Why should you pay attention to your medicine’s expiration dates?
- Expired medications lose their efficacy and can be unsafe
- Medicine has varying shelf lives
There is a lot of important data listed on any given medicine’s packaging. From the effective dosages to the optimal temperature for storage, knowing every bit of information written on the packaging is vital for you or your loved ones’ recovery. However, one piece of information consumers might neglect is the expiration date.
Maraming posibleng dahilan kung bakit nakakalimutan pansinin ng mga mamimili ang petsa ng pagkawalang-bisa ng kanilang mga gamot. Marahil isa sa mga dahilan nito ay ang pagkaroon ng maliit na badyet. Dahil sa nagtataasang presyo ng mga bilihin, madaling isipin na maaring makatipid sa pag inom ng lumang medisina, lalo na kapag may mga gamot pa sa bahay na hindi pa nauubos. Bakit ka nga ba bibili ng panibagong gamot kung mayroon pa naman sa bahay?
What most people don’t know is that taking expired medicine can possibly have negative effects on a person’s body. If you want to avoid any possible consequences that may arise from taking expired medicine and would want to know more about the subject, keep reading.
Expired medications lose their efficacy and can be unsafe
To understand why expiration dates are important, it is essential to identify the nature of medicine and how they work. All medicinal drugs have unique compositions that contains both active pharmaceutical components or ingredients to treat your sickness or disease and excipients/inactive components. Just like many other things in this world, both living and non-living, there will come a point in time where these components will deteriorate and no longer function as intended, therefore losing its efficacy or potency.
Kapag nawalan na ng bisa ang mga nilalaman ng iyong gamot, ang sakit na iyong iniinda ay hindi mawawala, o di kaya’y mas lumala pa. Ano man ang mangyari, mas mapapatagal ang iyong pagdurusa na dulot ng pag inom ng gamot na nasira na. Pati narin ang iyong mga gastusin ay lalaki dahil kailangan mo ng panibagong gamot o di kaya’y mas mamahalin pa na lunas dahil sa mas malalang sakit at ang masaklap pa ay masuri ito sa pagkakaospital.
Medicine has varying shelf lives
Hindi porke’t ang iba’t ibang mga gamot ay nakakalunas sa parehas na sakit ay magkapareho narin ang kanilang petsa ng pagkawala ng bisa. Ang bawat klase ng gamot ay may natatanging mga kasangkapan, kemikal man o natural. Dahil rito, magkaiba rin ang kanilang ‘shelf life’ at expiration date.
Shelf life pertains to the date where medicine is at its optimal state where it will carry out its effects as intended. While it is similar to the expiration date, they aren’t truly the same since a drug that has reached its shelf life may not yet be expired, just ineffective.
Either way, not looking at the expiration date or shelf life (if it is also stated) of a given drug can lead to the same effects said above. Don’t make the mistake of assuming similar drugs also have similar expiration dates.
Key Takeaway
From a more general standpoint, almost everything has an ‘expiration’ date. When it comes to medicine, disregarding such important information could have potentially severe consequences. Why take the chance? Once a drug or medicine has executed its expiration date it is best to dispose of it and buy a new one instead.