Do you have expired medications at home? The experts’ answer will leave you speechless! Here’s what you absolutely need to know.
We all have quite a few drugs at home, each with its specific function. There are those who try to ‘prevent’ everything by stocking up on the most commonly used drugs, such as: tachypirin (or any other type of anti-inflammatory), cough syrup, stomach pills, reflux sticks and so on. In short, drugs that, in one way or another, can always be useful. To these are added the specific ones, which are prescribed following flu, interventions or any other sporadic illness. The latter, due to their infrequent use, they often tend to expire when they are still whole. In that case what should be done? Throw them away or reuse them? Let’s see together what the experts say about it.
Having many medications at home also means have the possibility that the latter tend to expire in no time. Usually if you have elderly people at home, this doesn’t happen, because, despite the enormous amount of pills they take, they tend not to have the opportunity to let them expire. While if there are young people in the house, and even children, who, fortunately, do not always need this, the latter tend to expire.
As soon as you read it on the box of drugs that the latter are expired, you go into total panic, thinking you have to throw everything immediately into the appropriate container. But is it really that dangerous to take them? Let’s see the answer from the experts.
The answer is truly surprising: take expired medications (especially in pill/tablet form) it is not dangerous in any way for our body. In fact, many drugs made of this material, if stored in a dry place and in the right way, can be effective even 6 years after their expiration, as also reported on msn.com.
Unlike what happens with liquid products, such as syrups. The latter must obviously respect the expiry date before being taken, because they can alter the properties of the product due to the preservatives contained within them. Consequently they may be ‘useless’, because they no longer do their duty.
Medicines that must be taken only by respecting their expiry date are: oral contraceptives, anti-coagulant drugs, anti-convulsants, thyroid hormones and theophylline. The latter must necessarily respect the expiry date. Otherwise there could be serious repercussions on the health of the patient who takes them. Therefore, carefully observe the medicines you are about to take, especially their consistency, and you will be sure not to make any mistakes.