When you buy over the counter medicine

Your nurse friend is wrong. You can OD on Tylenol and it can kill you.

See https://www.uspharmacist.com/article/acetaminophen-intoxication-a-criticalcare-emergency

" If used in proper therapeutic doses, acetaminophen has an excellent safety profile; however, its major side effect is hepatotoxicity, which can occur after overdose or misuse. This is because acetaminophen is metabolized in the liver. In the United States, acetaminophen toxicity is the most common cause of acute liver failure and the second most common cause of liver failure requiring transplantation.

...

The 2014 annual report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers’ National Poison Data System noted 50,396 single exposures to acetaminophen alone and 22,951 single exposures to acetaminophen in combination with other drugs. Acetaminophen exposure alone resulted in 65 deaths, and acetaminophen combinations resulted in 42 deaths. "

Or this: https://www.uspharmacist.com/article/acetaminophen-toxicity-what-pharmacists-need-to-know


From that it sounds like it could happen, but it would be a secondary cause like liver damage. Believe me, I’m not swallowing handfuls of Tylenol, and I’m not advocating so either. I’m just saying if I take 4 Tylenol to kill my headache, I’m not going to worry about it.
 
From that it sounds like it could happen, but it would be a secondary cause like liver damage. Believe me, I’m not swallowing handfuls of Tylenol, and I’m not advocating so either. I’m just saying if I take 4 Tylenol to kill my headache, I’m not going to worry about it.
Historically the recommended maximum adult daily dosage has been 4 grams. The CDC recommended that it be changed to 3 grams but never mandated it. Tylenol adjusted the labeling for the 500 mg to reflect a maximum daily dosage of 3 g and the labeling of the 325 mg to reflect a maximum daily dosage of 3.25 g.

Taking 4 500 mg Tylenol is 2g, well below either of the maximum daily dosage recommendations.
 


Not that I do overdo it, I maybe take 4 Tylenol for a really bad headache. As far as fatal, for a pre existing condition maybe, but a nurse friend has told me you can’t od on Tylenol. You might permanently damage your liver or kidneys, but there’s not enough to do fatal harm. Not that I’m encouraging it by any means.

My husband has a Marine friend who is now on dialysis because he took too much ibuprofen. This happened when he was in his young 20s.

I have heard numerous stories about people ODing on Tylenol with fatal consequences. There are even somewhat new warnings on Tylenol these days that warn about this. The upper limit is 4000mg per day. More can very quickly cause liver toxicity which can be fatal if not immediately treated. People often OD accidentally when they take cold medicines that contain acetaminophen unknowingly and then take more tylenol on top of it.
 


I was a Tylenol rep for a while. I've read the studies. It's one of the safest drugs out there when you follow the directions. I would never take more than 1000mg in a single dose, or 4000 mg a day.
 
Historically the recommended maximum adult daily dosage has been 4 grams. The CDC recommended that it be changed to 3 grams but never mandated it. Tylenol adjusted the labeling for the 500 mg to reflect a maximum daily dosage of 3 g and the labeling of the 325 mg to reflect a maximum daily dosage of 3.25 g.

Taking 4 500 mg Tylenol is 2g, well below either of the maximum daily dosage recommendations.
My days as a rep were before the recommended dosage change. I would continue to be personally OK with taking the 4 grams, but wouldn't recommend it to anyone else. Nor would I recommend anyone take 2 grams in one dose.
 
This thread reminds me of a neighbor I once had in an apartment I lived in. I had just moved in when she knocked on my door and asked if she could borrow a broom. I thought it was odd that the "established" tenant needed to borrow a common household cleaning item from the "moving in" tenant, since it seemed like this should be the other way around, but I gave her my broom. I never saw it again.

My roommate and I kept finding this lady's cat at our doorstep. Then we kept catching her placing her cat on our doorstep, then hurrying back into her apartment. The cat was skinny and had ear mites, so at first we fed it, then eventually we took it to the vet (we were afraid we could get in trouble for this but the poor cat needed medical care), and finally it just lived with us.

A few weeks after we unofficially adopted the cat the neighbor knocked on our door again. I was afraid she was going to want her cat back. She saw the cat but didn't say anything; she just asked if we had some aspirin she could "borrow." We had just stocked our new apartment with supplies so we had a new, Sam's Club-sized bottle of aspirin. I wasn't sure what the etiquette of "lending" aspirin was--pouring the tablets out into my hand and handing them to her didn't seem right, but neither did holding the bottle out to pour them into her hand either, so I just handed her the bottle and waited for her to shake a couple into her hand and give it back to me. She just took the bottle, turned around, and went back to her apartment.

A few hours later EMTs showed up to the apartment complex and wheeled this lady out on a stretcher. The next day her daughter was at our door wanting to know if we were the girls who gave her mother the aspirin. Apparently she took the whole bottle then called 911. I was horrified but the daughter said her mother just wanted attention and did this stuff all the time and for us not to give her anything else she asked for.

The lady never did come back over to ask for anything, not even her cat.

But apparently you aren't supposed to take an entire bottle of aspirin.
 
If it has Tylenol in it I follow the directions. Ibuprofen, I cap myself to 600mg a dose. For cold symptoms I get single ingredient meds so I can take cough suppressant or pseudoephed without the other stuff and either of those I take enough to get it to work.
 
If it has Tylenol in it I follow the directions. Ibuprofen, I cap myself to 600mg a dose. For cold symptoms I get single ingredient meds so I can take cough suppressant or pseudoephed without the other stuff and either of those I take enough to get it to work.
Same here. I try hard to only buy single ingredient medications so I can treat exactly what I intend to.
 
Same here. I try hard to only buy single ingredient medications so I can treat exactly what I intend to.
In particular, I don't really need the expectorant guaifenesin if I have some sort of dry cough, and it makes me queasy, but they usually pair DXM with it in multi symptom meds. On the other hand, if I have a juicy cough, the guaifenesin does some good but the DXM actually reduces the coughing enough to keep it from clearing me up.

And most of the multi-symptom stuff is packed with that fake pseudoephed (doesn't pseudo already sorta mean fake?) that 1- doesn't work as well, and 2- makes me jittery.

oof... okay silly thing to rant about but ... well I'm done now.
 
Not that I do overdo it, I maybe take 4 Tylenol for a really bad headache. As far as fatal, for a pre existing condition maybe, but a nurse friend has told me you can’t od on Tylenol. You might permanently damage your liver or kidneys, but there’s not enough to do fatal harm. Not that I’m encouraging it by any means.
THIS IS COMPLETELY INCORRECT.
Many people OD on Tylenol due to fulminant liver failure and that nurse friend should be reprimanded and possibly decertified.
 
THIS IS COMPLETELY INCORRECT.
Many people OD on Tylenol due to fulminant liver failure and that nurse friend should be reprimanded and possibly decertified.

Ok, I guess what I mean by an od is like with meth or cocaine where you take it and then like a half hour later you’re dead. Too much Tylenol can damage your liver to the point where it leads to death possibly.

It is a very serious thing, and I’m not making light of it at all, I just don’t think if I take 8 Tylenol over a 24 hour period that I have to have someone watch me 24/7.
 
Ok, I guess what I mean by an od is like with meth or cocaine where you take it and then like a half hour later you’re dead. Too much Tylenol can damage your liver to the point where it leads to death possibly.

It is a very serious thing, and I’m not making light of it at all, I just don’t think if I take 8 Tylenol over a 24 hour period that I have to have someone watch me 24/7.
You'll be fine taking 8 over a 24 hour period. 8 x 500 mg is 4 grams a day. You just shouldn't be taking more than 1000 mg (2 x 500 mg) per dose.
 
Yes you can overdose on these meds but also if you take more your body with grow an immunity faster. If you take 600-800mg because you want to that's only harming yourself in the long run when it will soon take 1k to even do anything. Than your liver will be screaming due to being poisoned and now your left either dieing or in pain when you really need it.

Also there is a reason you need a script. Everyday I mean everyday my husband saves people from being overdosed or bad med mix prescribed from there doctors. Many doctors actually don't know most the side effects and what dosnt go with other things. That's why they don't dispense themselves.
 
Not that I do overdo it, I maybe take 4 Tylenol for a really bad headache. As far as fatal, for a pre existing condition maybe, but a nurse friend has told me you can’t od on Tylenol. You might permanently damage your liver or kidneys, but there’s not enough to do fatal harm. Not that I’m encouraging it by any means.
This is so untrue. It can and has killed many people.
 

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