Anne Johnson is fastidious about most aspects of her life, and the medicine cabinet is no exception.
Johnson of Coppell, Texas, heeds the advice of doctors and pharmacists: She buys just what her family needs, stores every product properly and takes the time to purge and replace anything that has expired.
“I’m real meticulous about things like that,” says Johnson, a mother of two and a dental hygienist. “If something is expired, out it goes — even if the bottle hasn’t been opened.”
Johnson’s habits are more the exception than the rule.
“We still see people making a lot of mistakes with medicine,” says Carrollton, Texas, pharmacist Dan Daniel. “I’ve had people bring in 10-year-old prescription bottles and ask for a refill. That’s way too long to keep any prescription.”
Expired medicine, either prescription or over-the-counter, is one of the most common transgressions to good medicine cabinet management. But face it, cleaning out the medicine cabinet is one of those back-burner projects that most never muster the time or energy to do.
Expired medicine is not just clutter.
It can also be a health risk if the chemical compounds decompose over time.
“A lot of expired medicine becomes subpotent,” says Daniel. “But some compounds can take on a harmful effect. Even vitamin C or aspirin can become harmful, especially to the stomach, if it hydrolyzes,” he says.
Despite the risks, many people are reluctant to toss out nearly full bottles of cough suppressant or stomach antacid.
Several pharmacists and doctors say most medicine is still potent and safe within a short period after the expiration date, but anything more than 1 year old should be avoided.
“People hate to be wasteful, and using something once and throwing it away seems like a big waste,” says pharmacist Kim Heaton of Coppell. “It is expensive to keep everything current, but it is safer.”
As an antidote to waste, buy fewer products and skip the tempting “2-for-1” specials in favor of smaller quantities. Remember, health-care professionals say, a medicine cabinet shouldn’t be treated like the spice rack; it isn’t necessary to have a little bit of everything on hand, just in case.
“As a society, we tend to think we need to have a pill to cure every little ache and sniffle,” says Dr. Janet Squires, director of general pediatrics at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas. “A lot of time, all we really need is a little patience. With children especially, time and kisses often work wonders.”
Squires takes her own advice to heart. Visitors to her home are amazed to find that there often isn’t even a Band-Aid on hand for an emergency.
“It’s kind of a standing joke,” Squires says. “My husband and I are both pediatricians and we have no medicine in our home.”
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Nevertheless, Squires says her approach probably wouldn’t be the best for most families.
Instead, she and other health-care professionals advocate keeping a medicine cabinet stocked with some basics for minor emergencies and routine illnesses.