>
>A year or more ago my family doctor mentioned that things such as
>margarine and some pills/caplets contained filler which had lactose in
>it. So I now ask the prescriber to check. He (it's always a he!) picks
>up a book from his shelf and reads what the medication contains. I've
>avoided several problems this way.
>
The book you refer to is probably the PDR, the Physician's Desk Reference.
It's a compendium of information about all prescription medications, with a
standard set of information provided for each medication. As the name
implies, it is used by physicians (but not only physicians) to determine
which medications to choose, the chemical composition of the medication,
what the appropriate dosage is, what contraindicates the medications use,
etc. It is highly technical, but does contain useful information for us
lay-people, including a list of the inactive ingredients and a list of
potential side effects and adverse reactions. The list of reactions and
side effects is pretty comprehensive and pretty scary for the untrained
reader, so it's usually a good idea to also get ahold of one of the
publications that is more greared to the general public so, for example,
you can get a better idea of the expected frequency of particular (rare)
side effects or adverse reactions. You can usually find a copy of the PDR
at your local library, although it might not be the most up-to-date
revision.

One thing to note: while it is pretty comprehensive, the PDR does not carry
a full listing of each instance of a generically prescribed medication
(such as amoxycillin), so in order to find out what is in the particular,
non-brand-name generic, he'll have to look at the circular that came along
with the bulk-packaged medication that he got from the manufacturer.


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Mark Feblowitz