The real Tylenol scare

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  1

  admin@...

  07/02/09 | Report as spam

  RE: The real Tylenol scare

  It would actually seem that the real problem with Tylenol in the normal household is not Tylenol itself but Tylenol taken in combination with other drugs which contain Tylenol, such as Nyquil or other cold medicines. Thus unknowing users take an accidental overdose. And the FDA action does nothing, really, to prevent this.

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  2

  razr57

  07/02/09 | Report as spam

  RE: The real Tylenol scare

  If the FDA wants Tylenol out of Percocet and Vicoden, what will be the alternative?
  Percocet already has an alternate in the form of oxycodone tablets. To the best of my knowledge, Vicoden does not. I personally have suffered from chronic back pain for 30 years.

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  3

  Drakaran

  07/06/09 | Report as spam

  Drink More Water for a Hangover

  The headache from a hangover is caused from dehydration, make sure to drink plenty of water while drinking alcohol to decrease these effects. ...not drinking to excess also helps. *grin*

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  4

  Caggles

  07/06/09 | Reported as spam

  So stop taking Tylenol...

  Seriously, this is ridiculous. I've only ever taken Tylenol a handful of times in my entire life, because when you're in pain, it's generally a warning from the body to STOP DOING WHAT'S CAUSING YOU THE PAIN!
  
  Back pain during moving day? Two options: one, learn how to lift heavy objects with your legs, or two, take a couple of Tylenol and continue lifting wrong so that you screw your back up irreversibly.
  
  Obviously there are situations where Tylenol is required, but the fact that people pop Tylenols ALL the time for everything from a little cramp to a hangover means that not only are we taking too much, but we are also becoming slowly immune it it's effects (which it's why it's near impossible to find anything less than "Extra Strength" in the drug stores anymore) so we have to take more and more each time we need a painkiller.
  
  Seriously people, keep the painkillers for when you're in REAL pain. The rest of the time, suck it up.

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  5

  Zorched

  07/06/09 | Report as spam

  Removing pain killers mixed with Tylenol

  ...Will only increase people's dependence on those other drugs that are stronger and aren't paired with Tylenol. Why? Because we will have nothing else.
  
  I have Crohn's so a great number of painkillers are unusable by me because of increased risks of digestive bleeding. What am I supposed to use when I have my attacks now? The stronger stuff? Joy, just what I need, a bigger monkey for my back.
  
  The problem is this board making decisions for the whole, when they only need to apply to those that are overusing acetaminophen-added products. If people are too stupid to heed warnings on labels, then don't make the rest of us suffer by screaming "the sky is falling" and banning its use carte-blanche. I will have no sympathy for those who were duly warned and chose to ignore the labels.
  
  Too many decisions in this country in the last ten years have been made via Knee-jerk reactions without research because of those calling foul when they were the ones to shoot themselves in the foot.
  
  My first questions would be to ask who sponsored all these research studies into the horrors of Tylenol products? The makers of Aleve? Maybe Advil? As much as we want to believe in the purity of science and scientific endeavor, those scientists still need to put food on the table and thus their employers call the shots.
  

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  BrianGrimm

  07/06/09 | Report as spam

  Vicoden Alternative

  There is currently an alternative to Vicodin called Vicoprofen. Instead of the acetaminophen (Tylenol), it contains ibuprofen (Motrin).
  
  Like Tylenol, Motrin has its problems. An overdose of Motrin can cause major kidney damage. However, as a colleague recently told me, kidney dialysis is available, but if you fry your liver you're dead.

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  MichP

  07/07/09 | Report as spam

  Dumbing Down Everything

  My acetaminophen bottle already says don't take more than 8 per day, and 8 x 500 mg = 4000 mg. Since apparently too many people can't responsibly use OTC drugs, they are trying to idiot-proof them. People couldn't manage to keep their medicine bottles out of the reach of children, so we got those special lids. Ibuprofen may be next.
  
  The bigger problem is all those combo medications that contain acetaminophen or aspirin or ibuprofen. Just try to find the single ingredient medications among all the mix-and-match products. But that would be a bigger lobby to fight.

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  Nostredamus

  07/07/09 | Report as spam

  RE: The real Tylenol scare

  My Brother-In-Law's boss had to rush his three year old daughter for a
  liver transplant - She had a cold - between baby tylenol and the cold
  medications she lost her liver.
  
  Many people will use this product for years with no problem until one
  day they have no liver - like many things in this life it is safe until it is
  not - and because of that it lends itself to abuse because " I have
  always done this with no ill affects!"
  
  Then one day you need a transplant.

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  9

  Techcleaner

  07/08/09 | Report as spam

  RE: The real Tylenol scare

  Tylenol (and Vicodin and Percocet) have been around for years and years, and the liver dangers are well known. For the FDA to freak out about this now is a waste of time and money. All OTC drugs should have one large label on them, in red block type, that says "READ THE F'ING LABEL" and "TAKE NO MORE THAN THE LABEL SAYS, OR YOU WILL DIE."
  
  

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  DanaBlankenhorn

  07/09/09 | Report as spam

  The problem with Tylenol

  The problem with Tylenol is the assumption it's absolutely safe -- a product I think of the 1982 scare in which they were innocent.
  
  Tylenol is fine in small doses, but dangerous in 4g per day dosages. But you don't know how much you're getting if you are taking another painkiller in the same tablet as a 500 mg dose of Tylenol.
  
  So instead of making people do that math, you make all painkillers single ingredient and then, if the doc says add a Tylenol to your dose, you do it.
  
  People have died out of ignorance, for years and years, and the government is now trying to come to grips with that ignorance.
  
  If you're in chronic pain from some disease like Crohn's, see your doctor. I'm sure you do already. But they should be able to talk you down concerning irrational fears.
  
  I have enough trouble with rational fears.

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  Czarembo

  07/15/09 | Report as spam

  RE: The real Tylenol scare

  In my younger years when I drank too much I used Tylenol for it's
  consequences and of course my liver has been damaged. It wasn't hepatitis
  nor some other form liver impairing drug.
  
  I'd speculate that the makers of Tylenol has known for sometime of this huge
  problem, but let's not get in the way of a good selling product by warning folks
  of its negative implications if taken with alcohol.

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  Stan K.

  07/15/09 | Report as spam

  RE: The real Tylenol scare

  Acetaminophen is a reliable pain reliever that is a boon to households around the world. It is also highly toxic to the liver in amounts that would not strike the ordinary person as constituting an "overdose."
  
  Given the benefits of the pain reliever it doesn't make sense to ban it or other meds that are very effective in combination with it. So, why not require Tylenol to advertise very, very widely -- you know just as if it was going to make money from the ads -- about the dangers of acetaminophen and how to gauge what is enough and what is too much?
  
  Education is hardly ever sexy because it isn't "fool" proof and takes a long time to work. But maybe, just maybe, people shouldn't be expected to know what they aren't being told, and the firms that profit from a product have the obligation to educate their customers.

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  sk.dunnage@...

  07/15/09 | Report as spam

  RE: The real Tylenol scare

  1. Could never understand Tylenol in practically every narcotic a Doctor gives out. Why? Give me the narcotic when needed, thank you.
  
  2. Tylenol with alcohol: Goodbye Liver.
  
  3. How could this have been going on for years.? Common knowledge for years except for the public who have been sold on its mildness.

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  brambeus

  07/21/09 | Report as spam

  RE: The real Tylenol scare

  I believe that one of the problems with Tylenol is the advertising by its manufacturer. For years we have seen TV adverts touting the fact that "more doctors recommend Tylenol," "more hospitals give Tylenol," etc. My reaction to that has always been a bad one: "Yes, and in the dark ages more people believed the world was flat."
  
  Plague and pestilence are things we may be able to do little about. We can, however, read the labels on prescription meds and OTC products and follow the guidelings and warnings thereon. We can rely on the CFC and FDA for certain protections, but Shakespeare got it right: "Men at some time are masters of their fates: the fault,...is not in our stars, but in ourselves..."

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  15

  angelstar958

  07/28/09 | Report as spam

  RE: The real Tylenol scare

  In the UK Tylenol is the same as Paracetamol, and there the pharmacists warn customer's when they buy Paracetamol for instances along with other cold medications that they also contain paracetamol and SHOULD not be taken together, therefore taking away the risk of a customer not reading the warnings on the packet.and overdosing on the drug.
  Taken according to the instructions Tylenol (Paracetamol) is a safe over the counter pain medication. I have Chronic Asthma, Migraines and Osteo-Arthritis but I am also allergic to Asprin and any opiate drugs . I cannot take Ibuprofen type drugs because of my Asthma so I am limited to Tylenol, I have taken it RESPONSIBLY for more than 20 years and my liver is fine.
  And Responsibly is the operative word, always read the label for what is in a medication before you take it along with another., ANY drug is lethal if you mix it with others without reading what the drug contains.Either that or we go back to having to go vist with our Doctor for every form of treatment we need.
  Read the labels, follow the instructions and if you are not sure ask your pharmacist or your Doctor before taking it..

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  16

  texasdan78070

  07/28/09 | Report as spam

  RE: The real Tylenol scare

  I have a degenerative spine disease. I know the correct way to lift and have been lifting that way for 30 years. It's the pain I wake up with that is hard to deal with. Tylenol is useless to me. So is Vicoden. I take Ultram when absolutely necessary and it allows me some relief.

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  17

  rmaschotz

  07/29/09 | Report as spam

  RE: The real Tylenol scare

  Yes, Tylenol is safe - if it is used occasionally and not mixed with OTC or prescription medicine combinations, such as the Rx pain meds and the many cough cold products which include acetaminophen. But the scare point for me came when the manufacturer started pushing Tylenol for arthritis - long term use at the higher dosage. I could not believe the FDA could ever approve such usage. Just shows you who's side they are on!
  
  
  

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  DanaBlankenhorn

  07/31/09 | Report as spam

  Competitive response

  We're already seeing ads here from Aleve that talk about how it doesn't
  cause liver damage.
  
  Part of the problem lies in the super-sizing of retail. Moving to 500 mg
  pills was a mistake that regulators, who were asleep at the switch for
  years, allowed J&J to make. Having them packaged in 500-pill lots (the
  generics are sold at Costco as twin 500-pill bottles wrapped together)
  also leads people to believe there is no such thing as an overdose.
  
  There are other actors to blame here other than J&J.

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  Gail Weems

  10/11/09 | Report as spam

  RE: The real Tylenol scare

  Do not care. I do not take Tylenol at all.
  

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  Critical about the Critics

  12/02/09 | Report as spam

  Critical about the Critics

  You people need to pipe down about this stuff because like so many other things in life, we found something that we can improve on! But apparently everyone has to be so critical aout these problems. We own other things that could kill us, or injure us, but nobody seems to care about those things. In fact, so many people think that... PENCILS are not dangerous but I bet anyone who dissagrees that they have a higher fatality rate than tylenol! These things can go in your eyes, major blood vessels, nose, mouth...
  Just think about that.

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  Solution1

  01/19/10 | Report as spam

  RE: The real Tylenol scare

  If you watch the STUPID news on your television during your normal eating times, you will see all kinds of meds that are puported to be ,or to do, or relieve something that ails you. To the businiess community> lots of bucks. To the citizenry> false claims of effectiveness and safety. Please, blame the Government for the allowing of these 'poisons' to the people without the proper education. Sheep are ALWAYS sheep.