That’s a retcon, I remember St. Joseph’s being marketed as for children. That’s why it has/had that orange flavor, to make it more palatable to kids.
I was just being silly.
I’d call myself reasonably healthy, and Tylenol is my poison of choice for headache pain. I don’t get them all that often (maybe four or five times a year), but when I do, my wife’s favorite stuff (ibuprofen) may or may not work for me, depending upon circumstances of which my knowledge remains woefully incomplete. But two caplets of 500mg Extra-Strength Tylenol works great, generally in 20 minutes or so.
So maybe there’s some body chemistry difference going on, maybe it’s a placebo effect, but for my wife (and maybe for you), Advil works great and Tylenol doesn’t, whereas for me, the opposite is true.
How 'bout that.
My problem with acetaminophen (other than never remembering how to spell it) is twofold.
- It doesn’t do shit for my headaches.
- They add it to the stuff that does.
There seems to be this idea of adding it to cough syrup and codeine pills to stop people from abusing those things. And that’s just over-the-counter stuff. They add it to prescription drugs like Vicodin, Percocet, and similar drugs.
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I take ibuprofen, not Tylenol, but At times when I’ve had really bad sore throats, doctors have told me it’s ok to take 2-3 times the recommended dose for a few days.
Also, I find it interesting that these medicines never adjust adult dose by body weight
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2-3 times the dose of ibuprofen (a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory) is way different than 2-3 times the dose for acetaminophen (paracetamol) — the latter is very dangerous in doses even slightly over the daily recommended allowance.
There’s probably a lot of confusion in that many people think that all drugs that kill pain must contain similar ingredients in different amounts, when in reality the difference between two drugs used to achieve a similar goal is quite vast.
Vicodin is terribly over prescribed and only works for specific pain receptors - it’s not a catch-all for pain. Sometimes I think MDs forget that. Also, this article seems a little silly - don’t all parents know Tylenol will shut down a liver if it’s taken in a large dose?
Fair point, but knowing that in the abstract and knowing which specific OTC meds do and don’t have huge effects with slight overdoses is very different.
The bigger issue is that (unlike some punchier or more recreational drugs) 25% overdose of tylenol doesn’t feel like anything at all. Nor is damage to liver function all that evident until it’s well past where you would want it to be. It further doesn’t help that the dosage recommendations on anything safe enough to sell over the counter have a reputation for being a bunch of insipid CYA, rather than actual ‘No, seriously, don’t disobey this’. That makes the resultant kill a lot subtler.
Well, I’m glad it works for someone.
Not every parent knows what a liver is, let alone how medications it.
What kind of dentistry do you have there that would result in a need for strong pain killer after the procedure is over?
Never had a root canal, but when they extracted my wisdom teeth, they had to break them and take them out in little pieces (while I was under general anesthetic). My jaw was extraordinarily sore for at least a week. I did wish for something to alleviate that bone-deep pain, but the darvocet they prescribed made me feel mentally unbalanced, so I stuck with tylenol after that. I’ve never needed anything after any other dental visit, though.
Smart, informed, conscientious parents know that. There are a large number of parents who do not fall into that category.
The danger is that the tolerance to Paracetamol / Tylenol is determined by the amount of Glutathione you have present in your liver, and you’ve got no way of knowing how much of that substance your liver is packing.
Tylenol breaks down into a toxic chemical, which the liver neutralises by combining with Glutathione. The average liver has got enough Glutathione in it to process about 8-9 grams of Tylenol, and it usually replenishes pretty quickly. but if you run out of Glutathione in your liver for any reason, the toxic metabolite builds up and rapidly kills you.
So, my understanding is that if you took 8g of Tylenol as a one-off, and then leave it, you’ll be likely to survive and you probably won’t notice anything untoward.
If you take the drug continuously, then toxic dose is determined by how rapidly your liver replaces the Glutathione. Take 5g of Tylenol a day when your liver is only producing 3-4g of Glutathione a day, and you’ll be dead in less than a fortnight. This is why even very ‘small’ overdoses are dangerous if they’re ongoing.
I think the UK notice on paracetamol (tylenol) says “talk to a doctor if you need to take this for more than 3 days”, and the packet sizes you can buy without a prescription are deliberately set at 8g, to prevent suicides and to get people medical attention before their liver can be in danger.
People really should be told about not killing themselves with a Tylenol overdose. I mean, don’t kill yourself, but if you really feel you have to, don’t use Tylenol to do it. Find another method. Liver failure sucks a lot.
It’s simple: A liver is that which you would be in dire straits without!
The story I was just about to relate involved the same kinda little pieces of tooth thing. Ow.
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