The common drug that should be banned from your medicine cabinet
It’s a drug that’s being used to treat everything from arthritis to fevers in newborn babies.
And it can be deadly at any dose.
For years I’ve been warning you about the dangers of acetaminophen, the main ingredient in Tylenol and dozens of other prescription and OTC meds.
I’ve told you how easy it is to accidentally take an overdose that could shut down your liver and even kill you.
But a new study out of Europe should be a wake-up call to everyone who has acetaminophen sitting in their medicine cabinets or purse rights now.
Because researchers have proven that acetaminophen can still end your life — even if you never exceed the dosage on the label.
It’s a killer, plain and simple. It’s sending nearly 80,000 people a year to the hospital, and it’s the leading cause of liver failure in America.
Now the mainstream has wanted us for years to believe that people taking too much acetaminophen are the problem. And there are lots of folks who take four Tylenol when the label says two, or combine drugs without realizing they both have acetaminophen.
But researchers from the Leeds Institute of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Medicine in England found that even if you follow the acetaminophen dosing guidelines to a T, you could be buying yourself a one-way ticket to an early grave.
In fact, it looks like this med can kill you in more ways than we ever imagined.
You see, researchers wanted to find out what happens when you take acetaminophen within “standard dose ranges” for long periods of time — like when you’re treating a chronic condition, like arthritis or migraines.
And they found that acetaminophen can permanently damage your kidneys — and even cause internal bleeding — even if you never take more than you’re supposed to.
The researchers also discovered acetaminophen ups your risk of having a heart attack, stroke, and developing high blood pressure.
And if all that wasn’t enough, using the drug at the higher range of the recommended dosages can boost your chances of dying prematurely by a whopping 60 percent!
Now that’s a warning you’ll never see on the bottle of Extra Strength Tylenol.
The British researchers said that they believe the “true risk” from this drug is much higher than doctors and nurses have been led to believe.
And they sure have that right.
Aside from all the damage acetaminophen can do to your kidneys, liver, and heart, it also can trigger a potentially deadly skin condition called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome.
That’s like getting third-degree burns from the inside out — and it can happen after just one dose.
Now, just getting Tylenol and other pain relievers with acetaminophen out of your life is straightforward enough.
But, as I said, acetaminophen is an active ingredient in lots more drugs (including OTC cold medicine) than most people realize. To check out a complete list of medications with acetaminophen, just click here.
Sources:
“Long-term use of world’s most popular painkiller poses risk: study” March 3, 2015, The Daily News, nydailynews.com
“What you should know about long-term use of acetaminophen” Dennis Thompson, March 4, 2015, Health, news.health.com
