Is it wrong to take expired medications?
In some cases, taking medications with an expiry date can be detrimental to your health and therefore, and in order to take full advantage of their maximum effectiveness, it is advisable to frequently check the expiration date of medicines that are kept at home and discard those that are already defeated.
- Validity periods are calculated on the basis of specific tests carried out under strict control.
- Which evaluate the stability of the substances that make up the medicinal product.
- Which guarantees their activity.
- Effectiveness and safety to date mentioned in the package.
- If they are preserved.
- Conditions.
- Such as humidity and the temperature and integrity of the packaging.
If a drug becomes obsolete, what can occur is a decrease in the effectiveness of the active substance, which is no longer the same, because it gradually decreases over time.
If only a few days pass, this loss of effectiveness will not be significant, so there is no problem taking the expired medication, but in the case of medicines used in chronic treatments or in situations where an antibiotic is needed, for example, one should not take risks, because lack of effectiveness can compromise all treatment.
When an expired medicine is taken, in principle, nothing serious will happen and cases of late medicines that produce toxic effects are rare; however, there are remedies whose degradation of the active substance leads to the formation of toxic substances, such as aspirin, which when degraded results in salicylate, which is an abrasive product and therefore, if a few months have elapsed since the expiration date, there is no risk.
Obsolete remedies should never be thrown away in household or private waste, as they are chemicals that contaminate soil and water, so drugs that are no longer used or that are expired must be delivered to the pharmacy, which has the conditions to remove them.drugs correctly.