Store your medicines correctly

A few weeks ago, I was back in my hometown to visit my parents. When I was at my parent’s home, I checked out their medicines and was shocked that they kept some of their medication in the fridge door and some in the bathroom cabinet! I have to discard and replace them with a new set of medicines to ensure the quality. I gave my parents a brief lecture on keeping their medicines correctly.

1. Keep medicines in their original packaging.
   This is to make sure all the medicines are correctly labelled with information such as the name of the medication, name of the patient, strength, dosage, method of administration, method of storage, and expiry date.
   Some packaging/containers are specially designed to protect the medicines from direct heat and light, which can affect the effectiveness of the medicines.
2. Keep medicines in a safe and appropriate place.
   Store medicines in a place away from direct sunlight, high temperature and humidity. Do not store your medicines in the bathroom cabinet. A good place would be to keep it in a dresser drawer or kitchen cabinet away from the stove, sink, and hot appliances.
   Make sure these cabinets are not easily accessible by children but ensure easy access by adults, especially during emergencies. On top of that, never leave medicines in a car for long hours.
   Besides, we should store only medicines labelled with “to be refrigerated” instructions on the middle shelf of the refrigerator. Do not store medicines in the side door compartment and bottom shelf of the fridge as the temperature fluctuates whenever we open and close the fridge door, which may adversely affect the quality of the medicine.
3. Always dispose of expired, damaged and unlabelled medicine
   If any medicine has already expired or damaged, separate it from your medicine container and dispose of it properly. Besides, do not keep any unlabelled medicine as this may increase the risk of taking the wrong medication.