Drug Expiration Dates

[Lewis]

How Long Do Medications Last?
http://www.johnshopkinshealthalerts...pkinsPrescriptionDrugsHealthAlert_3017-1.html

Drug Expiration Dates - Do They Mean Anything?
With a splitting headache you reach into your medicine cabinet for some aspirin only to find the stamped expiration date on the bottle has passed - two years ago. So, do you take it or don't you? If you decide to take the aspirin will it be a fatal mistake or will you simply continue to suffer from the headache?
http://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/updates/update1103a.shtml

 

[Kathi]

They do mean something.When you see that expiration date on a bottle of medication it means that medication could lose it effectiveness if taken after it is expired.If a medication says it expires Oct 15 you have till the end of that month.You always have till the end of the month if a medication expires in the midddle of the month.My suggestion would be not to take that medication.Always look at the expiration date when you buy over the counter medications.You want it to last a year or two.

 

[Gary]

From the article.

Most of what is known about drug expiration dates comes from a study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration at the request of the military. With a large and expensive stockpile of drugs, the military faced tossing out and replacing its drugs every few years. What they found from the study is 90% of more than 100 drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter, were perfectly good to use even 15 years after the expiration date.

.

 

[tim-from-pa]

From the article.......

That's correct Gary. They want you to throw out the pills so that you finance them to buy even more pills, and they are now seeing how costly that can be. BTW, if a pill really works, then you can tell despite the expiration date. If you can't tell, then maybe it's time to try a placebo, which I suspect is the same effect many pills have on people to begin with, i.e. they are told how sick they are when in fact they feel just fine.

 

[th1b.taylor]

When the drug companies clean the shelves because Americans will not purchased the expired drugs they are sold to the peoples of the third world nations because there is nothing wrong with them except the date on the container.

 

[Kathi]

The expired date on the bottle of medication is the date that the company guarantees the medication to be effective.I guess you can do as you choose to save some money or to show the drug companies that they are wrong.

 

[th1b.taylor]

The expired date on the bottle of medication is the date that the company guarantees the medication to be effective.I guess you can do as you choose to save some money or to show the drug companies that they are wrong.

Kathi, why so despondent? I commented on the scientific evidence Gary posted, noting commonly known facts among the Medical Community in all the countries of the Americas. Nobody, including you, has posted anything but what they know.

 

[Kathi]

Kathi, why so despondent? I commented on the scientific evidence Gary posted, noting commonly known facts among the Medical Community in all the countries of the Americas. Nobody, including you, has posted anything but what they know.

Just because I am not agreeing with you I am despondent?Please allow me the respect of my opinion.

 

[jasonc]

ah yes , trust the military, right the same military that had me and my unit eating two year out of date food. and did nothing to punish those cooks whom had to know better and didn't care.

 

[Kathi]

I will eat a piece of bacon that has been expired but when it comes to sustaining my serious Thyroid disorder I will not take expired Thryoid medication.And if I have pneumonia I don't think I would take antibiotics that are expired.Aspirin?maybe.

 

[th1b.taylor]

ah yes , trust the military, right the same military that had me and my unit eating two year out of date food. and did nothing to punish those cooks whom had to know better and didn't care.

LOL! Be cautious now, you're about to talk bad about my buds and commanders and you really need to use caution here, these are the same clowns in Supply that brought us World War Two C-Rations in the nineteen-sixties. They always have our safety and comfort in mind.....................right?

There ain't nothin' like twenty-four year old Spam in the can when you're starving to death. Could it be that half the dead Americans died of food poisoning?

 

[jasonc]

the mre has a shelf life supposedly of a decade or the rule is if it smells bad after you open it don't eat it or if its bag is swollen. c rats I didn't have the pleasure of those. I call the mre mr.enema.

 

[th1b.taylor]

the mre has a shelf life supposedly of a decade or the rule is if it smells bad after you open it don't eat it or if its bag is swollen. c rats I didn't have the pleasure of those. I call the mre mr.enema.

LOL, fond memories in the bush.

 

[jasonc]

LOL, fond memories in the bush.

I see rations in their nature hasn't changed since your days.

 

[th1b.taylor]

I see rations in their nature hasn't changed since your days.

Of course not... those men in Supply love every one of us that is keeping their rear ends safe.

 

[Lewis]

This speaks volumes

Most of what is known about drug expiration dates comes from a study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration at the request of the military. With a large and expensive stockpile of drugs, the military faced tossing out and replacing its drugs every few years. What they found from the study is 90% of more than 100 drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter, were perfectly good to use even 15 years after the expiration date.