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In the world of medicine, one question frequently comes up: Can compounding help if you have multiple allergies or sensitivities?
The simple answer is that it really depends on the specific context of your allergies and sensitivities. However, a compounding pharmacy can often offer great assistance when typical commercial medicines are not suitable.
Compounding pharmacists can customise medications to remove known allergens, a vital service for many patients.
Table of Contents
- Custom Medicine for Unique Needs
- How Compounding Removes Allergens
- Practical Considerations for Compounding
- Real-World Examples of Compounding Benefits
- Trust and Regulation in Compounding
Custom Medicine for Unique Needs
Commercial medicines are generally mass-produced in bulk quantities—tens of thousands or even millions of units—to keep costs down and ensure accessibility throughout Australia. While this is a crucial part of the pharmaceutical system, it presents a challenge for individuals with allergies or sensitivities.
A large manufacturer cannot feasibly create a single, custom product just to remove one or two ingredients for a single person. This is exactly where compounding pharmacies fit this opportunity well and come into play.
How Compounding Removes Allergens
A compounding pharmacy can prepare a medication specifically for an individual patient. They take all of the required active ingredients and combine them with necessary fillers (or excipients) into a custom product, such as a capsule, for a single person.
The main benefit is the ability to remove problematic components:
- If a commercial product’s capsule, a particular preservative, or a particular dye doesn’t suit you, the compounding pharmacist can create a very similar product without that specific allergen or sensitive component.
- In theory, this tailored approach means the medicine should be much better suited to yourself if you’ve got those sensitivities.
Practical Considerations for Compounding
While compounding offers incredible flexibility, there are a few realities to consider:
- Time: Compounded medications take longer to make. Making one hundred capsules by hand is not the same as a large manufacturing machine making a million.
- Cost: Because the process is custom and made specifically for an individual patient, the cost will be slightly higher. However, the cost difference is often not too much higher than commercial products.
It is always worth reaching out to a compounding pharmacist and at least asking for a quote to get the ball rolling.
Real-World Examples of Compounding Benefits
Compounding can resolve several common sensitivity issues:
- Lactose Sensitivity: Often, commercial tablets contain lactose as the filler. Someone very sensitive to lactose would benefit from a non-lactose containing capsule that a compounding pharmacy could make.
- Dyes and Colouring Agents: If a patient reacts to dyes and colouring agents in commercial products, we can take those out and make an option without them.
- Paediatric Formulations: For children, we can make suspensions or liquids with different flavours or textures to try and make it more suitable for the person taking it.
Trust and Regulation in Compounding
It’s important to know that compounding pharmacies are fully regulated under pharmacy acts. We have to go through the same rigour and testing that every other pharmacist does. This means you can get a compounded product and trust that it was made in the right way and to a high standard and quality.
If you have multiple allergies or sensitivities, reach out to a compounding pharmacist like ours at National Custom Compounding. While there are situations where allergies might be too broad for even compounding to assist , often we can find a way to help you get the medication you need to achieve the outcome you’re after.
Video Transcript
Hi there. It’s a great question. We frequently get um, and that’s can compounding help if you have multiple allergies or sensitivities like always, it really depends on the context of those allergies and sensitivities. So there are a lot of situations where compounding pharmacies like ours can provide a great assistance, where typical commercial medicine might not be able to. Um, and unfortunately, there will be situations where sometimes the allergies or sensitivities are just too broad that even compounding pharmacies might have difficulty helping. So point one is definitely reach out to a compounding pharmacist like ours at National Custom Compounding, and we’ll do our best to help you in any way that we can to get what you need to get the outcome you’re after. But at a at a top level in terms of medicine in Australia, commercial medicines generally made by pharmaceutical companies are made in bulk quantities. So, you know, tens of thousands or millions of units to get the cost of those products down so that they’re affordable and also accessible throughout Australia. It’s an important part of pharmacy. It’s been around forever. The the challenge is though, if you if you do suffer from allergies or sensitivities, there’s no way of asking that big manufacturer to make one single product to remove the the ingredients that you might have an allergy to for you. Hence, compounding pharmacies fit this opportunity really, really well. And that’s exactly where we come into play. So a compounding pharmacy like ours can take all of the active ingredients that are required with the filler and other excipients that are required, and put them into a capsule for a single person as a single product. The beauty is if there’s a particular preservative or a particular dye, or there’s something about the capsule of a commercial product that doesn’t suit you. We can make a very similar product, but take out that allergen or sensitive component, which means in theory, it should be much better suited to yourself if you’ve got those sensitivities. So, um, look, some of the realities of using a compounding pharmacy will be that it takes longer to do this. You can imagine that someone making one hundred capsules by hand is not the same as a big manufacturing machine making a million capsules. So time is something you have to consider. And the cost, because it’s all very handmade and it’s made specifically for an individual patient. The cost will be slightly higher, but you’ll be surprised the cost is not often too much higher. So it’s worth reaching out to a compounding pharmacy and compounding pharmacist and at least asking for a quote to get the ball rolling. So there’s a few other cool examples. Um, often commercial tablets contain lactose as the filler. Someone that’s very sensitive to lactose would then benefit from a non-lactose containing capsule that a compounding pharmacy could make. Um, like I said earlier, there’s dyes and coloring agents, which may affect people in commercial products. We can take those out and make an option without them. Um, and then again, there’s certain things that kids may not tolerate, as in flavors or textures of products. And we can make suspensions or liquids with different flavors to try and make it more suitable for the person that’s taking it. So the cool thing about compounding pharmacies is we are regulated, um, under the pharmacy, um, a pharmacy acts. So we have to go through the same rigor and testing that every other pharmacist does in pharmacy. Does. Uh, and it means that you can get a compounded product and trust that it was made in the right way and to a high standard and quality. So definitely plenty of reason to talk to your compounding pharmacist about. And if you’ve got any questions, feel free to reach out to National Custom Compounding. We’re always happy to help. Have a great day!