HOW DO I NEED TO STORE MY MEDICATIONS IN THE FRIDGE?

In a country like Malaysia where heat is a blessing, medication storage becomes an issue of keeping the medicine safe for continuous consumption and to prevent wastage. When one discusses the storage of medication in a patient's home, one may only close one eye and often think that to keep medications 'cold', it should be by putting them in the fridge and the most common place will be at the fridge door.

Some take home medicines are heat sensitive and therefore, proper handling of these medication are very important. However, this is often overlooked. Medications  and supplements which are very sensitive to heat include insulin medications and vitamins.

The ideal temperature of a fridge to store most heat sensitive medications is between two to eight degree Celsius and the best location to keep medications will be on the middle shelf of the fridge. More often than not, medications are kept in the fridge. However, they are mostly found stored at the fridge door, where the temperature is least stable due to opening and closing of the door of the fridge. It is very important to properly keep the medications according to its manufacturing recommendation as the effectiveness and the medication itself may be compromised and can lead to harm when patients consume it.

WILL HEAT KILL ITS BENEFITS?

Yes! For medicines which are heat sensitive, even a slight change of temperature whether too hot or too cold, may reduce or eliminate the effectiveness of the drug.

SHOULD ALL MEDICATIONS BE STORED IN THE FRIDGE?

Not at all!! Most medications such as tablets and syrups are best kept away from direct sunlight, therefore inside a small cabinet or even in a drawer in the bedroom should be safe enough, as long as they're away from little hands (children). Proper storage instructions are already provided by the manufacturer which can be found in their drug pamphlets or on bottles. Read them thoroughly or ask your friendly neighborhood pharmacists to explain them to you.   

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Prepared By : Shakila Bakar (SB)

Reference : 1 Twenty 80 magazine (Sharifah Nadia Syed Mohammad Slleh - Clinical Pharmacist, Hospital Sultanah Nur Zahirah, Kuala Terengganu)