Quote:
Originally Posted by Kybosh
It depends entirely on what the type of drug is and bacteria for sure develop resistance to antiobiotics. Other common things like acetaminophen (tylenol) or acetylsalyicylic acid (A.S.A., Aspirin) that you might take for a cold act in completely different ways. I'm actually not sure that those drugs have lost their effectiveness since they were first discovered 100+ years ago.
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It certainly does depend on the medication. Things like painkillers last for a very long time. I would certainly not be leery of taking things like you mentioned if they were somewhat past their expiry date. Antibiotics, you have to be much more careful with. They require proper storage and will be affected by things like humidity, light, temperature. Those type of factors all have a direct effect on the shelf life of the drug or medication.
I just don't understand why people have very old medications lying around though....or old food.