In some cases, taking medicine with the expired date can be harmful to your health and, therefore, and for the sake of enjoying its maximum effectiveness, you should frequently check the expiry date of medicines that are stored at home and discard those who are already defeated.
The validity periods are calculated based on specific tests carried out under strict control, which assess the stability of the substances that make up the medicine, which guarantees its potency, effectiveness and safety until the date mentioned on the packaging, if they are maintained conservation conditions, such as humidity and temperature and packaging integrity.
What happens if you take an expired medicine
If a drug is taken out of date, what can happen is a decrease in the effectiveness of the active substance, which is no longer the same, because it gradually decreases over time.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 in taking the expired medicine. But, in the case of drugs used in chronic treatments or in situations where it is necessary to take an antibiotic for example, one should not take any chances, because the failure in effectiveness can compromise the entire treatment.
When you take an expired medicine, in principle, nothing bad will happen and there are rare cases of late medicines that produce toxic effects. However, there are remedies whose degradation of the active substance leads to the formation of toxic substances, such as aspirin, for example, which, as it degrades, gives rise to salicylate, which is an abrasive product and therefore, if a few months have passed since the due date, there is no risk.
How to Discard Expired Medicines
Expired remedies should never be disposed of in regular or private garbage, as they are chemicals that pollute soil and water. Thus, medicines that are no longer used or that are out of date must be delivered to the pharmacy, which has the conditions to dispose of the medicines properly.
