Safety tips: Medicine intake, expiry, storage

Medicines can prolong and save your life  but only when you use these medicines properly. Many people are unaware of how medicines should be stored, taken, and what the expiration date means. Let’s look at some tips.

Are your expired medicines safe to use?

The safe answer is “no.” Don’t use medicines after their month of expiration, as placed in the label. There is a reported case of kidney damage in a patient who took expired tetracycline tablets.

However, in the interest of fairness, a larger study conducted by the US FDA showed that 90% of more than a hundred various medicines were found to be effective to use even after 10 years from their expiration.

Do drugs still work after their expiry dates? We can’t be sure, but their effectiveness decreases over time. Examples of medicines that expire quickly are nitroglycerin, insulin, liquid antibiotics, and tetracycline. In addition, too much heat and humidity will hasten the degradation of the medicine.

How to safely dispose of expired medicines

First, remove the medicine from its original packaging or container. Cross your name or the medicine label on the packaging.

Second, combine these expired meds with waste food products or dog wastes, so other people will not take interest in them. Dispose of expired and unwanted medicines from your medicine cabinet regularly. Don’t stock up on unneeded medicines at home where they can pose a hazard to children.

How to store medicines properly 

• Store medicines in a cool and dry place. Too much heat and humidity can destroy the effectiveness of your medicines. Hence, don’t keep medicines in your car because the heat can degrade the medicine.

• For drugstore owners, don’t expose medicine stocks to the sun’s rays. This is an unhealthy practice because medicines and food will expire faster when exposed to heat.

• Most medicines come in foils, which make it harder for children to open them. Foil packing also protects the medicines from heat and humidity.

• Don’t store medicines in the bathroom or kitchen. The steam and humidity in the bathroom can reduce the potency of some drugs by speeding up their natural breakdown. For example, when exposed to heat, aspirin tablets can break down into acetic acid and salicylic acid, which can injure the stomach. If your tablets become moist and soft, they may not work anymore. If you really want to keep your medicines in the bathroom, place them in a sealed and labeled container.

• Keep medicines out of children’s reach. Many kids suffer from accidental poisoning because of their parents’ neglect. Young kids are fond of reaching for colorful objects that they often mistake for candies. The child may climb onto a chair to reach for the colorful bottles in your medicine cabinet. Children, as young as two years old, can be excellent climbers.

• Be careful in transferring too many medicines in your medicine bottle. It’s best to keep medicines in their original containers. And never put medicines in a food container. Lock and label them appropriately.

Four tips for travelers

1. Before leaving home, list down all your medicines.

2. Place all your medicines in a portable bag. Don’t keep them in your checked-in luggage.

3. Bring a few extra tablets with you just in case your flight is delayed.

4. Keep your local time. Have a separate watch that shows your local time. This will help you remember when you should take your medicines.

10 ways to take medicines

1. Swallowed orally (by mouth). This is the usual way of taking medicines. The medicine passes through the esophagus, the stomach, and then the intestines where it is absorbed into the bloodstream. The medicine then goes to the different parts of the body where it can exert its action. Oral medicines can be in tablet, capsule or liquid form.

2. Placed under the tongue. There are special medicines, like for the heart and high blood pressure, which are placed under the tongue. There are special mucous membranes under the tongue that can absorb some medicines and let them enter quickly into the bloodstream, bypassing the stomach and intestines.

3. By injection intravenously (IV). Medicines are injected intravenously when 1) we need a very rapid effect on the body, 2) we need a high dose of the medicine like antibiotics to fight off infection, and 3) when the patient cannot take the medicine by mouth. The intravenous injection is through the vein of the hand or other parts of the body.

4. By injection subcutaneously (SC). The medicine is injected just underneath the skin. These medicines, like insulin injections, are absorbed more slowly.

5. By injection intramuscularly (IM). The medicine is injected into the muscle usually of the arm, thigh or buttock. Penicillin can be given intramuscularly to give a steady release of the antibiotic to the person.

6. By injection into the joint. Some special cases, like joint inflammation, may need injection of steroids into the affected joint area.

7. Rectally. Some medicines, like suppositories for fever, are inserted through the anus and into the rectal area. The medicine can then be absorbed through the cells lining the rectum and into the bloodstream. Enemas are also given rectally.

8. Topically. Some medicines are directly placed on the affected part of the body that is being treated like the skin, eyes, ears, nose, and even vaginally. These topical preparations can come in the form of creams, ointments, lotions, drops (eye, ear, and nose drops), and suppositories.

9. Topically by a patch. Some topical preparations come in sticky plasters like nicotine patches, hormone patches, and anti-hypertension patches. This is another way of having the medicine slowly absorbed through the body. However, one possible side effect is the occurrence of rashes in the patch area.

10. By inhalation. Asthma patients are usually given inhalers and nebulized solutions that are inhaled and absorbed directly by the lungs. A form of general anesthetic may also be inhaled through a tight-fitting mask. Some nasal sprays for nasal congestion are also inhaled.

In the next article, I will be sharing with our readers the proper way to take your medicines.