This is an article I wrote about 2 years ago.  I was getting questions from patients who wanted to improve their health or get off medication, so I’d print this for them to take home and read.

How I dramatically improved my health with one simple change, and you can too!

My story is probably a lot like yours.  I try to follow a healthy diet, but even when I start with the best of intentions I fail miserably.  One week it can be trying to limit my simple carbs (i.e. sugars) but then I get to work and, someone brings in donuts.  Great.  The next week I’ll try to increase my salad intake; that lasts until lunch. Then I’m starving.  And on and on and on.

This is a vicious cycle, barely keeping the hunger at bay and having this guilty feeling that if I just had a wee bit more will power I could control these urges to overeat or not eat the wrong things.  To make matters worse, I’m a pharmacist, so I see the ravages of diabetes daily, a direct consequence of poor dietary habits.  Patients come into the pharmacy with a prescription and leave with sometimes 10 medications in their shopping bag.  Was this my future?  I needed a different path.

So what happened?  How did I go from eating 2-3 servings of vegetables a week to eating 7-8 servings per day?  I began blending green leafy vegetables in a powerful blender.  I added them to some fruit and a little water and blended to a smooth consistency.  This allowed me to drink greater amounts than I could eat.

A typical smoothie that I like to make has 4 cups of spinach, ½ cup of frozen pineapple, ½ cup of frozen mango, a cucumber, 3 celery hearts, a dash of stevia, and some water.  I blend this mixture until it has a smooth creamy texture.  I find it delicious and refreshing.  This is just one option for you to follow:  you can add more greens, take out the fruit, thicken or thin the consistency.  It’s really up to you.  A rule of thumb however is the darker green the smoothie the better.  This lets me know that there is an abundance of chlorophyll inside. It’s known to have many different healing properties along with an abundance of vitamins and minerals.

I try to consume at least 1 prepared green smoothie daily.  I find that when I am doing this, I have more energy, feel lighter, and my mood is elevated.  I’ve also lost 10 pounds without really trying.  This is simply a result of replacing one meal with my green smoothie.

Is this something that may interest you?  If you follow these simple steps it will make it very easy to implement into your daily life:

1. Buy a powerful blender.  I personally own a Vitamix. There are other less expensive blenders but this works the best and is worth the initial investment.
2. Shop for organic produce at local farmers markets or stores such as Whole Foods.
3. Use frozen fruit.  It is just as healthy as fresh fruit and it helps to make your smoothie colder.

Follow these suggestions and I’m confident you will reap the rewards of glowing health for years to come and potentially stave off disease including cancer.

This is a preview of an upcoming ad in the Merced Sun Star

Stop!  Before you fill another prescription for a Compounded Medication, please read the following message; it may save your life!

What do YOU look for in a Compounding pharmacy?

If you’re like most people you really can’t answer that question.

Probably one you haven’t thought about much is it?

Choosing your compounding pharmacy is as important as picking your doctor.

Here’s why.

Generally getting a prescription filled for a traditional medication is the same wherever you go.  A tablet is a tablet and a capsule is a capsule.

Compounded medications are a lot more complicated than that.  They have to be individually prepared by a compounding pharmacist. The differences between the quality and skill levels of individual compounding pharmacies can be as great as night and day!

To make things confusing, ANY pharmacy can call themselves a compounding pharmacy even if they don’t have the training behind them to back it up!

All they have to be is a licensed pharmacy…nothing more.  

•  No special qualifications
•  No special licenses
•  No extra training

Just a license to operate a pharmacy.  If one of the major pharmacy chains wanted to put ‘compounding’ in their name, they could do it. There’s nothing that says they can’t.

So here are a few steps you can take to help you choose the compounding pharmacy that’s right for you.

1. Is the pharmacy PCAB accredited?  

PCAB stands for Pharmacy Compounding Accreditation Board.  PCAB accredited pharmacies have gone the extra mile in complying with nationally accepted standards for compounding pharmacies.

What’s this mean to you?  You will be getting your compounds from a trusted source.  You can rest assured that protocols have been established and followed each and every time your prescription is prepared.  Our pharmacy was recently recognized by PCAB and received accreditation (one of under 200 compounding pharmacies in the United States!)

Look, you want only the best for you and your family.  Compounded medications are serious business, you want it prepared only by the most qualified. The PCAB accreditation seal lets you rest easy and know you’re in good hands.

2.  What type of training has the pharmacy staff received?

All of our pharmacists have been to the intense compounding training provided by PCCA (Professional Compounding Centers of America). It was there that we developed a skill set that is unparalleled in the Merced area.

For example we recently spent 3 years developing and perfecting a formula for a prescription face cream that we’ve tested extensively with absolutely fantastic results.  Our foundation with PCCA gave us the ability to think critically and get through the various challenges we faced preparing our cream.

3.  Can the pharmacy attest to the quality and source of their chemicals?

Without the finest chemicals available the compounds we prepare would not be up to the standards we set for our pharmacy.  We will work only with the best companies that deliver the purest, pharmacologically active ingredients money can buy.

It may cost us more but we will not compromise our standards with sub-par chemicals! 

When your doctor orders a compounded medication he or she needs to be confident that whatever they wrote is what you, the patient, is going to get.  Otherwise, how will they know if their therapy works or not?  If they order something and the product prepared doesn’t have enough (or too much of) the active ingredient, then wrong conclusions can be made and there can be disastrous results.

Ask us about where we purchase our chemicals; we have Certificates of Analysis (CofA) for each and every chemical in our inventory.  This certificate attests to the purity and source of the chemical we purchased.

4.  Does the pharmacy perform batch testing on their compounded prescriptions?

Dovetailing with point 3 is the question about testing.  To minimize human error and to keep our skills sharp we use an outside testing company (Eagle Analytical Testing) to put samples of our compounded medications through a series of tests to show the purity and potency of our compounded medications.  This is just another way for you, the customer to feel safe and secure in the knowledge that we don’t cut corners and that we take great pride in preparing customized medication for you.

Again, it costs us financially but in the long run we feel it’s well worth it to assure your safety!

So remember to keep these 4 points in mind the next time you need to have a compounded medication prepared.

Or…you could have it prepared at Valley Prescription and Compounding Pharmacy with the assurance that all of these points are met and that your safety and satisfaction are our number one priority.

Mention this ad and receive 10% off of your next compound!

 Requesting refills through our website now fully automated

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