Tylenol May Do More Harm Than Good

Family physician at Dean Medical Center in Wisconsin and radio show host, Dr. Zorba Paster, shares experiences from his own life to help average Americans make decisions about their own health. In one of his weekly medical commentaries, titled "With drugs, consider risks, benefits," Paster discusses the side effects of certain medications, highlighting a story about a 35-year-old man he once knew who was an alcoholic and took Tylenol every morning to relieve his hangover. That same guy ended up dying from liver failure – not from the alcohol, but from the Tylenol. Fifty years after Tylenol was first introduced, doctors and drug regulators found out that Tylenol taken in large amounts can cause liver failure. So, Paster warns, even though Tylenol remains the safest pain reliever out there, it does have a black mark consumers should be aware of. If you have suffered from liver damage or another adverse side effect of Tylenol, contact a Tylenol attorney to explore your compensation options.

Tylenol and Liver Failure Side Effects

The fact that Tylenol can cause liver failure may come as a surprise to many individuals who regularly use the over-the-counter pain reliever. However, the link between Tylenol and liver failure has been well-documented since the early 90s, when the FDA first discovered that the popular pain reliever was an important cause of liver injury in the United States. Since that time, despite a number of efforts by the FDA to reduce the incidence of Tylenol-related liver injury, the extent of liver failure cases reported in medical literature suggests that liver failure from Tylenol overdose remains a serious public health problem.

In light of the risk of liver failure associated with Tylenol, the FDA announced in January 2011 that it was advising manufacturers of acetaminophen products to limit the maximum amount of the active ingredient in their products to 325 mg per tablet or capsule. In July 2011, Johnson & Johnson reduced the maximum daily recommended dose of Tylenol from 4,000 mg to 3,000 mg. Both of these actions were intended to reduce the risk of major liver injury caused by acetaminophen overdose, a serious side effect that can result in liver failure requiring a liver transplant for survival.

Contact a Tylenol Attorney for Legal Help

Because Tylenol is so widely-used across the country, most people think they can take the pain reliever without worrying about the side effects that plague similar medications, like aspirin. Unfortunately, recent research has indicated that even individuals who take Tylenol as recommended may be at risk of devastating liver injury and liver failure. According to a study featured in the Journal of the American Medical Association, healthy adults taking maximum recommended doses of Tylenol for two weeks had abnormal liver test results. Furthermore, the FDA estimates that acetaminophen overdose accounts for 56,000 emergency room visits, 26,000 hospitalizations and 458 deaths each year. If you have been injured by the pain reliever Tylenol, contact a Tylenol lawyer for legal help.