The Imperative of Bridging the Divide: Pharmacy Practice and Nutrition Education

Nutrition is taking up its space in therapeutics and I find it highly futuristic. In the South Asian scenario, nutrition is one of the overlooked modalities in treating health conditions. When food, which is often taken as just a source of energy, has now advanced to grander forms like nutritional medicine or disease-modifying nutrition, pharmacists lacking the nutritional knowledge brings a huge gap between pharmaceutical care and optimal therapeutic outcome. Today, the food you eat not only determines your physical health but also your mental well-being.

Despite being a drug expert, it is undeniable that reducing the medication burden is one of the primary objectives of a pharmacist, which is possible when we bring nutritional medicine to life with active practice. That is why, pharmacists being equipped with nutrition education seems crucial. For the prevention of any disease from being caught, keeping present health conditions under control, and managing the progression of the disease to more chronic forms, nutritional guidance to patients is mandatory. Proper nutritional counseling screams pharmaco-economics, i.e. reducing the cost of medication therapy and supporting achieving more sustainable health.

It is high time that pharmacists contributing to patient care settings need to be armed with sufficient dietary information not just limited to drug-food interactions. It is a time when pharmacists need to bring more life to patient care with good command of nutrition education. Meanwhile, the collaboration of pharmacists with dieticians seems imperative more than ever. This can be a massive game changer in public health.

Dear fellow pharmacists, you know what to do now to step up your game.