Bringing medicine from the US

[ilikepeanutbutter]

Customs has a pdf you can read about medicine imports with.

http://www.tulli.fi/en/finnish_customs/ ... _en_A4.pdf

[AldenG]

Those drugs are going to be way over "use by date" by the time any normal family would be through 500 pills.

It's very rare for a dry pill to lose potency even over decades. Think of it this way: would you ingest a poison just because it was 40 years old and therefore had probably lost its potency? I didn't think so. Most chemicals remain what they are unless seriously interefered with by some combination of heat, oxygen, moisture, and especially other chemicals.

The use-by date has a lot of political and venal background in the United States, having nothing to do with medical effectiveness or safety. There have been formal studies of this that have concluded there was no significant loss of potency or safety over twenty years or so.

This applies to powders and hard pills kept at low humidity in room temperature. There are of course certain exceptions, including living organisms and a very few compounds known to be unstable over time. If you were getting liquid-cap ibuprofen or paracetamol, there might be some concern with the use-by date, maybe. For tablets, the most pressing concern is usually physical integrity. If they're not in blister packs and the container has been moved around a lot, the pills may erode from rubbing against each other. In a few cases, poorly made pills may spontaneously spall into flakes and powder over the years. But I've seen that happen to cheap generics that were WITHIN their use-by date.

I would guess that even in Finland (though perhaps less than in the US) a lot of what is piously represented by authorities as concern with consumer safety actually has more to do with bolstering profits for some parties and bolstering power/control for some other parties. That won't generally be what is in the mind of the person enforcing the rules, but it is likely to be the historical origin of the rules.

[AldenG]

I'm curious: Do middle-aged residents of Finland not take daily aspirin to reduce the risk of heart attack? I know that similar results can be achieved with magnesium, and that there has been reformulation of table salt and recipes in the domestic food industry to greatly increase the average Finn's magnesium intake. But in a country that used to be (before the magnesium campaign) one of the world's top leaders in heart attacks, it would surprise me if daily aspirin is not widely recommended. Apparently it's one of the most effective things you can do, and it's cheap and simple.

I don't want to argue with the scientists who say that the high-calcium, low-magnesium diet of the 1900's was largely responsible for the exceptionally high rate of heart attacks in Finland. Presumably they've been diligent and competent in their research. But I have to say I see a huge difference between the generation that was running companies and government agencies in the 1980's and the generation that does so today. Back then it was the WWII veteran generation and their children. And I had never seen people elsewhere who carried so much stress in their bodies. The epidemic of clenched jaws, working jaw muscles, nervous tics, etc. really made an impression on me, coming from places where such things made a person stand out. Nowadays you don't see nearly as much of that in Finland. There's still the binge drinking, but even that is a few notches less hard-core than it used to be. So I really have to wonder, are public health efforts like the magnesium work really the main cause of fewer heart attacks? What about the fact that today's middle-agers didn't go through a war? And not just any war, but the kind of war of a small nation against a superpower we read about in Tuntematon Sotilas.

[EP]

They recommend children´s Aspirin, not the regular kind.

And yes, war certainly took its toll particularly among those who spent nearly 5 years on the front.

[Upphew]

Thanks for the replies.

I've just had things like the 500 pill bottle of Wal-Mart brand Tylenol, as well as cold medicine etc.

That's exactly what I had in mind.

12/24h x 3 months = ~1080 so you can bring two bottles for your own use (if the Wal-Mart branded have same instructions as the real deal).

[silk]

There's still the binge drinking, but even that is a few notches less hard-core than it used to be.

It is? I thought alcohol related ills and deaths have increased in Finland. Educate me if I'm wrong.

[Upphew]

There's still the binge drinking, but even that is a few notches less hard-core than it used to be.

It is? I thought alcohol related ills and deaths have increased in Finland. Educate me if I'm wrong.

But we don't eat fat nor salt so hearts just keep on ticking, with speed limits as low as they are and safer and safer cars its miracle that people can die in cars... we have to die somehow, why not go with a nice buzz?

[AldenG]

It is? I thought alcohol related ills and deaths have increased in Finland. Educate me if I'm wrong.

I may be the one needing re-education. I'm just stating an impression.

But more specifically, hard drinking and business deals made in the sauna were part of the corporate leadership culture 20 years ago. I remember it being frustrating sometimes trying to get issues the kind of sober attention and thoughtful decision-making they needed. Too many afternoon leadership meetings over lonkeros in some kabinetti at Mestaritalli or Kalastajatorppa, or worse yet the summit retreats. Lots of fun, and colorful for sure, but not great for decision-making. It's my impression you can't get away with that so much any more.

Now that you question it, I suppose it IS likely that younger people are drinking even more and harder than they used to. When we made the mistake of trying Omenahotelli's Lönnrotinkatu location last summer, just about everyone there seemed to be on their own mini-version of a Tallin cruise. The front entry was full of empty beer cans and vodka bottles in the morning. I don't know if that's all the time or only in the summer.

[Jad]

Customs has a pdf you can read about medicine imports with.

http://www.tulli.fi/en/finnish_customs/ ... _en_A4.pdf

Many thanks for the pdf file .. things are a lot clearer now.

Thanks for the replies.

I've just had things like the 500 pill bottle of Wal-Mart brand Tylenol, as well as cold medicine etc.

That's exactly what I had in mind.

12/24h x 3 months = ~1080 so you can bring two bottles for your own use (if the Wal-Mart branded have same instructions as the real deal).

That's what I'll go for .. appreciate it, thank you. And thank you AldenG .. very informative posts.

Ok, I am heading to the airport. Happy Christmas to you all