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In addition to the ingredients, the shelf life of the drug is also an important factor determining the effectiveness of the treatment. So is it okay to take expired medicine?
1. Simple way to identify expired medicine
Expiry date of the drug is an issue that few people care about, so it often happens that the drug expires. Usually, when the drug expires, you can easily recognize it through a few other characteristics such as:
The drug is in liquid form: there may be layer separation, color change, strange smell. Solid drug: The drug becomes soft, changes color. However, not all expired drugs have a change in texture. Some drugs have changed chemical composition but do not change shape, so it is difficult to recognize. Or there are drugs that have only expired in a short time, so the drug structure has not changed compared to the original time.
2. Health effects when using expired drugs
Many people often ask the question, is it okay to take expired medicine? The answer is yes!.
With medicines for mild diseases such as headache medicine, low fever or mild pain, if using expired medicine, it may not be too dangerous, because the side effects of the drug are not too high. However, in the case of patients using expired drugs in the treatment of chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, blood pressure, it can cause serious effects such as convulsions, nausea, and danger. rather than causing serious complications such as cerebrovascular accident, myocardial infarction, stroke, blindness, disability...
Not only that, using expired drugs will make the pathology complicated and difficult. difficulty in treatment. Caused by, expired drugs will transform into other forms or produce highly toxic compounds that can be toxic to the body, due to denaturation of active ingredients, drug preservatives, or damage to the form. preparation, adulteration, infection... can cause allergies, anaphylaxis, even death.
3. Note the expiry date of the medicine
Like many other consumer products, the expiration date of the drug is usually printed on the package, on the label on the bottle, in the medicine bottle, stamped on the blister, ... and written in the order of day, month, and year of the drug. calendar year. A two-digit day and month number or an alphanumeric month name with the year indicated in four digits or the last two digits of the year.
With drugs that are often used many times such as: eye drops, nose, ear ... or liquid medicine, suspension, there is also an extra shelf life for the drug after opening the cap and being mixed. This shelf life usually depends on the manufacturer's instructions, it can be: 1 or 2 days, 1 week, 1 month... In this case, although the expiration date on the package of the drug is still there, the drug is no longer in use. Can be used anymore due to the expiration date of opening the cap as required.
4. What is the best way to store medicines?
Basically, how to store drugs in many forms is usually not difficult. However, depending on the characteristics of the drug, the patient needs to store it properly so that the drug can promote the best effect in the treatment of the disease.
Some drugs need to be stored in special conditions such as in the refrigerator (diabetes insulin injection...) should be kept in a cool place, avoiding moisture, because this is easy to make the medicine moldy or humid, causing a change in the drug's texture. Ideally, each family should have its own place to keep medicine. This not only ensures the safety of your family members, but also helps you better control your medication use.
Medicines should be kept out of reach of children. If there are elderly people in the house, you need to be especially careful, because some drugs have quite similar packaging, so if they are shared with the elderly, it is easy to use them by mistake.
5. How should expired drugs be disposed of?
Once you have the answer to the question, is it okay to take an expired medicine, users also need to pay attention to handling when the drug expires to avoid affecting the environment, organisms and everything around .
Put the medicine in the trash: When the medicine expires, you can pack it up in a bag and put it in the trash. Bringing medicines to pharmacies and hospitals: Some medical facilities have a program to collect drugs, especially special drugs, and medical waste. Here, facilities will have appropriate treatment for these special types of waste. Flush: The FDA recommends that a small number of medications be disposed of by flushing down the sink or toilet. In summary, the drug storage process needs special attention, which not only reduces the situation of expired drugs in patients, but also ensures that the drug is not structurally affected when introduced into the body. If you accidentally take an expired medicine, the patient should carefully monitor their health status and if there are abnormal signs, they should immediately go to medical facilities to be checked by a doctor and have timely intervention directions.
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