The dangers of Tylenol...

Many of us, when we have aches and pains reach for medication. One of the most popular over the counter medications today is Tyelnol. Because this drug is easy to obtain, many think that it is harmless, they couldn't be more wrong. Two weeks ago the British Journal of Pharmacology released a paper showing the dangers of what is termed a staggered overdose of acetaminophen, which is better known in the US as Tylenol.

Picture from beatsmedia.com

What is a staggered overdose? This term refers to the time when a person repeatedly exceeds the daily recommendation through small overdoses. This is important for people to realize since the paper shows a staggered overdose is more deadly than one large overdose. Researchers also commented  about a compounding factor with staggered overdose, alcohol use. Alcohol greatly increases the toxicity of acetaminophen and in there study someone suffering a staggered overdose was more likely to have encephalopathy due to the acetaminophen/alcohol combination. 

Many people have a misguided belief that small overdoses will not cause any problem, or even worse don't even read their medication to find how many pills is the maximum dose per hour/day. Read more about the paper here.

Why take Tylenol at all, you might ask? Tylenol's active drug acetaminophen addresses pain without the risks of ulcer in the stomach, but an increase toxicity to the liver. Also acetaminophen doesn't address inflammation the way that ibuprofen (Advil) does.  The best way to approach taking any medication, over the counter or prescription is to talk about the drug with a doctor. Key issues/points to discuss with your doctor are:

• What you hope the drug to do - At times people expect a drug to do more than than they should.
• Known side effects of the drug, and how common these effects are - being aware is the best.
• Safe dosages - something you should know about any drug even cough syrup.
• Duration to use the drug - some drugs need to follow a specific course.
• Foods to avoid with the drug - such as avoiding alcohol with acetaminophen, or grapefruit with many medications. 

The take home message of this paper? Take note, and pay attention to your recommended doses on all of your medications.

If you have a headache? Rather than reach for Tylenol, check this blog post from Dr. Molly Ouellette about potential causes of headaches.