At its core, SHTF living is all about health. And what facilitates health more than medicine. But how long do you have before medicine goes bad?
If you want to survive a SHTF scenario, you have to be prepared to live self-sufficiency. Most people think about growing crops, hunting, gathering, and other aspects of resource gathering. But there remains one important aspect of staying healthy: medicine. But you can’t exactly produce your own ibuprofen, so most folks keep a stockpile for long term usage.
But what about those expiration dates? Medicines are stable compounds, why would they expire?
Short answer: They don’t, technically.
According to an article by the Harvard Health department, the expiration on medicine doesn’t mean the same thing as foods and such do. Instead, they’re an indication of their effectiveness.
It started in 1979 when a new law was implemented that required drug manufacturers to list the date in which a medicine can no longer guarantee full potency and safety. But the U.S. military didn’t like this. They found themselves tossing out and replacing medicine every few years. So they began a study with the Food and Drug Administration regarding expiration. They found that most drugs lasted well beyond their expiration date, some as much as 15 years.
That said, some medicines might develop adverse effects after their date, and some will quickly lose effectiveness. It’s hard to say. But if you’re wanting to create a big stockpile of advil, it might be safer than you think.
But to be safe: Prepslife does not endorse the usage of expired medication due to potential health risks.