Cigarette smoking is recognized to have a negative influence on long-term health. Many smokers suffer chronic ailments such as peripheral artery disease, atherosclerosis, heart disease, stroke, COPD, diabetes, and lung cancer (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2017). People are frequently cautioned about the dangers of cigarette smoking, but many fail to quit due to nicotine’s addictiveness (CDC, 2017). Nicotine addiction makes it extremely difficult for someone who has gone a long time without smoking to quit (CDC, 2017). It can create unpleasant withdrawal symptoms, which is why many individuals struggle to quit (CDC, 2017). Smoking not only has negative health consequences, but the nicotine in it also affects how other drugs are digested. Most notably, nicotine significantly decreases the concentration of certain drugs in the blood, including psychiatric meds and blood pressure medications like Propranolol (Pharmacy Times, 2016). Nicotine also has an effect on medications such as Coumadin, insulin, and caffeine, requiring greater doses to create an effect (Pharmacy Times, 2016). This can be extremely harmful for a patient who requires any of these medications since the doctor may increase the dosage unnecessarily in order to boost the efficacy of these medications (Pharmacy Times, 2016). When prescription medication for elderly persons, a reasonable rule of thumb is to “start low and go slow.” It is often more difficult for our elderly people’s bodies to process drugs. They may require a lesser amount of medication to generate an effect than a younger individual. This is problematic if a patient who smokes is given a dosage increase because nicotine reduces therapeutic efficacy. It is critical that the older adult patient constantly informs their main health care provider whether or not they smoke, how frequently they smoke, how long they have smoked, and how much they smoke. All of these factors can have an impact on the efficacy of drugs in the patient’s body.
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