If you don't read you pharmacy package inserts, then you should start, says Amy Ritchart, writer of a weekly health and wellness column in The Leaf Chronicle.

"Once, when reviewing a package insert that accompanied a new prescription for my son, I read that the incidence of serious allergic reaction was much higher for children than adults," says Ritchart.

She also recommends talking with your doctor and pharmacist about any medicine you take, as well as researching the medicine on sites such as drugdigest.org.