One of the drugs I’ve been pre­scribed for my col­i­tis, Asacol, is delay-released, which means it has a spe­cial coat­ing that makes it travel through the stom­ach, and absorbed only in the colon. This spe­cific brand is released in the left and end of the colon, which is where my col­i­tis is. I often get con­flict­ing advice about how to take the drug:

• The instruc­tions that came with the med­ica­tion say it can be taken with or with­out food
• The first phar­ma­cist told me to wait an hour after eat­ing before tak­ing the pills
• The sec­ond phar­ma­cist told me I didn’t need to wait and could have it with food and other medications
• The third phar­ma­cist told me that delayed release drugs should be taken on an empty stom­ach, and may have con­flicts with other drugs
• My gas­troin­testi­nal spe­cial­ist told me I could take it with food

It’s gen­er­ally taken that the doctor’s advice takes prece­dence over any­thing else. But as a per­son who works in the med­ical indus­try, where doc­tors are fre­quently revealed to be incom­pe­tent, I know that not all of them know what they’re talk­ing about.

Scary, for an indus­try in which we put so much blind faith. Who am I sup­posed to believe?