Allergies and out of date medications

I was rotating the supplies in one of my BOB's and discovered some benadryl that was past its date. strange thing is I didn't put it in. I asked my wife and she said she did. both her and my daughter have terrible allergies.
Allergies medication may seem trivial to some but when your eyes are watering so badly and your head and face are going to split its kind of hard to concentrate on the job at hand, weather that be bugging out or figuring out what's for dinner.
I never gave it much thought before but seems my wife did I figured this is an area that is probley neglected a lot.

Another thing that bothered me is the danger of out dated medications. In the same BOB I had inhalers that were out of date. Some medications can kill when they are out of date so check your BOB's on a regular basis. I started keeping a inventory sheet in each BOB with dates on it of when things need to be rotated out to get used up before they expire. I set my PC up To remind me to check my BOB's on the same day every month.

Just a little food for thought.

[edit on 16-4-2007 by angryamerican]

That's an interesting bit of research to be done.

Some meds really don't ever "go bad" if they're stored properly, even though they have expiration dates. It's my understanding that they have to have an expiration date of some sort, so if it doesn't really GO bad, they will have 5 years on the expiration just to cover the legal bases.

Some meds deteriorate over time but don't become toxic, so you just have to titrate the dose to match.

Some meds go bad with a vengeance and become somewhat to very toxic.

Someone with more time than I have should find out what are good/bad meds for the bugout kit.

Aspirin is one that becomes somewhat toxic, and tetracycline becomes very toxic. But I don't know about ibuprofen or doxycycline.

Very good idea. I have NEVER checked any exp date on meds I packed. Thanks for the heads up.



- NSBiz

Good point.

I would be seriosuly hacked off to die from some medication after surviving the initial event

[Health promotion mode]

Be very mindful of how you store your meds. Some very specifically state that they should be stored. One of the worst places to store drugs is in a bathroom cabinet (hands up all who are guilty!!!). This is because the constant changes in heat and humidity in the averge bathroom can degrade the drug extremely fast, making the expiry date inaccurate.

If in doubt, store in a cool dry place out of direct sunlight.

[/Heath promotion mode]

Just regarding allergies, I have some really bad allergies too. Grass, trees, ragweed. You name it. I have found getting allergy shots helps tremendously. I used to take Allegra every day and night from when the snow melted in the spring until when frost fell again in the fall. Since I started getting them, I have rarely needed to take anything most of the time. Occasionally my eyes will get a bit itchy in the summer, but that's about it. So ask your doctor. Although I know how some people on this site look upon injections .

I've also taken some medication that was past the expiry date a few times (namely inhalers), and I haven't had any kind of bad experience with them. Although they weren't more than a month or two over in most cases.

Anyway, the best situation is to get off of medications entirely before you end up in a survival situation, because eventually you are going to run out and have to go completely cold turkey.

Originally posted by Yarcofin
Anyway, the best situation is to get off of medications entirely before you end up in a survival situation, because eventually you are going to run out and have to go completely cold turkey.

Rarely an option. In most cases medications are for health problems. Stopping them will not give you cold turkey - it will seriously damage your health, possibly killing you.

Weening off and replacing them with natural replenishable substitutes is a good idea.

My current Albuterol cartridge is like two months expired since I hardly ever need it. The propellant is a little weak but it still seems to work. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think with most pressed pills you don't have to worry about them causing harm if they're expired. Liquids and gels though I would be sketchy about.

Originally posted by Yarcofin

I've also taken some medication that was past the expiry date a few times (namely inhalers), and I haven't had any kind of bad experience with them. Although they weren't more than a month or two over in most cases.

Anyway, the best situation is to get off of medications entirely before you end up in a survival situation, because eventually you are going to run out and have to go completely cold turkey.

Well one or 2 months is not going to hurt anyone.... Try to take your COPD medication or asthma in one year when you have a bad crisis and you will never never let your meds to go out of date again. I know that medication are really expensive but it's playing with your life....

By the way never get off medication, as a Paramedic I see so much persons getting off and have uge health problems... It's not a good idea...
A survival situation will last a couple of weeks or a couple of month.... You should always be able to find the Meds you are looking for... If not Survival law will prevail... Stronger to resist, Weaker and sick will died.... This is Life

Perhaps a good idea would be to store pill based medications in vacuum packaging - systems are sold for food preservation that will suck out the majority of the air, and hopefully increase the shelf-life of most chemicals. Humidity I would assume is the #1 cause of chemical degradations, since something vacuum packed doesn't have anything external affecting the meds, no other chemicals or substances..

Of course I'd still recommend rotating, but I'm guessing (yes, just guessing) something like this would help considerably.

FYI. I'm a professional who sells drug products. The expiration date is the date when we rotate it out of our stock. We don't sell past that date. That doesn't mean you can't use it if it was prescribed to you. Drugs go bad gradually and loose their potency slowly. That doesn't mean they are toxic. Old Tetracycline (and probably Doxycycline) becomes liver toxic but I've never seen a case of toxicity from taking it and goodness knows we used it in years past before we knew about the toxicity! So respect your liver and toss the old cycline antibiotics! Best plan would be to save the packaging slips or look in a PDR for precautions about storage and use. If you live in a hot or humid climate your drugs go bad much faster. Sunlight really degrades some but not all drugs. Storage in the frig is good if you have some room.

Doxycycline is a really good general purpose med for some things, it's easy to get your hands on as well. It would be nice if it had a long shelf life. I don't know if it does or not.

If I get a chance I'll look into it. Has anyone tried to put together a planned out med kit on ATS yet? Some of the stuff you can get on line and some you can get at vets or large farm supply stores.

Has anyone tried to put together a planned out med kit on ATS yet? Some of the stuff you can get on line and some you can get at vets or large farm supply stores.

The problem is always.. what are you planning for? My approach is to just have stuff for your immediate needs plus antibiotics, antihistimines and some skin ointment antibiotic and maybe some nutriceuticals to suit your fancy. Eye washes are great. Shelf life is usually the limitation, however, for many products. Then add some simple surgical instruments and bandaging materials. I've found that any emergency pack last less than 2 years.

Originally posted by plumranch
The problem is always.. what are you planning for?

That's why you have "modular" check lists. It lets you put together the sort of kit needed. I'm sure one giant med kit won't be good for everyone everywhere all the time.

You use a different kit for jungle rotation than you do for desert. Same for this. Some things will be the same, others won't.

Originally posted by plumranch
The problem is always.. what are you planning for?

That's why you have "modular" check lists. It lets you put together the sort of kit needed. I'm sure one giant med kit won't be good for everyone everywhere all the time.

You use a different kit for jungle rotation than you do for desert. Same for this. Some things will be the same, others won't.

Howdy all,

Just some thought about medications:

As many have said a cool dry place is where you want to store them.

As far as expiration dates go: I beleive that when considering dry medications like Tylenol the expiration date is conservative. But given the lack of information out there, I lean towards replacing them. Liquid medications are a no brainer as far as I am concerned and should be changed frequently. Some medications like asparin to breakdown chemicaly (smells like vinegar) and while it may not hurt you, its not going to help either.

It is expensive, but if you go to a Costco etc and buy in bulk its alot cheaper. Once bad things go down, and you no longer have acess to fresh meds, then you make a decision as to using it or not. Untill then I keep stuff as fresh as possible so it lasts as long as possible.

Don't be afraid to hunt around looking for the longest expiration date you can find.

One thing to add to this thread.
For those of you that have seasonal type allergies such as hayfever grass etc.
One of the best natural solutions is to locate your nearest farmer's market or bee keeper and get some honey.
One teaspoon of locally produced honey will alleviate most allergies.
One note, don't go to your local grocery store for this Sue Bee and even the organic honeys are made from honey from around the country. This solution will only work with honey made by the local bees since the honey is made from the pollens of the local plantlife.