Natural News – by Jonathan Benson
It has been a common household name in over-the-counter pain relief for more than 50 years. But the popular painkiller drug Tylenol is getting a major labeling makeover following a string of personal injury lawsuits. According to the Associated Press (AP), so many Tylenol users these days are suffering major liver damage or dying that the drug’s manufacturer, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, has decided to put a large, red warning label on the cap that informs users about the drug’s risks.
Even when taken at recommended doses, acetaminophen, the primary active ingredient in Tylenol, can cause major damage to the liver, potentially leading to liver failure and even death. In fact, acetaminophen is currently the leading cause of sudden liver failure in the U.S., as its toxic metabolites have been shown to kill liver cells. The drug is so toxic that as many as 80,000 people are rushed to the emergency room annually due to acetaminophen poisoning, and another 500-or-so end up dead from liver failure.
These are disturbing figures that might come as a surprise to most people, especially considering that millions of Americans pop Tylenol and acetaminophen-containing drugs on a regular basis. But with more than 85 personal injury lawsuits and counting filed against the company in federal court, McNeil is feeling the heat from a drug that has long been claimed as one of the safest painkiller drugs on the market, which it clearly is not.
“The warning will make it explicitly clear that the over-the-counter drug contains acetaminophen, a pain-relieving ingredient that’s the nation’s leading cause of sudden liver failure,” writes Matthew Perrone for the AP. “The new cap is designed to grab the attention of people who don’t read warnings that already appear in the fine print on the product’s label, according to company executives.”
The new label, which will bear the phrases “CONTAINS ACETAMINOPHEN” and “ALWAYS READ THE LABEL,” is set to first appear on all bottles of Extra Strength Tylenol, which contains more than 50 percent more acetaminophen per dose than regular strength Tylenol. And in the coming months, all bottles of Tylenol, including regular strength Tylenol, will bear the new label.
NyQuil, Sudafed, Excedrin and many other common drugs also contain acetaminophen
Despite the new label, McNeil, which is owned by drug giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J), insists that Tylenol is safe when taken as directed. But what the company fails to admit is that many people are taking not only Tylenol but also other drugs that contain acetaminophen, which increases their dose of the chemical to levels that are much higher than they probably realize.
According to the AP, nearly one in four Americans, or about 78 million people, consume drug products that contain acetaminophen in a given week. Some 600 over-the-counter drug products, it turns out, contain acetaminophen. These products include other painkiller drugs like Excedrin, for instance, as well as NyQuil cold formula and Sudafed sinus pills.
Combining these and other acetaminophen-containing drugs is a major cause of acetaminophen overdose, say experts, hence the addition of the new labels. But some people who stay well within the maximum daily dose of acetaminophen, which is currently set at 4,000 milligrams (mg) per day, still fall ill or die, which suggests that perhaps any level of acetaminophen is toxic and should be avoided.
“It’s still a little bit of a puzzle,” says Dr. Anne Larson from the Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. “Is it a genetic predisposition? Are they claiming they took the right amount, but they really took more? It’s difficult to know.”
Sources for this article include:
http://www.painmedicinenews.com
http://science.naturalnews.com
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/043155_Tylenol_liver_damage_warning_label.html##ixzz2mhXlfDVy
I don’t like taking any kind of medication unless absolutely necessary. I suffer from sinus headaches, dramatic temperature changes and some storm systems can trigger them. Sudafed does get rid of them, but it usually takes three or four doses over a day to work. I do not use products containing ibuprofen as they can cause holes in the intestines, and I’ve already had surgery on mine, so I won’t take that risk. Aspirin products have their own share of health risks. The reality is that all medications have many, many side affects, all of which are usually severe or even life threatening. I wish there was a safer alternative.
News flash, it has been known for years that Tylenol (acetaminophen) causes liver damage.
Sunfire, go to your health food store and get a bottle of Turmeric the spice take one a day try 500 mg is what I take. After spine surgery the medical “professionals” gave me all kinds of pain killers, all of which were addicting and messed with me innards. The Turmeric does not keep me pain free but at least I can walk around now.
The kind of sinus headaches I get have nothing to do with mucus, my sinuses actually swell shut, it leaves me feeling tired, lethargic and sick to my stomach. I’ve heard of Tumeric being used for tension headaches and migraines, but I don’t know if would help much with sinus headaches. There is also a warning for Tumeric: “According to the Natural Supplement Education Center, turmeric is generally considered to be a very safe herbal supplement. However, in large doses, over a long period, it may cause an upset stomach.”
MSM could probably take care of that, Sunfire.
I used to wonder why they put so much Tylenol in vicodins (had a prescription years ago).
Not anymore (wondering).
Would you know, #1, if that Tylenol is a drug enhancer for Vicodin? I always though that that vicodin crap was nothing more than a glorified asprin, it never did anything for me at all except to made me nauseous with heart burn is all it did, yea, not even a 1000 mg. vic.
Hydrocodone is the painkilling ingredient in Vicodin, digger. It is only 1% of the total mass. A 500 mg. tablet has only 5 mgs. of hydrocodone. The rest is Tylenol (filler – AND killer).
Oh yes #1, I was just not sure how much of that tylenol they were putting in those Vicoden tabs. So what you are saying is that one of those robin egg type light blue color of those 1000 mg. vic.s are only 10 mg.s of hydrocodone and 990 mg.s of tylenol?, heck I never tooked the time to check it out as they were always like a glorified asprin to me, nothing special about a pain killer in those vic.s in my book anyways, haven`t used those type of things in many years 🙂
I don’t think they make a painkiller capable of easing your pain digger.
Yes Millard, most people would be amazed at how many dr.s and other people told me that 😕
No digger. Actually, those have almost only half the filler that the generics have.
Except for the Norco’s. They only have about half, too.
There’s pain that is palpable these days when out in public. It’s that mental anguish one goes through watching our Bill of Rights be shredded before our eyes.
Ain’t that the truth.