Comments on: Expired Drugs: 6 Things to Know

By: LA

LA — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:43:40 +0000

Thanks for the article! BTW Doug, psuedoephedrine is not an antihistamine, it’s a decongestant…it will treat some allergy symptoms but not the root cause. Just sayin!

By: Sara

Sara — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:54:00 +0000

My grandmother says that medicine is good for up to a year after the expiration date. She also keeps the cotton wad in the Tylenol, insisting that it won’t hurt.

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:23:00 +0000

I understand that most Western countries send large amounts of medication past it’s expiry date to the third world, because they can still use it but we can’t sell it here.

I wouldn’t recommend taking expired drugs though. As the article says, if you take Tylenol, it’s one thing, but other meds are a different bag altogether.

By: Laura

Laura — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 15:44:32 +0000

If your bottle of aspirin smells like vinegar, it’s because the acetylsalicylic acid has broken down into acetic acid (and won’t work as an NSAID). Buy a new bottle.

By: Doug

Doug — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 01:18:22 +0000

My father was a doctor, and my parents tended to have a lot of medicine in their house. About 10 years ago, I was at their house and needed some antihistimine for my allergy to their dog. The only one they had was a box of Sudafed — that had expired in the late-1970′s. I took it, and it worked fine — 20 year later.

By: Mattie

Mattie — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:02:17 +0000

Elizabeth, I think you completely misunderstood what I said.

I don’t believe in the pharma shill gambit or the “big pharma” is evil. That’s what I said in my comment. That expired medicines are expired for a reason.

Yes, there are ways to stop a headache that aren’t aspirin or tylenol but if you’re referring to homeopathy, that is DEFINITELY not something I am proponent of.

By: Danielle

Danielle — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 03:30:47 +0000

I have this conversation with people all the time; when do products go bad. My yogurt is currently dated Oct 5, but does that mean at 11:59pm October 4, my yogurt is perfectly fine, but 1 minute later it is no longer edible? As if my yogurt, or your Advil can tell time or read a calendar!!

By: Alareth

Alareth — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:17:09 +0000

Who cares about the drugs, the milk I had for breakfast this morning was dated Sept 30th.

Am I going to die?

(Explaining “Sell By” dates on food might be a good article)

reCaptcha: William Snelling

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:55:05 +0000

Whenever possible, people should not use expired medicine. Drugs go through a rigorous amount of testing prior to availability to the public. True, the pharma companies only have to prove a level of efficacy up to the expiry. However, sometimes drug degradation is not the only issue. In tablets/pills/etc there are a number of other factors that go into the final product (these include binding agents, dissolution agents, targeting agents) and these can also degrade along with the active ingredient. Say the binding agent erodes faster than the active drug; you could release a potentially harmful spike of drug into your system all at once. This fact, coupled with the increased likelihood of someone taking expired drugs to ignore other drug use directions, could prove dangerous and even potentially lethal.

Even minor degradation in certain antipsychotics (such as SRNAs) could increase the potential for drug addicition and side effects (considering that the main targeting components of these drugs are generally a step away from illegal addictive narcotics like meth).

The drug companies and FDA say that should the drug not work properly up to the date of expiry, it is their fault; beyond that it is the user’s. Is that a risk that you are willing to take?

By: motorkitty

motorkitty — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:47:36 +0000

the thing i find facinating is that you went a whole year without needing some form of OTC pain reliever. wow. lucky you.