Can a supplement still be taken past its expiration date?!
Question:
Can a supplement still be taken past its expiration date?
When it comes to supplements and vitamins, does the expiration date on the bottle mean that the supplement loses potency, or does it mean that the supplement becomes unsafe, or does it mean something else?
For example: My friend has had a bottle of activated charcoal that expired three years ago, and he says it is still okay to use to treat diarrhea. Is he wrong, and if so, why?
Answers:
In the case of herbs, it is possible they might loose their potency as natural reactions in the leaves continue to progress. In synthetic vitamins, there's probably no danger, but they're useless anyway. For charcoal, there's probably no danger at all. What's it going to change into? It's not exactly an environment for bacterial or fungal growth either.
A recent study examined a collection of pharmaceutical drugs that were 10 years past their expiration date and reported that the drugs were still potent and usable.