Has your medications passed their expiration date?

All of us on medications have to ask ourselves about this when we take our medications. Is the expiration date on the bottle or vial correct? Has it been stored correctly? What other factors affect the expiration date?

National Public Radio is not a source I rely on for information generally, but their article on expiration dates for medicines is one that I will say is written with more thought than many. This article is published June 21, 2010, and another on March 20, 2000.

I find that the statement “drugs stored under ideal conditions can last longer than a year” to be an excellent example of where we need to begin to doubt the expiration date. Was the medication transported properly in the winter or summer. Was the medication frozen while in transit? Or was the medication cooked in a hot van during the summer?

These are all questions we need to have answered. This information would lead us to a better understanding of the expiration date validity.