Sports training and intense competitions put tremendous strain on the body. Sports injuries can also happen any time and impact an athlete’s ability to work out and compete – sometimes for long periods. Athletes in all sports need to pay just as close attention to their injuries and unique health concerns as they do to their training.
In some cases, injured athletes need several medications to recover from their injuries. Others may simply want a healthy means of increasing their performance with nutritional supplements. For both cases, the Compounding Pharmacy of America can help.
How Does Compounding Sports Medications Work?
Purchasing compounding medications is a great way to get exactly the right medication. Some generic medications and delivery forms may not work for all people who suffer sports-related injuries. Everyone has different needs when it comes to pain management as well. Many medications from typical pharmacies may be restricted in variety, dosage size, delivery method, and additives that may cause adverse reactions in some patients.
Compounding services allow patients to receive their medication in the form that works best for them. Some people may need a liquid version of a medication that is usually only available in pill form. Others may require specific dosage sizes that a manufacturer discontinued to avoid pill cutting and other tedious dosage tracking methods. Compounding also allows a patient to take several medications in a single, easy to track dose and add nutritional supplements that aid the recovery process after an injury.
Address Unique Health Concerns With Compounding
Virtually every athlete needs some type of method for managing the fatigue and pain of intense training and sports injuries. But what is pain management? Effective treatment of pain requires much more than simply eliminating symptoms. Typical painkillers can also be habit-forming and damage an athlete’s ability to perform.
Many athletes experience several adverse health conditions at once from intense training and injuries. For example, an athlete may sustain an acute injury that leaves him or her in recovery for an extended time and also struggle with soft tissue damage from repetitive injuries over years of athletic activity. A compounded medication can address the symptoms of an acute injury while supporting recovery from degenerative conditions. This is just one example of how compounding medication services can be very valuable to athletes.
Avoiding Allergic Reactions And Other Unique Concerns
Some athletes may suffer from food allergies or other drug sensitivities that make it difficult to find appropriate medications from traditional pharmacies. For example, an athlete with a gluten allergy may need a medication that usually includes a gluten-based additive. Compounding services can help the athlete with a medication that doesn’t include any gluten-based ingredients while still providing the same level of relief.
Advanced pain management is also easier with compounding services. For example, many athletes receive prescriptions for painkillers after injuries, and the risk of addiction may be a concern. Compounding can offer tapered dosages for the healing process that limits the risk of addiction. Additionally, interventional pain management for chronic pain is also easier with compounding because a patient can add nutritional supplements that enhance the efficacy of their pain management medication.
Topical Medications
Many athletes suffer muscle pain and fatigue from repeated training sessions and intense competitions. In some cases, pain medications in pill form may not treat the exact spots of the body experiencing the most pain. Topical medications like creams and ointments can provide more precisely-targeted pain relief. These medications are especially effective for soft tissue injuries and muscle strain, parts of the body just below the surface of the skin where topical medications can easily reach and treat pain quickly.
Another advantage to topical medications is they are less likely to become lost in the bloodstream. A typical pain medication taken orally may disperse through the patient’s body without applying specific attention to the injured area. Instead, topical medication allows the patient to precisely target his or her pain for faster relief.
Nutritional Support With Compounding
Athletes generally keep close tabs on their diet and supplement intake. Some athletes take nutritional supplements that stimulate muscle growth and help muscles heal faster after workouts and competitions. Some supplements can help an athlete retain more nutrients from his or her diet, and compounding allows an athlete to personalize his or her nutritional supplements.
Some athletes may want to take supplements typically available in limited varieties, and the Compounding Pharmacy of America can help devise supplement replacements or variations that suit an individual athlete’s needs.
Creating Personalized Health Plans With Compounding
Athletes benefit from compounding services in many ways. They can handle acute pain, manage the symptoms of chronic and degenerative conditions, and enhance their diets with easy-to-manage compounded medications. It’s much easier to track multiple medications with a single daily dose. Instead of cutting pills or eyeballing tapered doses, compounded medications can help an athlete wean off of a medication safely and easily with customized dosages.
Some athletes may also prefer specific brands of supplements or receive prescriptions for expensive brand-name drugs. The Compounding Pharmacy of America can help athletes find off-brand alternatives to brand name drugs and supplements for valuable savings. Athletes generally require long-term nutritional and medical support, especially after an injury, and compounding services allow them to easily manage their medications and supplements over time.
Why Start Compounding?
If you have suffered a sports-related injury and want to find an alternative to the usual prescription, or are worried about additives, preservatives, or side effects of brand-name drugs, the Compounding Pharmacy of America can help. Athletes take care of their bodies and having personalized, compounded medication makes this much easier so they can focus their attention toward training and competing at their best.
Learn more about how the Compounding Pharmacy of America’s sports medicine services can help athletes take medications consistently and correctly and determine new ways to enhance their diets and workout regimens with professionally-prepared compounded medications and supplements.
Chief Operating Officer, The Compounding Pharmacy of America
Matthew Poteet, Pharm.D. graduated with Honors from Lee University with a Bachelors of Science in Biological Science. After his undergraduate training, he completed the Doctor of Pharmacy program at Mercer University Southern School of Pharmacy, graduating in 2004. Dr. Poteet has spent much of his pharmacy career on staff at two of the most prestigious academic teaching hospitals in the Southeast; Emory University in Atlanta and Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. At these institutions he received extensive experience and training in sterile products compounding.
He returned home to East Tennessee in 2010, where he has held the position of Pharmacy Director at two sterile products pharmacies in Knoxville. Matthew lives in Knoxville with his wife, Chris. Dr. Poteet is Tennessee’s first Board Certified Anti-Aging Pharmacist by the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine.
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