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Mon 4 Jun, 2007 04:56 pm
Well, I don't know if it's stress or what. Been experiencing a lot lately. But, I found out my brother is seriously ill. A symptom of that illness is severe headache. Maybe a sympathetic headache? I have rarely in my life experienced anything I would call a headache, except a bit with hangover. Today, I have one. I was surprised to open the med cabinet and find my regular aspirin expired in Dec., 2002. So I checked the extra strength formula for body aches and the like. Expired, 2005. That's when I decided to double check everything else in there. As it happens, I didn't throw away anything else, but I know now how easy it is to overlook these things.
Did you take them anyway?
Sorry to hear about your brother, edgar.
How's the headache now?
Joe(throw all that crap in the medicine cabinet away.)Nation
I was afraid to. little k. I went down and bought a nifty new bottle of one hundred, that expires in 2009.
edgar wrote :
Quote:I went down and bought a nifty new bottle of one hundred, that expires in 2009.
are you planning to hang around for a long time or will the remainder of the pills go into your estate - evenly divided , i hope !
MAY YOU LVE A LONG LIFE , EDGAR ! and have some fun while you are at it !
hbg
I plan to be here long enough to see if the 60s are as hysterical this next time around, as they were in the 20th Century.
Thanks for the reminder to check those expiration dates. I can be mmmm a bit bad about that, particularly with sinus junk. I'll pick up some new meds when I'm on the road later this week.
I once asked a doctor about expiration dates. She said that generally drugs just lose their efficacy as they age - they don't go bad like meat or milk - more like going flat like soda.
Back in the lab, we could never used conjugated antisera past the given expiration date, and never did, on research or patients. On the other hand, I did run some oldies along with the fresh stuff, and they behaved the same. I tested that out over time, same and same. Well, that's anecdotal. The cost of the fresh antisera will be seen in your bill...
(This is not a promotion for using expired stuff. Just musing.)
Edit - I'm aware protein breaks down over time in a refrigerator or regular old freezer situation. Not all so fast in our lab.
Funny story- Years ago, there was an over the counter medicine called Bronkaid. It was for asthma. I think that the name is still out there, but they have changed the formula, and it is nowhere near as effective.
Anyhow, I had found that the old Bronkaid, which had ephedrine and phenobarbitol in it, was very good for mild depression. A couple of years ago, I was digging around in the back of a closet, and found a carton of the old Bronkaid. The expiration date was 1985. Each pill was in its own silver covering, and the pills looked fine. And they worked fine. I was very upset when I used up that last pill!
littlek wrote:I once asked a doctor about expiration dates. She said that generally drugs just lose their efficacy as they age - they don't go bad like meat or milk - more like going flat like soda.
For some drugs, that's true. For others, as the meds degrade, toxic by-products are produced that either kill you or cause renal damage.
Phoenix32890 wrote:Funny story- Years ago, there was an over the counter medicine called Bronkaid. It was for asthma. I think that the name is still out there, but they have changed the formula, and it is nowhere near as effective.
Anyhow, I had found that the old Bronkaid, which had ephedrine and phenobarbitol in it, was very good for mild depression. A couple of years ago, I was digging around in the back of a closet, and found a carton of the old Bronkaid. The expiration date was 1985. Each pill was in its own silver covering, and the pills looked fine. And they worked fine. I was very upset when I used up that last pill!
Phenobarbitol in an OTC med? Boy, those were the good old days...
Miller wrote:littlek wrote:I once asked a doctor about expiration dates. She said that generally drugs just lose their efficacy as they age - they don't go bad like meat or milk - more like going flat like soda.
For some drugs, that's true. For others, as the meds degrade, toxic by-products are produced that either kill you or cause renal damage.
Common household drugs? Which drugs do this?
littlek wrote:Miller wrote:littlek wrote:I once asked a doctor about expiration dates. She said that generally drugs just lose their efficacy as they age - they don't go bad like meat or milk - more like going flat like soda.
For some drugs, that's true. For others, as the meds degrade, toxic by-products are produced that either kill you or cause renal damage.
Common household drugs? Which drugs do this?
The antibiotics referred to as the tetracyclines, for example.
Oh! I wouldn't use expired antibiotics. Good to know!
BTW edgar, why arent you taking an aspirin a day as a clo buster. You like playing roulette?
BTW edgar, why arent you taking an aspirin a day as a clo buster. You like playing roulette?
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I take a combo of vitamin E, garlic, and magnesium, instead. No doc ever told me I need aspirin.
I'm not so sure anyone needs a whole aspirin, the thing now is baby aspirin.
From some notes in my memory, one aspirin has effects for several days, something like five.
Not good if you are a bleeder.
Really, all this stuff should be figured out with your md.
How bout if we get CowDoc ? That good enough for you?
An aspirin a day is a good idea with or without your doc being involved. (Just tell her that youve started taking an aspirin a day)
BTW, the new advice is one enteric aspirin a day, not a single baby aspirin, taken with water so it doesnt erode tissue.
You may thank me later.
Advice from whom, the aspirin company?
I'll listen if you show me, show me., and then show me. I'm wary. There are TWO kinds of strokes.
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