Miracle Drug or Product? Check the Facts with DailyMed

Any product can claim to be a miracle drug. From cures for baldness to weight loss wonder pills, drug, nutrition and cosmetic store shelves are stock full of products making wild, often too good to be true claims.

And as any informercial watcher can tell you, there is a lot of fiction writing in drug marketing.

Fortunately for consumers, there is a convenient fact check web site where they can decipher the truth from fiction when it comes to health, dietary and cosmetic products’ bold claims.

Meet the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s top online drug judge: DailyMed.

DailyMed provides in-depth information on marketed drugs. DailyMed, which is overseen by the National Library of Medicine (NLM), gives the public and health information providers standard, comprehensive and up-to-date information on drug labeling. DailyMed’s drug labeling offers the most recently submitted information to the FDA. And DailyMed is updated daily. The web site currently has information on over 65,000 drugs.

Most importantly, the public can find out which drugs have received FDA approval and which drugs’ labeling has not been approved.

The integrity of DailyMed’s contact is guaranteed. The NLM provides DailyMed as a public service and does not accept advertisements for any products.

And with the public as its best resource and top watch dog for safety surveillance, DailyMed offers consumers a direct link to report counterfeit, misleading and harmful drugs and product marketing to the FDA. At DailyMed, consumers can link to a FDA voluntary reporting form. For as the FDA states on its site:

“Your report may be the critical action that prompts a modification in use or design of the product, improves its safety profile and leads to increased patient safety.”

At DailyMed, consumers can find the drug labels, treatments, recommended daily usage limits and warnings for common drugs like Tylenol, the anti-vertigo drug Meclizine (warning: can cause drowsiness) and the controversial schizophrenia drug Risperdal (Notes: Not approved for use in patients with dementia-related psychosis; warning: increased mortality in elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis.

At DailyMed, consumers can also browse through drugs by class.

Most essentially, at DailyMed consumers can find the answers they need, like who should and shouldn’t use the hair drug Hair Regrowth Treatment for Men (namely, women and people with no family history of hair loss).

Or, is my child allergic to this allergy medicine?

Or, is this product the best option for my skin rash?

We make few more important decisions than the decisions we make about personal and family health care. And with a quick trip to DailyMed, we can find the answers to make smart, safe decisions about drugs.