Check The Dates Of Your Medications
Sometimes I think that humans really decended from pack rats and not apes. We seem to love clutter and junk, hense the problem of compulsive hoarding becoming a real problem for 1-2% of America’s population. Throwing anything away is really difficult. Our species never made enough clutter to have anything to throw away before.
Throwing away medicines can be especially difficult. I used to be homeless, and haven’t come to terms with havings ample closet space. I especially have a problem throwing out any medications or vitamins that are long past their sell by date. I keep thinking, “I might need this someday.” But really, the only thing I need to do — and wound up doing — was throwing it all out in the trash. In researching this article, I discovered that the best and safest way to disposed of any expired medication is to put it in a bag and take it to a pharmacy or doctor’s office to get rid of. Medicines can pollute the ground in landfills or seep into water, or kill animals who accidentally eat it. Oops — sorry, there, enviornment.
What’s the Worst That Can Happen?
Mostly when you take headache medications that are expired, they just won’t work. Their ingredients can only stay active for so long, then they go stale or (in the cases of old vitamin pills) rot. Taking expired medications is like eating spolied or rotting food — you really are risking infections and illnesses. The worst that can happen is that you might get a seizure, a rash, vomiting or damage to your internal organs.
If the medicine has expired only a couple of days ago, you can probably risk it. But if it expired several months ago, it’s not worth the risk, especially if the bottle has in any way been exposed to heat or moisture. This is true both for over the counter medications and perscription medications.
It is recommended to weed out your medicine supplies twice a year (since some medicines have a shorter shelf life than others). If you take care of an elderly person, do the weeding out for them if they forget. Be sure to toss all expired children’s medicine and medicine for animals, too. By getting rid of them, you not only save yourself or someone else in your house an accident, but you have made more space for all new stuff.
Hope this helps.
February 13th, 2008 at 9:13 am
[...] how old the pills are, just assume they are past their expiration date and throw them out. Please don’t take any pills that are past their expiration date. Did You Enjoy this Post? Subscribe to Dealing With Headaches. It’s Free! « Back Home [...]
October 21st, 2008 at 6:04 pm
[...] medicine cabinet. Remember, just as it can be dangerous to take medication (or vitamins) that have long passed their sell-by date, you are also wasting a lot of [...]