Many a time, out of laziness to go to the medical shop, you might have reached out for the medicine cabinet, and on finding the expired medicine, you probably wondered “Can you take expired medicine?” So, let us today end the discussion on whether one can take expired medicine, but before that let us learn why medicines have an expiry date.

Why do medicines have an expiry date?

Medicines are drugs that are used to treat, cure or prevent illness by altering the person’s physical or physiological states. Medicines are made or synthesized in the laboratory by mixing various chemicals. Some medicines could be byproducts of some other organism, for example, penicillin is derived from a fungus. Although non-living, the Romanian proverb “All that lives must die” applies to medicines as well. Unlike mortals, the expiries of medicines are predictable, as they are mentioned in the strip or bottle. Medicines have an expiry date because after that day it might become unfit for consumption or use. It is determined by the pharmaceutical company that manufactures the medicine.

What happens when medicines expire?

The manufacturer guarantees full potency and efficacy till the expiry date of medicines. But after the expiry date, the medicines gradually start to lose their potency and efficacy, which is they may not be effective to treat the condition effectively they are meant to treat. Often they can be harmful, as certain medications can be contaminated with bacterial growth and sometimes some medications may disintegrate to form toxic compounds as well, which becomes risky if consumed.

Can you take expired medicine?

From the above discussion, it is clear that once expiry hits, the medicine starts losing its potency, as such, it might not be able to treat the illness effectively. Or it might become toxic and cause harm if consumed. Expired medicines are unfit for consumption. However, certain studies have found that some medicines worked fine even after 15 years of the expiry date. Probably nothing harmful will happen if you consumed an expired medicine, but why take chances? So, it is prudent to clean your medicine cabinet regularly, keeping them out of rich from children, getting rid of expired medicines, because CDC also reported around 50000 young children end up in the emergency room annually for consuming medicines including expired ones while adults are away.

So, can you take expired medicine? Probably nothing harmful might happen if you do so, but I would say it’s not worth the risks involved.