Clinical Apothecaries

Compounding pharmacies like Medina’s Clinical Apothecaries are rapidly catching on as an
alternative method for treating a variety of health ailments. Pharmacists Jeff and Sujata Potter know first hand that thinking outside of the bottle—really works.

By: Ken McEntee
Date: 02/05/2008
Like many other couples struggling with infertility, Jeff and Sujata Potter went through the normal array of conventional methods, hoping to correct the issue.

Then the pair of registered pharmacists began to research hormones and hormone therapy. Their twins, Casey and Sydney, are now seven years old, a result of Bio-Identical Hormone Replacement Therapy.

Jeff and Sujata, owners of Clinical Apothecaries, a compounding pharmacy in Medina, now specialize in women’s health issues. They focus on Bio-Identical Hormone replacement therapy (BHRT), which includes Reproductive, Thyroid, and Adrenal Hormones. Their hormone research not only helped to solve their own problem, but it also motivated them to share their knowledge with others as well.

“Women’s health challenges like hot flashes, moodiness, infertility, fibromyalgia, and the inability to lose weight, often are caused by a hormonal imbalance and can be repaired,” explains Jeff. Bio-identical hormones—sometimes called “natural” hormones—are created to have the same molecular structure as the hormones made by your body. Conventional hormone therapy uses synthetic hormones that the body views as counterfeit.

“If you have a medical condition that isn’t being solved by using medication, you might come in for a saliva test and a blood spot to see whether you have a hormonal imbalance,” Sujata suggests.
Saliva testing is an accurate and painless way to test a woman’s reproductive, thyroid and adrenal hormones.

Blood spot tests measure thyroid hormone function.

Upon determining your hormone levels, Clinical Apothecaries will work with you to correct any imbalances in a natural way. A treatment plan is made up with input from a consulting pharmacist, the staff nutritionist and your physician.

“We take a team approach that involves the patient, the pharmacist and the physician,” Jeff explains. “Our clients tend to be well educated people who understand that they are in charge of their health and they are hiring us to work with them, not just to tell them what to do.”

As registered pharmacists, Jeff and Sujata acknowledge the benefits of prescription medication. But, they say, there are often better solutions.

“We have used hormone therapy to treat teenage girls who had irregular periods,” Sujata says. “Doctors will often treat them by putting them on birth control pills. That is not the ideal solution.”

According to Jeff, “A lot of times a patient has all kinds of issues and is taking a lot of prescriptions. I prefer to replace the prescriptions with nutrients for the different conditions, when appropriate.”

He notes that high cholesterol, which is often treated with prescription medication, often can be corrected by hormone therapy.

Jeff and Sujata, who met while attending pharmacy school at the University of Toledo, owned a conventional pharmacy before they started Clinical Apothecaries. Clinical Apothecaries is one of only a handful of pharmacies in Ohio that are able to do what they do.
Compounding pharmacies make specialty formulations of medication for people who are not able to take prescriptions in their conventional form.
“A growing number of people have unique health requirements that off-the-shelf prescription medicines cannot meet,” Jeff explains. “Eighty percent of the population can take regular medication. We are here to service the 20 percent who have special needs. They may be allergic to something in the pill or they can’t swallow it. We take those products and make them into a different form that they can take, like a liquid or a topical cream.”
For children, Clinical Apothecaries has formulated medicine into such concoctions as popsicles and gummy bears.
“In a phrase, we are problem solvers,” Jeff says. “We come up with solutions.”
Compounding is in even greater demand for treating animals, because of the relatively narrow selection of medicines that are manufactured by pharmaceutical companies.
Clinical Apothecaries also specializes in veterinary medication and regularly works with the Akron Zoo.
Clinical Apothecaries recently had to make a special antibiotic combination for the entire flock of Penguins at the zoo.
All of the medications are compounded onsite in Clinical Apothecaries’ laboratory. They also have a state-of-the art sterile clean room where IV’s, Injections and Special Eyedrops are prepared.
Contrary to pharmaceutical company rhetoric, compounding pharmacies are highly regulated and are licensed and inspected by each state’s Board of Pharmacy.

Visit Clinical Apothecaries at 4087 Medina Road, Suite 200, in Medina. Call 330-721-7949. For more information visit www.cairx.com.

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