Safe to take after expiration date?

The expiration date on bottles of over-the-counter and prescription medications tells consumers how long the drug contained within will maintain full potency and safety under ideal storage conditions.

Inspectors arrest 15 in prescription drug case

Opiates originated from Tijuana pharmacies

SAN DIEGO - U.S. border inspectors are not only seizing drugs coming into the country from Mexico - they're making arrests for drug smuggling that's going the other way.

How do you take your medication?

While most medications are taken in tablet or caplet (oblong tablet) form, both are composed of compressed powder that needs to dissolve in the stomach before the active ingredient is released. For faster relief, chewable tablets are absorbed as soon as they reach the stomach, and dissolvable tablets act like ground-up chewables once dissolved in the mouth. Liquid medications are absorbed as soon as they reach the digestive system. Gel caps contain liquid medication encased in a gelatin exterior. Once the stomach dissolves the outer coating, the medication is quickly absorbed. There are also tongue strips, which melt before they are absorbed in the stomach, which is just about as quick as dissolvable tablets.

PILLS: Drug companies questioned

I would like to sound off about our pharmaceutical companies and our pharmacies. In the last four months my prescriptions have changed makers four times. With each change, my pills have gotten weaker and weaker. The pharmacies are buying from the cheapest pharmaceutical companies, not caring that they are being made in China. They both only care about the money. No one is thinking about the person taking the medicine.

Take Aspirin at first signs of heart attack

Those in the early grips of a heart attack may find that chewing an aspirin tablet will help save their lives. Heart attacks are often the result of a blood clot in the coronary artery that blocks blood flow. Aspirin may help overcome these heart events by inhibiting the formation of the blood clots. The most effective way to help restore blood flow in the event of a heart attack is to chew and swallow a regular adult-strength, 325-milligram tablet. Neither a baby-strength (81-milligram) aspirin tablet, which many heart patients take on a daily basis, nor a coated aspirin tablet, which is designed to be absorbed slowly, will suffice in the event of a heart attack.

Is it safe to buy pet meds online?

Dear PropellerHeads: I'm hoping to save a little money. Is it safe to buy my pet medicines from an online pet pharmacy?

No over-the-counter for Plan B pill

Election-year politics seen in move by Obama administration

WASHINGTON (AP) - In a surprise move with election-year implications, the Obama administration's top health official overruled her own drug regulators and stopped the Plan B morning-after pill from moving onto drugstore shelves next to the condoms.

FDA allows over-the-counter morning-after pill, lifts age limit

Express Scripts cuts payments for customized drugs

Even a little too much

Much has been made recently of the potential risk posed by taking too much acetaminophen (Tylenol). As a result, the FDA has set the maximum dose of acetaminophen at 4,000 milligrams over a 24-hour period. In addition to the attention being paid to single overdoses (when a person takes too many pills at once), new evidence has emerged that reveals the dangers of so-called "staggered overdoses." This term refers to taking even slightly too much acetaminophen over a period of several days.

Entertainment Briefs for April 8, 2010

Jon Gosselin: Kate ignores kids; Haim obtained 553 pills before death;

Morning after pill OK for ages 15 and up

Over-the-counter birth control? Drugmaker seeks FDA approval

Many conservative groups stress they are only interested in curtailing abortion

Are online pharmacies legitimate?

If you think that you'll get a bargain from an online pharmacy, think again. According to a 2012 analysis of nearly 1,000 online pharmacies by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP), which accredits online pharmacies and represents state pharmacy boards all over the United States, only around 3 percent appear to be legitimate. The NABP found that 85 percent of the online drugstores it looked into do not require a valid prescription from the consumer's physician, and nearly half provided foreign drugs or medications not approved by the FDA. While there are Canadian online pharmacies that are legitimately regulated, many websites that purport to be Canadian are not. Worse yet, you may not even get the drug you ordered.

Dangers of overprescribing kids' antibiotics

Parents must carefully consult with their children's pediatricians before deciding to treat their kids with antibiotics. It is important for parents to understand that prescribing antibiotics to children unnecessarily raises the risk of developing antibiotic-resistant infections in both the child and society as a whole. For this reason, health experts have been warning of the dangers of antibiotic over-prescription for years. Yet, a recent study involving nearly 65,000 outpatient visits by children under the age of 18 shows that pediatricians write more than 10 million unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions annually, mostly for respiratory conditions. About one-quarter of antibiotic prescriptions are given to children with respiratory conditions that will not respond to antibiotics, such as asthma, bronchitis, influenza and allergies.

Pfizer maneuvers to protect Lipitor from generics

TRENTON, N.J. - Lipitor is so valuable that Pfizer is practically paying people to keep taking its blockbuster cholesterol medicine after generic competition hits the U.S. market this week.

REFORM: U.S. drug costs grossly inflated

We have been hearing a lot about medical health reform lately from our government. This weekend I had an experience that relates directly to this situation.

No headline

The opioid crisis in the United States boasts some horrifying numbers. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), more than 42,000 people died from overdosing on opioids in 2016, with an estimated 11.5 million people misusing their prescription opioids.

Udall swipes at opponent's birth-control plan

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. - Democratic Sen. Mark Udall went after his opponent's proposal for over-the-counter birth control Friday, bringing big names to a suburban Denver battleground to argue that Rep. Cory Gardner's plan doesn't make him the "new kind of Republican" he has been claiming to be in ads.

Do you take OTC medications seriously?

According to one survey, nearly one-third of consumers polled said that they did not consider over-the-counter (OTC) medications to be as "serious" as prescribed medications. Are you among those who think this way?