Sharing Know How

After opening a new bottle of Advil recently, I wondered about the cotton that sits on top of the pills.

Why do they put cotton in there in the first place? 

Do I need to keep the cotton on top of the pills after I open the bottle, or should I just throw it away?

Does the cotton help keep the vitamins or pills fresh or help extend the expiry date?

Well, after doing a bit of research, I found the answers to all these questions and put my mind at ease (not that this was an all consuming question burning in my head and keeping me up at night or anything!). 

Why? 

The cotton is mainly used to prevent the pills or vitamins from being damaged or chiped during transport and handling.  Since they almost never fill pill bottles right to the top, you need to fill the space so the pills and vitamins don’t smash into each other.  Who wants to buy a bottle full of broken pills?

Keep the cotton after opening?

As long as you don’t toss your pill bottles around the house, you should be fine without the cotton.  I have also read that keeping the cotton after opening can be harmful.  The cotton will absorb things like pathogens or bacteria from your hands and then get smothered all over your wonder drug pills when you put it back in the bottle. So, just say no to keeping the cotton!

But what about the freshness?

Nope, it doesn’t keep them any fresher or help them to last any longer. The good news is pills and vitamins tend to have great expiry dates. (Especially when you compare it to bread which seems to always go moldy the day after I buy it!) 

So, make sure that you practice safe pill and vitamin bottle care.  Throw away the cotton after you open it, and keep it out of reach of children and away from the prying eyes of guests that use your bathroom. We all know that people love to know what’s inside other people’s medicine cabinets.