Medication should not be taken without a magnifying glass

I try to abide by the common medical advise "read directions before use", but that often is not possible. That is, of course, unless I have a 20-something with perfect vision, or a magnifying glass nearby.

I don't want to generalise and say all medicine bottles are like this, but I am yet to find one that isn't.

Regardless of whether it be a vitamin, antibiotic, a ventolin pump or any other medication the directions are near impossible to read, and forget about trying to find the expiry date in many cases.

I wear glasses for long-sightedness, get my eyes checked regularly and am proud to say I have 20-20 distance vision - but my arms are not a metre long so my quality, long distance vision isn't helpful in this situation.

Unfortunately even with my glasses on, the print on a medicine bottle is still often too small and too faint for me to read.

Of late I have been taking photos of the directions so I can then expand the print on my phone - but should I have to do that?

I understand that there is a not a lot of room to provide details on a bottle but surely directions are something that should be easily visible to all users. I feel the expiry date is equally important.

As far as I am concerned, this is a situation that clearly needs revision by the marketing gurus for medical products.

In the meantime, that magnifying glass I bought for my husband a few years ago - as a joke - now has real merit.

My vision is firmly focused on a solution to this challenge.

Jackie Meyers, editor