As we prepare for the Zombie Apocalypse, it’s important for us to know how long our medicines and vitamins will last and update our stash of expired bottles, so I made that my September de-cluttering challenge. 😉
Seriously, we are as homeopathic as we can be, but a few weeks ago my son had such a terrible headache that we went for the hard stuff. I pulled the ibuprofen & acetaminophen out of the medicine drawer and it was expired. I wasn’t all that surprised because we hardly ever use it, but then I was faced with a dilemma. Let my child be in pain, or give him expired drugs in the hopes of killing the headache.
I hopped online and did a little research (after giving him the Tylenol) and found out that it’s up to me to decide how long to continue using medicines after the printed expiration date on the bottle. Whew. What a relief. Thank you Google for clearing that up for me.
According to this article by the Harvard Medical School, and many other sites I found, drug manufacturers are required by law to stamp a date on their products. This is the date at which the manufacturer can still guarantee the full potency and safety of the drug. HOWEVER, in a study done by the FDA, at the request of the military, 90% of more than 100 drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter, were perfectly good to use even 15 years after the expiration date, so the expiration date doesn’t necessarily indicate a point at which the medication is no longer effective or has become unsafe to use.
“It’s true the effectiveness of a drug may decrease over time, but much of the original potency remains even a decade after the expiration date. Excluding nitroglycerin, insulin, and liquid antibiotics, most medications are as long-lasting as the ones tested by the military. Placing a medication in a cool place, such as a refrigerator, will help a drug remain potent for many years.”
Good to know.
We’re not into taking medication unless it’s REALLY needed, so we don’t keep a full medicine cabinet, but I still decided to take a look at every bottle we do have and toss most of the expired stuff – especially the liquids. Here’s a picture of what I threw away. I added the quarter for size comparison. I’m clever like that.
One more thing. Here’s an article from the FDA which explains the proper disposal of over the counter and prescription drugs:
http://www.fda.gov/forconsumers/consumerupdates/ucm101653.htm
Moving on…
October’s Writing Challenge:
I emailed Don, my American friend living in France, and asked him to hold me accountable with my writing. Being a blogger himself, I knew he’d understand the need for motivation in the form of a challenge. WordPress issued such a challenge back in January, but suggested it to me again for the month of October. A post-a-day challenge is just what I need to get my butt in gear and quit making excuses for not writing. You can read about it at http://dailypost.wordpress.com/.
Consider this Day 1. 🙂
Good for you.
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Wowser that’s a lot of pills. Good to know about expiration dates.
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BTW, that’s still doesn’t equal the number of pills in our “tacklebox” of daily vitamins!
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That’s an impressive bowl of pills – you know you could use those as ammo in a slingshot against zombies? Just an idea…
Are the different varieties of brown ovals supplements of some sort? I see the Tums and Tylenol, but it does look like there are a couple of prescriptions mixed in there.
DNH Method of Proper Expired Medication Disposal:
-Bottle,box,or blister pack into the trash.
-Done.
(Although, after reading the article you linked to, I might start scratching out personal info).
Great post, Niki. Enjoyed it. 😀
…if you lined all those pills up end to end, would they reach around your house?…
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Well shoot! The kids de-cluttered their slingshots a few months ago. 😦
The bowl contains vitamins, supplements, Tums, ibuprofen, and Tylenol. No prescriptions at all.
Tawnya, I am curious how many vitamins you take a day? 😉
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Wow. We had some expired dilated and it was ineffective on major pain. So, I’d say throw out narcotics, you don’t want them to get in the wrong hands. Also, antibiotics, but I think Advil or Tylenol is OK.
But you have to get back what is the root cause of his headache? Is he better now? The caregiver in me is coming out.
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One more question – how did you dispose of them? Did you know it’s not a good idea to flush them? It gets in the water and we all ingest a bit of it. Most pharmacies will dispose of them for you.
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I disposed of my old meds a couple months ago. There are places to take your old meds, but I can’t find a place to take my old syringes for my epi-pen. Any suggestions? I tried the pharmacy, clinic and the hospital.
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