Your medication,explained in plain words.
Enter a medication name and get a plain-language walkthrough: what it is, how to take it, side effects to watch, what to avoid, and allergy and pregnancy notes.
Medication review tool
This tool covers minor ailments and pharmacist-prescribable medications only. It is not a substitute for professional advice on complex or prescription-only conditions; please speak with a pharmacist directly.
Use with caution
This guide is general information written from public sources such as Health Canada. It has not been reviewed by a pharmacist and may contain errors or be out of date. Always check with a pharmacist or doctor before you start, stop, change or combine any medicine. In an emergency, call 911.
For general guidance only, covering minor ailments and pharmacist-prescribable medications. Please consult a pharmacist for advice tailored to your health, allergies and other medications.
Where this information comes from.
The guide covers common long-term prescriptions and the minor ailments pharmacists in most provinces can assess and prescribe for, such as UTIs, acne, allergies and cold sores. Program details are shown for British Columbia; rules differ by province.
Answers come from a structured medication library built into this site, not from searching the internet, and each summary lists the public sources it was drafted from, such as the Health Canada Drug Product Database. The summaries have not been reviewed by a pharmacist, so treat them as a starting point for a conversation with one, not as advice. It is not a diagnosis, and it does not see your health records.
What you type stays in your browser. It is never sent to our servers or stored. The free version shows ads from Google, which use cookies; see our privacy page.
Type a medication or condition
A generic name, a brand name, or everyday words like “heartburn” or “the pill”.
Read the plain-language guide
What it is, how to take it, side effects, what to avoid, allergy and pregnancy notes, and when to get care.
Check with a pharmacist
Confirm dosing, interactions and any change to your medications with your own pharmacist before acting on it.
Questions about your medication?
811 connects you to a nurse or pharmacist for free in most provinces. Your own pharmacist can also go through it with you.