Tylenol is a pain reliever and fever reducer that most people keep in their medicine cabinets and use at any fever, cold or flu attack. It’s even given to children to reduce the symptoms of fever and the common cold.
However, many don’t know that the main ingredient in Tylenol, acetaminophen, has repeatedly been linked to acute liver failure and liver damage.
What The Label Doesn’t Say
Acetaminophen is the common denominator of many prescription and non-prescription drugs including Excedrin, NyQuil, Theraflu, Vicodin, Percocet. These drugs are commonly used to relieve pain caused by headaches, arthritis, toothaches, and menstruation.
Despite the fact that these drugs are commonly used and most people see them as harmless, they do bring on a number of side effects. In fact, around 56,000 emergency room visits are recorded annually as a result of acetaminophen overdose including 26,000 hospitalizations. If patients receive immediate treatment, they only suffer minor liver damage. However, nearly 450 people die each year as a result of these drugs.
It’s now known that long-term use of acetaminophen can cause serious liver damage and some doctors are even switching their patients to the highly addictive oxycontin just to avoid these risks.
A Little Goes a Long Way
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that even proper use of acetaminophen drugs can lead to liver damage. The study included healthy volunteers who were given Tylenol. Their blood levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), an enzyme produced by your liver as it breaks down proteins, increased 3 times above the upper limit.
When the liver function is not compromised, ALT is not typically found in high levels in the blood; however, when the liver is damaged, it’s released in the bloodstream.
The One Thing you Should Never Mix with Tylenol
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