Can medicines be put together?

Can you put all the medicines together?

Many families like to put commonly used medicines in the same small medicine box. In fact, this is very unscientific!

First, during the long-term storage of medicines, they will be affected by environmental factors such as temperature and humidity, resulting in complex physical and chemical changes. When external and internal medicines are stored together, they will affect each other.

Second, it may confuse the method of use of the medicine and cause harm. For example, external calamine lotion looks like a strawberry-flavored suspension and is easy to be taken by mistake.

Third, it is unsafe to mix adult and children's medicines because the two may have the same name and similar appearance, but different specifications. If parents mistakenly give their children adult medicines, it may cause irreversible damage.

Recommendation

External and internal medicines should be stored separately, and adult and children's medicines should be stored separately.

Just put the medicine in the refrigerator?

Many people buy medicines and put them in the refrigerator, which is the safest way to store them. However, different medicines have different storage conditions.

The storage temperature of drugs is divided into:

Room temperature (0~30℃), such as azithromycin dry suspension;

Cooling (0~20℃), such as orange shell mixture;

Refrigeration (2~8℃), such as Bifidobacterium tetravalent live bacteria tablets;

Some drugs also need to be sealed, light-proof and dry.

Therefore, not all drugs are suitable for storage in the refrigerator. For example, if the syrup temperature is too low, the solubility of the drug may decrease, resulting in inconsistency between the drug concentration and the label. If the storage temperature of the cream is too low, it may cause matrix stratification, affecting its uniformity and efficacy.

Recommendations

Store according to the "storage" requirements on the drug packaging or instructions.

Do not change the medicine bag.

Now there are small medicine boxes for people to take medicine for a short time when going out. Many people like to unpack all the medicines for a week or even longer and put them in a small medicine box.

However, it is wrong to throw away the original packaging of the medicine and mix them together for a long time.

Discarding the original packaging may affect the stability and efficacy of the medicine, and mix different medicines together, and even react with each other.

Recommendation

It is best to keep the medicine in its original packaging. At present, most tablets are individually packaged in aluminum foil. You can cut the tablets and packaging together and put them in a small medicine tray, and don't forget to mark the expiration date.

Don't forget to clean regularly.

Many people will ask, can the shelf life of the original packaging still be referred to after the medicine is opened?

When the medicine is unopened, the shelf life can reach the expiration date on the medicine packaging label; once opened, the expiration date will change accordingly due to changes in storage conditions.

Tablets, capsules, etc. are easy to dry and crack; granules, pills and other drugs are easy to absorb moisture; liquids should be taken during treatment, especially syrups, due to their special nature, they are easily contaminated by microorganisms and moldy, and even if the medicine is opened and refrigerated, it is not suitable for long-term storage.

Unrefrigerated oral liquids, even if they are stored strictly in accordance with storage conditions, are generally not recommended to be taken one month after opening.

Recommendation

Clean up the medicines at home every 3-6 months, and do not take expired or significantly changed drugs.