Is Your Medicine Gluten Free?
Is Your Medicine Gluten Free? It’s not enough that those who suffer with coeliac disease have to endure monitoring everything they eat and drink. Gluten (the protein that causes the intestinal damage), is in some medicines too!
Gluten isn’t needed for any medicine to be effective but is commonly used as a thickener or filler to add bulk or shape. Gluten is also a pretty good digestible ‘glue’. So, one of the inactive ingredients in pills, etc. (sometimes called “exipients”) is frequently gluten. Unfortunately, it’s not always listed on the label.
Fortunately, more and more pharmacies are becoming sensitive to the need for many customers to have gluten free medicine. If the labels don’t explicitly say so, most pharmacists are happy to ensure your gluten free medicines are safe if you just ask. (Unlike some larger companies most pharmacies are small businesses and very accommodating to customers. They know you have choices and want to keep your business.)
The pharmacist should already know this, but ensure that no filler contains something called “pregelatinized starch” or “sodium starch glycolate.” Those are sometimes made from corn, potato, or even tapioca. But, unless the label (or your pharmacist) states it explicitly, it may just as likely be made from wheat.
Naturally, the same considerations apply to non-prescription medicines.
Either may also contain dextrates, dextrins, dextri-maltose, or maltodextrin. Despite the similar name, dextrose does not commonly contain gluten. It’s a sugar typically made from corn. However, there’s no 100% guarantee of that so it’s best to ask. If the answer is unobtainable, err on the side of caution and avoid that medicine.
When you can’t get reliable information about gluten in your medicine calling the drug company is one option. Ask for the marketing or customer service department. They don’t know the products as well as the production people, of course, but they’re much more inclined to get you an answer. (They’re responsible for boosting sales; production employees are not.)
That last piece of advice about gluten free mediine is theoretically sound but can be difficult to put in to practice. Sometimes the company itself doesn’t know for sure whether their products contain gluten. Among other complexities, they get raw materials from many other companies.
As a first effort (or last ditch effort, depending on your style) you can check the FAQ section of the manufacturers website. In any case, persistence tends to go a long way and in the end you’re the one who must be responsible for your health.
If you run into a brick wall there is still one more option. Some pharmacies practice something called “compounding.” i.e. they hand make your drugs. If you need it and can find one that does this they can generally use gluten-free ingredients.
That won’t help you with off-the-shelf products, of course. For those there’s just no substitute for word of mouth and research. Naturally, you should always double-check any item you find with a knowledgeable source to ensure that your medication really is 100% gluten free medicine.
Incoming searches:
- Medicines are not enough
- gluten free medicine
- medicine with gluten
- how can u tell if a medicine is gluten free
- free medicine pictures
- pregelatinized starch gluten free
- how to tell if there is gluten in medicine
- how to know if your medicine is gluten free
- how to determine if your gluten free
- how do you tell if gluten is in medicine?