habits, and when it's time to follow up with the doctor. The goal to make staying ahead of your health feel a little less overwhelming and a lot more doable. And to help me talk about all of this is Marshall Carter, a licensed pharmacist and field Leader with CVS Health who spent 14 years helping expand pharmacy services and patient care. Marshall is deeply passionate about teaching future pharmacists and he lives with his husband, three kids and a French bulldog in Charlotte, North Carolina. Marshall, welcome to beyond the Script.
- [02:48]
Marshall Carter
Thanks for having me, Jay. Glad to be here.
- [02:51]
Dr. Jake Goodman
I'm excited to jump in. I do have to ask. French bulldog? I'm actually getting a dog tomorrow. This is very timely. So tell me a little bit about your dog, what their name is, and what the experience of having a French bulldog is like.
- [03:05]
Marshall Carter
He loves food and snacks. He has become my vacuum cleaner, unofficially, for all of the nuggets of food that my children drop on the floor. Unintentionally or intentionally. Some cases, they love to feed the dog. His name's Oliver. He's solid black brindle, so we named him after, like, a black olive. He's just full of loves and cuddles.
- [03:25]
Dr. Jake Goodman
Any tips for me for the puppy? Tomorrow, they will chew on everything as
- [03:29]
Marshall Carter
a puppy, so be ready to replace everything you can in your house after they grow out of the chewing phase.
- [03:35]
Dr. Jake Goodman
Thank you. That's great tips. All right, so teaching clearly seems like a central component of your career. I'd love to know what keeps you passionate about mentoring the next generation of pharmacists.
- [03:48]
Marshall Carter
I'm actually very passionate about education because that's the foundation of what we do as pharmacists. Every day is a new day. We're always learning. And to be able to give back to my profession is incredibly impactful for me.
- [04:00]
Dr. Jake Goodman
I love that. And I often find that when I'm teaching medical students or early docs that I learn so much from them. I don't know if you have the same experience.
- [04:10]
Marshall Carter
Oh, absolutely. It helps me stay on the top of my game, having to understand the latest clinical guidelines and the latest recommendations coming out of all of the clinical bodies that make decisions in our industry. And for me, teaching is a way that I can do both of those things at the same time, both improve myself, always be a lifelong learner, but always teach the next generation what I know to be better than me in the future.
- [04:36]
Dr. Jake Goodman
And we'll talk about this in much more depth. But I'd love to ask you, what are some of the most common questions about proactive health or preventative care that you get asked most often as a pharmacist?
- [04:49]
Marshall Carter
As a district leader, I'm a licensed pharmacist. It's over 17 locations. So that provides me the opportunity to go in and counsel patients in different formats throughout the community. We have city locations where we're getting a lot of travel, health question and preventative. Like, how do I keep myself healthy in an airplane when everyone's coughing and sneezing? And then we get the questions, you know, in the suburb areas where you have kids going to summer camps and all kinds of different fun places, activities, little gym, they're asking, hey, my kid's starting to sniffle. How do I keep myself from. From being a victim of the illness that they have? And so a lot of what we see in the retail setting is. Is a lot of preventable things. But keeping yourself from getting sick with good hand hygiene and taking actions that you can as an Adult keeping your house clean and doing all of the things from normal saline in the nose, but good hand hygiene and just keeping surfaces clean and disinfected is the step one for all of it.
- [05:46]
Dr. Jake Goodman
I'm glad you brought up saline. That's something that I got into a little bit later in life. I struggled with allergies throughout my life and then my doctor recommended that I try some nasal saline to kind of rinse things out. And. And that has been a game changer for me. For real?
- [06:01]
Marshall Carter
Yes. And there's lots of different options on the market for normal sailing rinses from NETI pots that are manual that you hold your head over a toilet or a sink and let everything kind of drain to some very expensive options that you place on your nose. And it runs everything through either battery power or electricity.
- [06:21]
Dr. Jake Goodman
So cool. I'd love to hear a little bit more about your community. I know you, you live with your family in, in Charlotte, North Carolina. So tell me a little bit about what you that's like living in Charlotte, like what your local area and community is like.
- [06:34]
Marshall Carter
Honestly, I just love the diversity of the city. I love how you have a whole array of people from a healthcare standpoint that you can take care of, from the folks who are finding themselves homeless or the folks who are living in situations with multifamily under one roof, or the people who have a lot of income. So we have a lot of conversations that we have here in Charlotte that are across the spectrum.
- [06:59]
Dr. Jake Goodman
And that's what I love about this podcast, is that we're really talking about ways in which you can speak to a pharmacist and how accessible pharmacists are. And in any community, especially diverse communities where there's a whole range of socioeconomic levels, anyone can walk into a CVS pharmacy and have a conversation with the pharmacist. And that conversation can help them learn critical information about their health that they might otherwise not obtain.
- [07:26]
Marshall Carter
Absolutely.
- [07:34]
Dr. Jake Goodman
So I'd love to jump in and talk about proactive health. I would imagine throughout the store, whether people are at the pharmacy counter or not, you are just constantly hearing people talk about health related topics.
- [07:48]
Marshall Carter
A lot of people have questions about vitamin C. You know, my grandmother told me I need to take vitamin C when I feel a cold coming on or that's just going to cure my cold. So we get a lot of those questions about all of the product lines that are out there that have vitamin C, ascorbic acid, or ascorbic potassium products that are a little easier on the stomach and so we always find ourselves having those conversations of does vitamin C really work? Does it have any data to support it? And digging into those kind of questions with customers tends to be the number one.
- [08:22]
Dr. Jake Goodman
I also hear that a lot. Even in my field. People are constantly asking about different vitamins that they can take. And I'd love to just talk a little bit about, like, what does the evidence actually show? What would you recommend for them?
- [08:35]
Marshall Carter
What I would want to do is ask some questions up front. Do you have any diseases that I should know about? Do you have any medications you may be taking, high blood pressure, diabetes, any sort of things like that? So if they're really sold on vitamin C, I can tell them what the data shows. They can get stomach aches and diarrhea because it's an acid, ascorbic acid, and it irritates the stomach lining. So there's a lot of different things that, that go into those recommendations. It's never a one size fits all for anything in otc. I know that you guys have topics coming up pretty soon about smoking and smoking cessation. And one thing we know about smokers is the cigarettes and the chemicals in that cause you to deplete your vitamin C levels, which can lead to issues down the road. We want to take the overall patients healthcare into account before we make a solid recommendation based off of risk versus benefit.
- [09:27]
Dr. Jake Goodman
I just took so many notes. That was absolutely incredible. Okay, so let me just back up here for a second. I was not aware that people that do smoke a lot may actually reduce the amount of vitamin C in their body. That is fascinating. And so for people that do smoke a lot, they might want to speak to their pharmacist or physician about supplementation with vitamin C in order to sort of make up for that loss.
- [09:51]
Marshall Carter
Absolutely. I always try to recommend to get diet dietary supplements from your diet, so from whole foods if possible. But if you have a diversion or aversion to eating specific foods, maybe a pill or a liquid may be the best bet for them.
- [10:08]
Dr. Jake Goodman
Interesting. And if someone said, marshall, I don't want to take vitamin C over the counter, what foods can I get it from?
- [10:15]
Marshall Carter
If it's orange, it's got vitamin C in it.
- [10:18]
Dr. Jake Goodman
I love it.
- [10:19]
Marshall Carter
Yeah. Grapefruit, cantaloupe, oranges, clearly that's the classic. But most fruits will have vitamin C in it naturally. Just some more concentrated than others.
- [10:30]
Dr. Jake Goodman
Why do you think that pharmacists are in such a unique position to help people be proactive?
- [10:37]
Marshall Carter
I think it's unique just because we're Very approachable in the retail setting. We're the last free healthcare resource that there is that patients that have no barrier to go up and ask questions, questions. And we really provide a gateway to help you solve on your own if it's not something serious or to refer to our partners who are going to make a diagnosis, like the physicians or nurse practitioners who can take that patient to the next level on their journey of health.
- [11:03]
Dr. Jake Goodman
I want to repeat that phrase you said. I've never heard that before. We are the last free healthcare resource available. Can you elaborate a little bit about that?
- [11:13]
Marshall Carter
Yeah. So when you go to the doctor's office, there's an office visit, there's a copay. When you go to the pharmacy and ask the question to the pharmacist, there's no cost involved. You just step up to the counter and ask the question. And we're not charging to give away free advice that has taken us years of education to get to. Right. For the majority of patients, you just walk up and ask your question and it's free information.
- [11:39]
Dr. Jake Goodman
I never thought about it like that. That is such an interesting way to put it. And I think we as a society could do more of that instead of getting a lot of our information from scrolling on social media to go to a pharmacy and speak to someone with years of experience trained to answer these questions for free. Now, when it comes to medications, what are the most common? Is this safe questions that you get?
- [12:10]
Marshall Carter
A lot of times patients will ask, can I take this supplement with my prescription medications? Or I have a gluten allergy. Does this product contain gluten as an inactive ingredient? Or I'm allergic to titanium dioxide, a common agent that's used to whiten tablets or whiten powders. We'll pull out the drug facts and comparisons, we'll look at the ingredient labels, we'll look at the inactive ingredient labels, we'll run drug checkers and interaction checkers for inactive ingredients. But more importantly, we talk about how are these over the counter supplements or herbs and some non traditional medicine. How do these show that they may interact with our liver to either speed up the metabolism of the drugs that we're taking or slow down and cause accumulation issues with blood pressure medications, with diabetes medications. So there's a lot of interactions that we'll screen for, not only from an allergy standpoint, but from a biopharmacogenetic standpoint of like, are you someone that this is going to create an issue for? But there's a lot of over the counter items that interact with commonly prescribed medications to treat chronic illnesses. And we want to be aware of that when we're having these conversations.
- [13:20]
Dr. Jake Goodman
Right. And so just as humans, we all have sort of different ways in which we're metabolizing these medications. And sometimes people will process them differently than others. And that's sort of one of the reasons why some people tend to have more side effects of medications than others. It's so interesting. I'd love to touch on supplements because I feel like this is a space that so many people are interested in these days. A lot of people feel that supplements are always necessary to maintain good health. Is this true?
- [13:52]
Marshall Carter
No. I mean it's in the definition of the word supplement. Right. It's to add to, to enhance. Right. So we want to try and make sure that our patients are set up for success in a well rounded diet. So there's a lot of things that go into play when we think about supplements and we want to make sure that the things that they're being added to are absolutely necessary. Because what we find a lot of times is people will take multiple supplements and guess what? Vitamin D's in all of them. So not only are you getting it from your diet, if you're getting from your multivitamin, you're getting it from your vitamin D supplement you're taking separately, you're getting it from your milk that's fortified with vitamin D. There's all of this that you have to take the full picture in for the patient, which is why it's so incredibly important to look at diet and nutrition prior to recommending any supplements.
- [14:42]
Dr. Jake Goodman
So I think that's really interesting that there, there can be adverse effects and side effects from consuming too much of almost anything out there. Another thing you mentioned, vitamin D. I'm glad you brought that up. A lot of times what I do with my patients the first day they come into clinic is we look, we do a medication and supplement reconciliation where we go and look line by line. Is there redundance here? Is there three or four supplements that are giving vitamin D? And vitamin D is one of those vitamins that is a fat soluble vitamin. It doesn't just come out in our urine. So we store it over time. And that can be dangerous as well if you have very high levels of vitamin D. So more is not always better. I'm so glad that you brought that up. So I wanted to ask, there's a lot of trending supplements out there. I see em all over social media. What are some red flags that you see when it comes to trending supplements or just social media health advice in general.
- [15:40]
Marshall Carter
I think in general people tend to trust their friends a lot more who don't have or do not have any medical training at all just because their friends taking it and it's working for them. I know my grandmother, she is 90 plus years old. She goes to her local restaurant every morning for breakfast. She sits down with the girls in her group and they talk about everything they're taking and what's working to treat their pains and their back. And suddenly everybody's swallowing aloe juice because it's good for one person, it's good for all right. And so that's what we really want to educate on. If you've been on something especially like a fat soluble vitamin A, D, E and K, follow your doctor's directions if it's right for you. But doctor and pharmacist are going to be your go to.
- [16:19]
Dr. Jake Goodman
Absolutely. So, so important to keep pharmacists and physician in mind and just to touch base on the the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. So when we say fat soluble, those are the ones that hang around, they get stored in your fat. The other vitamins, you know, like these vitamin Bs, if you take too much, you tend to urinate them out. So essentially sometimes people quite frankly are paying a lot of money for expensive urine with vitamin A, D, E and K. You don't just urinate it out, it can store in your body. So it's important to make sure that you're consume if you are having these vitamins, that you have the right amount and that you're making sure that for example, you're getting your vitamin D checked. So if any of you are taking supplements, talk to your doctor, talk to your pharmacist to make sure that you have guidance there instead of just going into the store and saying, hmm, this looks good and buying it. I'd love to chat about some of the interactions because I feel like that's something that we don't think about. We go to the store, we buy a supplement, we might not think in the back of our head, is this going to interfere with, you know, my high blood pressure medication or birth control or what have you. So how often do you see potential medication interactions involving supplements and prescription medication?
- [17:32]
Marshall Carter
Almost daily. And you know, to that point, when the healthcare community designs medication, their primary goal is to figure out how to get that medication early past all of our primary defenses and all of our barriers in our body and not being destroyed by the stomach acid and get it absorbed into the bloodstream where it can circulate and do what it needs to do. And if you disrupt that with a lot of vitamins or a lot of compounds, that it can create absorption issues or your drug has become inactive or chelation, things get stuck together. Which is why we don't want to take iron containing products or calcium containing products with our thyroid medication, because it can stick to the medication and it can cause it to not be absorbed. So all of these are things that we think about when supplementation's applied with the background of a patient's full medication profile.
- [18:19]
Dr. Jake Goodman
And that's why it's just so important to have these conversations with your pharmacist and with your doc just about, hey, I'm thinking about taking this calcium, biotin, whatever it is, is this safe for me to take with the medications that I'm currently on? It's kind of like the wild, wild west out there sometimes with supplements, and there's no one sort of guiding you when you purchase them. And I just want to make a quick aside here. If I was listening to this and I wasn't in healthcare, I might think like, wow, Marshall and Jake are saying supplements are really scary. Maybe I shouldn't take them. And I don't want to paint the picture that all supplements are bad and that they don't have their purpose, because they do. It's just important to know the whole picture and to have a skilled, experienced healthcare professional guiding you through it.
- [19:06]
Marshall Carter
Absolutely.
- [19:08]
Dr. Jake Goodman
I'd love to transition to vaccines. What vaccine questions are you hearing most right now?
- [19:15]
Marshall Carter
So right now, with the most recent COVID vaccine that came out around October or November of last year, people are starting to talk because the guidelines for the 65 and older folks who would qualify for another dose, if that's right for them.
- [19:29]
CVS Pharmacy Announcer
Right.
- [19:29]
Marshall Carter
And so we get a lot of questions about, well, what are the guidelines say for someone like me? And so we do a lot of screening from that area when it comes to preventative vaccine care. We also talking about HPV awareness and the cancers associated with that along with hepatitis B and the potential for liver cancer down the line if you're infected with, with the hepatitis B virus. And so we have options for people to weigh if it's right for them or the risk versus benefit. But pharmacists are very clearly accessible to help you make a good decision that's right for you. There's clearly no judgment on our part. We help you come to the that's right for you, and we respect that decision.
- [20:09]
Dr. Jake Goodman
It's a mutual conversation. It's a collaboration. I had a situation once where I started to get sick and I had a vaccine scheduled for the following day and I wasn't quite sure what to do. So what would you advise someone, if they are feeling unwell, whether it might be best to reschedule a routine vaccination?
- [20:30]
Marshall Carter
Well, so. So I always caveat this with talk to your healthcare professional, whether that's pharmacist or doctor. The more you delay in getting a vaccine, you run the risk of getting exposed to that pathogen and creating an illness that could be severe or life threatening. So we never wanna delay care when possible. We wanna get the vaccine in as early as possible. But sometimes there's just not the perfect timing. We have to just weigh the risk versus benefit. We with if you're taking antibiotic, are you in an area where you're exposed to a lot of flu or Covid, Is this the right time for you to get the vaccine? Can there be a reduced immune response based off of you taking a steroid by mouth for like a knee injury? Right, so there's all of these things that we have to take into account from a case by case basis. But at the end of the day, delaying a vaccine product if it's right for you increases the risk that you're exposed. Exposed and without any protection.
- [21:26]
Dr. Jake Goodman
Yeah, risk, benefit. A delay of two or three weeks could be the difference between you getting the flu and not getting the flu. So I'm really glad you brought that up. Earlier in the podcast, we were talking a little bit about traveling and you get a lot of questions from people who would like to know how they can protect their health while they are planning a trip. So what advice can you give people about being proactive about their health while they're traveling or when they're in the early stages of planning a trip?
- [21:54]
Marshall Carter
Well, there's two phases of travel health that we want to talk about and the first one are preventative care vaccines. So we want to talk about what are the vaccines in the area that are recommended for you if you're traveling, those sorts of things. And then the second thing we want to talk about is good hygiene and cleaning your hands because you're touching a lot of things that maybe your body's not used to and eating things your body's not used to as well. And so traveler's diarrhea is the number one thing that we talk about. When people are travel, they want to have Imodium or Pepto Bismol in their back pocket. Like, ready to go. So we're very cautious when we talk about that. Those over the counter products with travel Health, just because we want to take a look at what the patient's taking. Because again, over the counter medications, just like supplements, carry a risk of interaction with blood pressure or with a disease state. So we always want to take that full patient into mind when they're traveling. And then the last thing that I always say is, enjoy your trip. I wish I was going with you.
- [22:48]
Dr. Jake Goodman
I just had a total flashback of me having traveler's diarrhea one of the last times that I traveled. And for those who have not experienced it, you are lucky. And for those who have experienced it, you know exactly what I'm talking about. So we know that if you are someone who smokes, then quitting can be a great way to help avoid a lot of future health issues. What are some of the ways that a pharmacist can help you navigate quitting?
- [23:16]
Marshall Carter
So there are a lot of options, and it's state by state specific. So in some states, pharmacists can prescribe nicotine replacement therapy to help patients quit smoking because it is an addiction to a chemical. So we can talk about nicotine replacement gum or lozenges or patches. We also want to talk about cognitive behavioral therapy, too, because you're creating a new routine that may have been your crutch when you were smoking. When you're stressed out, you go and smoke, or when you're starting a new project, you go and smoke. And so that routine is kind of ingrained deeply in who you have become. How do you now relieve your stress or anxiety or deal with that emotion outside of running to that cigarette? That used to be how you process that emotion. Right. So cognitive behavioral therapy is incredibly important way to address smoking cessation. In addition to, you know, some people are, are okay with stopping cold turkey with no problems, and some people need the help, and it's okay to need the help.
- [24:16]
Dr. Jake Goodman
I'm so glad you brought up cognitive behavioral therapy. I'm very biased. I'm a psychiatrist. I do CBT or cognitive behavioral therapy with pretty much all my clients. So it is just such an effective way to reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, quitting, some sort of addiction, whether it's alcohol or nicotine. One thing I wanted to touch on real quick, I hear a lot of people say, well, nicotine replacement therapy, isn't that just replacing a drug for a drug?
- [24:44]
Marshall Carter
So you are replacing a drug for a drug, but it's a drug with less of a risk of Burning an airway. We know some tobacco products that are oral can cause long term cancer and create oral health issues. So like you are replacing it with a pharmaceutical grade nicotine product, but it's a taper. The goal is to not stay on it. It's to reduce it week over week until you're not using it at all. And so that unlike a cigarette, it's kind of hard to stop halfway through a cigarette and throw the rest away. There's a lot of science behind it.
- [25:18]
Dr. Jake Goodman
And just be making sure that when you're ready to quit, you talk to your pharmacist, you talk to your physician and you start making moves to eliminate something that could be harming you. I like to transition to screenings because health screenings are just such an important part of preventative care. What kind of health screenings can people access through a pharmacy?
- [25:40]
Marshall Carter
So there's a lot of health screenings that we sell as over the counter kits. There's a lot of colon cancer awareness now with our Western diet, we're seeing a lot of gut health issues. So there's a lot of colorectal cancer awareness coming out now. So those kits that you do mail in a sample of your fecal matter into the companies that are going to tell you if you're positive for X, Y and Z and to follow up with your physician. And sometimes they actually have folks who you put in your physician's information. They actually reach out and contact your doctor on your behalf, with your permission, clearly, and say, hey, they did this test, they're positive. You may want to follow up. Right? And so like colorectal kits, those are some of the bigger ones that we see more frequently.
- [26:20]
Dr. Jake Goodman
I feel like there's so much that we can do from a proactive health standpoint when it comes to things that you can get in the pharmacy by talking to your doctor, by talking about your pharmacist. I'd love to touch on lifestyle approaches to being proactive with your health. Things like, like sleep or hydration or nutrition, movement, exercise, moderate exercise is actually
- [26:44]
Marshall Carter
good for bone health. It's good for your physical health, for weight management, it's good for mental health, it's good for memory retention. There's all of these data points and studies that show how good moderate exercise is for you. There's some very interesting studies coming out in brain health and mental health in that the only time that our brain is cleansed of the toxic aftermath and things that are going on throughout the day, the only time that our body flushes those out is when we're asleep. And so if you're not sleeping and getting healthy night, like seven hours of sleep minimum, your body's not getting a chance to restore and reset your day for an environmental attack day too. Right. And we really want to think about staying hydrated. So our immune system is reconstituted, to use a pharmacy word, but to also think about how our brain health is. We have clarity of thought, we can process our emotions, we have healthy conversations because we're mentally able to have those with not a lot of noise going on in the background because we've had a good night's rest and we've cleansed our mental health well being from all of the physical toxins that have occurred throughout the day. So sleep hygiene is critical. I always tell patients like, follow good sleep hygiene.
- [28:05]
Dr. Jake Goodman
If this conversation about sleep has your interest piqued, tune in next episode because we're going to talk all about sleep. It's a topic that I'm immensely passionate about. And you mentioned the process of removing some of the toxins and wastes that's the glymphatic system in the brain. Fascinating. And we're just learning so much about this now. So when you're able to get that seven plus hours of sleep, you're able
- [28:26]
Marshall Carter
to just get so much of that
- [28:28]
Dr. Jake Goodman
garbage that builds up throughout the day and sort of dispose of it. So excited to talk about that next episode. I feel like it's when we're having a conversation about wellbeing, it's hard to have this conversation without talking about access to healthcare. And I know that there's plenty of communities that are underserved when it comes to access. I'd imagine that this can have a huge impact on their wellbeing, right?
- [28:53]
Marshall Carter
Oh, absolutely. One of my passions is serving the underserved and giving a voice to people who feel voiceless. Because I know there are people who don't have options. They can't afford to go to the doctor and I'm free. Come to me, let me help you how I can help you or find a resource for you. We're here for your full body, your full mind, your health, overall health, and thinking about all the hats that a community pharmacist will wear. And the same thing with a doctor. How many times does someone come into an office visit and you hear everything you never thought you were going to hear before you get to what you really need to hear about their visit that day. Right. But you know, some of those conversations do lead us to. You know, I'm really glad you said that. Because that's probably what's causing this other thing over here. So let's talk about that for a minute. Adherence is the number one thing we talk about in. In community pharmacy and medication reconciliation coming out of hospitals. And like, okay, there's a lot of providers you saw here. Let's whittle this down, because this is a duplication or this interacts, and maybe this person didn't know you were taking that. So we do a lot of medication reconciliation as well, especially for our populations who may be seeing a lot of different providers at a lot of different health departments because they don't have a primary care physician.
- [30:04]
Dr. Jake Goodman
It does seem like pharmacists are just jack of all trades. They can do the reconciliation, which is sort of a breakdown of all the medications and what to keep and what to drop. They help patients with cost and affordability to make sure that the patients can afford the medication. They act as social workers at times, connecting them to different community resources. They are. They're health educators. You come to the pharmacist and you can learn so much about health, and they're experts at medications. So it's just fascinating to learn all this. And this podcast has been so enjoyable to see how accessible and diverse the work that you guys do is. It's just incredible. What would you say to someone who feels embarrassed about asking a basic health question?
- [30:52]
Marshall Carter
You know, there's a lot of females who come to me as a male, and they're embarrassed to ask questions about menstruation or their daughter's first period. And so I want to make sure, first and foremost, I want to assure them that we're all healthcare professionals and I treat my job seriously and there's no judgment. So you can can ask me the questions that I'm trained to answer, and I'm happy to help you. And there's zero judgment. So I want to lower the stigma that a female can't ask a male a healthcare question. I may not be the absolute expert in that process because I don't physically go through it myself, but I tell you, I work extra hard to make sure I understand it, and I can do a really good job connecting the dots. If I can't reach you on the level that you're looking for, I can connect the dots with a provider who's able to meet you where you are. We get all kinds of questions, and there truly is no judgment.
- [31:45]
Dr. Jake Goodman
Absolutely. Okay, so we're going to take a quick break, but don't go anywhere, because up next, let's have A look at some of the most common beliefs and social media trends that we hear about preventative health and find out are they myth or medicine? We'll be right back.
- [32:19]
CVS Pharmacy Announcer
Good questions, real answers from cvs. CVS pharmacists hear questions that go beyond prescriptions, the kind that just come up in daily life. Like this one. How do I actually know the ingredients in my vitamins are accurate? It's a fair question because when you're taking something every day, you want to trust what's on the label. That's why our pharmacists recommend products that are tested, verified, and held to real standards. So what's listed is exactly what you're getting and nothing you don't need. At cvs, that trust is built in. CVS was the first national retailer to require third party testing and verification for all of its vitamins and supplements, confirming labeled ingredients are accurate and free from certain additives and contaminants. It's one more way CVS helps take the guesswork out of everyday health decisions. CVS is here to help answer the questions that matter today and every day. So talk to your CVS pharmacist or learn more@cvs.com.
- [33:23]
Dr. Jake Goodman
Welcome back to beyond the script. I'm Dr. Jake Goodman and I'm here with CVS pharmacist Martin Marshall Carter from Charlotte, North Carolina. All right, Marshall, it's time for a feature that we do on every episode where we look at some of the health claims that we may see online that perhaps we're not sure whether to believe, and ask ourselves, are they myth or medicine? Today we're discussing proactive health. Are you ready? I'm ready.
- [34:01]
Marshall Carter
Let's do this, Jake.
- [34:02]
Dr. Jake Goodman
All right. If I feel fine, I don't need to bother with screenings like cholesterol tests. Is that myth or medicine?
- [34:11]
Marshall Carter
Myth. I say myth because there are a lot of diseases that can be a problem that you don't know you have because they're not giving you any issues. High blood pressure can be a silent killer, so we want to make sure that you're getting screened for blood pressure regularly.
- [34:28]
Dr. Jake Goodman
Absolutely. Just because you don't see the high blood pressure or the high cholesterol doesn't mean you shouldn't be checked. Okay. You should wear sunscreen daily even if you're not lying out in the sun. Is that myth or medicine?
- [34:42]
Marshall Carter
That's medicine. There are ultraviolet rays that penetrate the clouds that you cannot see that are attacking your DNA at a cellular level and causing damage that can lead to long carcinomas or Skin cells that mutate and cause issues.
- [34:57]
Dr. Jake Goodman
I remember learning that in med school, and then at a certain point I just said, okay, I'm wearing sunscreen 24 7. Okay, maybe not while I'm sleeping, but pretty much from the second I wake up to when I go to sleep, I got sunscreen on because I am not playing with getting skin cancer runs rampant in my family. So I'm glad you brought that up. Getting good quality sleep each night can actually help support my immune system. Is that myth or medicine?
- [35:24]
Marshall Carter
That's more and more medicine each day that we're learning about the brain and how it works at nighttime,
- [35:31]
Dr. Jake Goodman
Regular physical activity reduces risk for chronic diseases. Myth or medicine?
- [35:39]
Marshall Carter
That's medicine. So regular activity at a moderate level can keep you healthy longer.
- [35:46]
Dr. Jake Goodman
I feel like we can do a whole podcast just about how regular exercise could reduce risk of chronic diseases. And we would just list off all of the diseases in which exercise has evidence of reducing. And I feel like that podcast itself would just be about 30 minutes of us just going back and forth between different chronic illnesses. Absolutely. Checking your blood sugar at home is a useful tool for preventing diabetes complications. Myth or medicine?
- [36:14]
Marshall Carter
I think for patients who are diagnosed diabetic, then that's medicine. But for the general population, a yearly screening is sufficient.
- [36:22]
Dr. Jake Goodman
Pharmacists can advise on subtle side effects of medications that your doctor might not mention. Myth or medicine?
- [36:31]
Marshall Carter
Medicine. We're all very busy these days, and so it's good to have a second set of eyes like the pharmacist who's super skilled and trained to look for those subtle differences.
- [36:40]
Dr. Jake Goodman
Absolutely. And I could speak from experience. It is sometimes immensely helpful to have a pharmacist send me a message. Hey, just want to make sure you are aware of this potential adverse effect or side effect of medication. It's so helpful just to have two providers on board because people do miss things and mistakes do happen. Pharmacists can guide you on over the counter remedies that won't just mask symptoms, but can actually address root causes. Is that myth or medicine?
- [37:10]
Marshall Carter
That's medicine. We like to use our practice whenever possible to exercise our clinical abilities in that area.
- [37:18]
Dr. Jake Goodman
Your pharmacist can tell you if a new symptom is something that you can treat at home or needs a doctor. Myth or medicine?
- [37:27]
Marshall Carter
That's medicine. We're super skilled at knowing when to refer and when you can self treat.
- [37:33]
Dr. Jake Goodman
All right, well, that is it for this round of Myth or Medicine. Thank you so much for joining me today, Marshall. I learned a ton from you. I took tons of notes from the vitamin C depletion amongst people who smoke. I have a list of like 15 bullet points that I took from our conversation today. I just had such an amazing time talking with you and I can't thank you enough for coming out today.
- [38:10]
Marshall Carter
Thank you for having me, Jake.
- [38:17]
Dr. Jake Goodman
Next time on beyond the Script, we are diving into sleep why it matters, what can disrupt it, and the small changes that can help you rest better. We will explore practical tips, common sleep challenges, and how pharmacists can support healthier sleep habits to improve your overall well being. For more information about everything we've talked about on today's episode, Please head to cvs.com pharmacy and for ongoing health and wellness advice you can trust anytime, don't forget to to follow CVS on social media. VSPharmacy beyond the Script is produced in partnership with CVS Pharmacy and iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio. Our show is hosted by me, Dr. Jake Goodman. Our producers are Sam Walker, Julie Belewski, Carter Wogan and Marina Paiz, with original music by Max Hirschenau. Ruby's managing EP is Matt Romano and our EP of post production is James Foster. Of course, a big thank you to our friends at CVS and their incredible pharmacists. Until next time, don't forget to rate and review the show wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening.
- [39:42]
CVS Pharmacy Announcer
If this episode sparked questions or gave you something new to think about, that's exactly what it was meant to do. Because learning about your health doesn't end when the episode does. New questions often come up later in everyday moments when you're making health decisions or thinking about what's right for you or someone you love. And when that happens, CVS is here to help. Our pharmacists are available to answer questions in person as well as trusted resources. You can explore anytime at the wellness zone@cvs.com learn. So talk to your CVS pharmacist today because good questions deserve real answers. This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.