{"id":531,"date":"2016-05-24T20:08:13","date_gmt":"2011-05-24T20:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edrugstore.md\/blog\/?p=531"},"modified":"2011-05-24T20:08:38","modified_gmt":"2011-05-24T20:08:38","slug":"medications-beyond-expiration-l0524","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edrugstore.com\/blog\/current-health-news\/medications-beyond-expiration-l0524\/","title":{"rendered":"Are medications good beyond the expiration date?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Let’s face it, we all have unused medicine in our cabinets.\u00a0 That late night trip to the drug store to get some allergy medication made sense when you couldn’t breathe, but afterwards the box of used pills sits on the shelf until you need it again.\u00a0 The thing is, it might be months before you need the medication again and in that time you may surpass the ‘use by date’ on the box.\u00a0 It raises an interesting question, are drugs still effective beyond that date, or is should they be thrown out?<\/p>\n

Researchers have looked into these very issues.\u00a0 The Shelf Life Extension Program (SLEP) tested the potency of drugs that were older than the ‘use by date’ and found 90% of medications remained stable for five years beyond the expiration date.\u00a0 All of the medications studied were kept at room temperature in their original boxes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One medication,\u00a0Tamiflu, the popular flu fighter\u00a0showed its safe seven years beyond its expiration date.\u00a0 The FDA ran the tests, along with help from the Department of Defense, to see if “the product attributes\u00a0changed during storage or shipping and if they are likely to influence quality, safety, or efficiency.”<\/p>\n

So if drugs are ok to take long after their expiration date, why are drug maker’s so conservative with dates?\u00a0 Drug manufacturers have said they can only guarantee a product for so long, while critics say the date is a gimmick to get customers to toss the old meds and buy new.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/a>About Tamiflu<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tamiflu gained popularity several years ago\u00a0during the bird\u00a0flu scare, and has been prescribed\u00a0to combat several strains of the flu.\u00a0 It’s prescribed for treating adults and children 1 year and older with\u00a0flu whose symptoms started within the last day or two.\u00a0 The drug\u00a0can also reduce the chance of getting the flu in patients 1 year and older.\u00a0 However, doctors say Tamiflu should not be taken in place of a regular flu shot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let’s face it, we all have unused medicine in our cabinets.\u00a0 That late night trip to the drug store to get some allergy medication made sense when you couldn’t breathe, but afterwards the box of used pills sits on the shelf until you need it again.\u00a0 The thing is, it might be months before you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_autoblog_aioseo_focus_keyphrase":"","_autoblog_aioseo_title":"","_autoblog_aioseo_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-health-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t