How long can you still take medicine after the expiration date?!

How long can you still take medicine after the expiration date?

Thanks.

I disagree with statements about it being harmful to take medicines after the exp. date. But it depends upon how long after. And also what kinds of medicines, for what ailments.

Usually expiration dates are set so that the item (foods and medicines) are still usable with the full potency. It's also a legal principle, so that if you get sick eating peanut butter after the date, then it's you're fault. But you've got to use your brains.

There are some kinds of foods, mostly processed like peanut butter, which you can go beyond the date, because of some preservatives added. Obviously fresh foods like dairy have an extremely important date, because it can be very deadly for you if you don't abide by them. Even milk SOMETIMES can be drank up to a week later if excellently refrigerated, but I wouldn't recommend it, because it's pretty rare. Milk luckily has its own method of telling us it's bad---it smells and tastes bad, and also makes us barf it back. But pills don't have the same luxury.

Usually pill forms of medicines will last longer than the expiration date because they're dry and don't degrade or deteriorate as easily as liquid. It helps if they're kept in a dark drawer or cabinet so that light doesn't help to weaken them.

So things like aspirin, advil, skin creams, other simple type medicines, I wouldn't worry about using shortly past the exp. date, even for some months. But if were talking about pills your mom took back in the 1980's, and you need the same medicine, I'd definitely throw mom's pills away. Yes, they could cause great problems.

Serious medications for heart, kidney, serious body functions need to desperately maintain any expiration dates. Such serious medicines which have important bodily influence are given based upon their full potency. Time weakens a medicine's strength. So if you're supposed to get 50 mg of something to keep your heart, lungs or kidneys working properly, then taking old pills that might only have half or a third of active medicine may be potentially dangerous and deadly to your health.

There generally is some active ingredient in pills even years old. But as already described, it's much cheaper and safer to take only medicines or foods within their expiration dates. Those dates have been scientifically and medically tested by labs and producers to make sure they're good, stable and effective. Any other would be potentially harmful to the consumer and the production facility.

So depending upon the type of medication, the form, and the need, it won't hurt to take a pill shortly beyond the date, because they don't magically lose their potency the day after the date. But it's much safer and better to take them when they're fresh.