It’s “the most dangerous drug ever made.”
Now, that’s saying a lot when you consider that doctors are prescribing us drugs that can trigger cancer, TB, kidney failure, heart disease, and on and on and on all the time!
But what a renowned neurologist and specialist in pain management considers to be the worst of them all isn’t even a prescription med… it’s a best-selling drug that you can get over the counter, and you may have it in your own medicine cabinet right now.
It’s acetaminophen — a.k.a. Tylenol.
That’s right, it’s Tylenol, one of the most commonly used drugs that you can find for pain and fever. You can buy giant tubs of it almost anywhere — like jellybeans at Easter time.
As an eAlert reader, you know that we’ve been sounding the alarm bells over acetaminophen for a very long time — especially about how easy it is to take a deadly dose without realizing it.
It can even add your name to the liver transplant list — or worse — before you know what hit you.
But now… surprise! That same warning is also coming from researchers who just completed a study on acetaminophen that was sponsored by none other than Tylenol’s maker, Johnson & Johnson.
They discovered that it’s quite common — and easy — to take an overdose of acetaminophen during cold and flu season, and that’s something that sends tens of thousands to the ER every year, with hundreds dying.
Putting the lid on acetaminophen poisoning is something that the FDA should have done decades ago. And this new research is telling us that more people are in jeopardy from this easy-to-buy med than ever imagined.
Right from the horse’s mouth
There’s no disagreement over the fact that acetaminophen, when taken in a large enough dose, will destroy your liver.
For many years now, though, there’s been an argument over how much of a dose that is… and how easily someone could accidently cross that very thin line.
First, there are so many variables to what dose might be a toxic one for you – or your child or grandchild – that it would be impossible to cover them all here. But I can tell you that over seven years ago, even J&J lowered its “safe” daily dose for an adult down from 4,000 mg a day to 3,000 mg — all on its own accord. (For context: Each Extra Strength Tylenol pill contains 500 mg, so that would mean stopping at two pills, three times a day.)
And around the same time, the FDA’s revised recommendation dipped way below that, bringing the maximum amount of acetaminophen allowed in Rx drugs down to 325 mg.
But truth be told, it’s possible that any amount of this med might be too much for your body to handle.
Is your liver in tip-top shape? Do you take a glass of wine or beer with dinner? How often do you take acetaminophen? For how long? These are all things that could put your liver at serious risk from simply one dose of the drug.
And over the years, we’ve told you story after story of people who took just a tiny bit too much and suffered the tragic consequences.
That brings me to the second question: How hard is it to overdose on acetaminophen?
Well, according to the new research paid for by J&J, it’s not difficult at all, especially if you come down with a cold or the flu.
During the winter months, the researchers found that 6.3 percent of acetaminophen users take more than the FDA-recommended amount of 4,000 mg a day (which, as I said, is a whopping 1,000 mg higher than even J&J recommends).
Now, 6.3 percent might not seem like a lot, but an estimated 50 million Americans use acetaminophen each week to treat pain, fever, and cold and flu symptoms. So, we’re talking about more than 3 million people who might be overdosing.
So, why are so many in jeopardy? As lead researcher Saul Shiffman explained, colds and flu come with lots of different symptoms, such as aches and pains, headache, and sniffles. And many drugs made to treat those problems are also likely to contain acetaminophen.
So, overloading on this very risky med can be as easy as throwing a few bottles or boxes into your shopping cart when you feel like you might be coming down with something.
Considering the sheer numbers of OTC drugs that contain acetaminophen (at last count over 600!), researchers say, consumers need to receive further “education” about how to use it properly.
Really?
Well, I think the only education needed is this: Acetaminophen is just too dangerous to take for a cold, headache, or anything else. And you and your loved ones should stay as far away from it as you possibly can.
“Fighting a cold or flu? Beware of overdosing on Tylenol” Dennis Thompson, March 12, 2018, U.S. News & World Report, health.usnews.com
