Tylenol is Deadly (Looking for Risk in All the Wrong Places)

Tylenol is Deadly (Looking for Risk in All the Wrong Places)

Did You Know that Tylenol Can Be Deadly?

When used as directed, it typically isn’t, but the dangers of acetaminophen (the non-brand name for the drug sold as Tylenol) can crop up after even a very slight overdose.

Even one extra dose can cause liver damage. (That’s how it kills. Too high a degree of damage to the liver results in acute liver failure, of which acetaminophen overdose is believed to be the single leading cause.)

When you consider factors like the following, the considerable danger of that small margin becomes apparent:

• The wide variations in weight among children of the same age can cause dosing confusion.
• If a parent is exhausted from caring for a sick child, his judgment/memory is impaired.
• If two parents are caring together for a sick child, a miscommunication can easily happen.
• The difference between children’s liquid and infants’ liquid is significant, so it’s not difficult to mix up the dosage.
• Acetaminophen is included in numerous multi-symptom medications, making it quite easy to get the drug from multiple sources without realizing it.
• Certain predisposing factors, such as kidney disease, liver problems, AIDS, or malnutrition, lower the dangerous dose.
• Malnutrition is likely a common short-term situation among those who are ill, making one wonder about the safe dosage in such a scenario.
• Alcohol consumption drastically reduces the safe dose. (Do keep in mind that some OTC* medications also contain alcohol. I’m not sure whether this has been accounted for in the recommended dosages, especially for young children.)

_{*OTC = over-the-counter}

Keep Your Risks in Perspective

Over the course of a year, more than 450 people die of acetaminophen overdoses, many of them accidental. Do you know how many people are known to have died from essential oil use or abuse? Well, it’s hard to find clear numbers, but from what I can tell, 5/year might be a reasonable high-end estimate. (Almost none of those, if any, are from anything close to a normal dose, either. We’re talking about drinking a bottle or more of an undiluted oil.) And yet many people will make regular, somewhat careless use of Tylenol without batting an eyelash, while making a huge fuss over how “very dangerous” essential oils are.

My point is not that we should never take Tylenol, or that “Tylenol is bad” and “essential oils are good.” (Essential oils do have the potential to be deadly if inappropriately used, and there are other factors to consider in the stats, like the number of people who use acetaminophen vs. essential oils.) My point is that whenever we’re looking at the risks of something, we need to keep them in perspective.

Don’t Let Familiarity or Unfamiliarity Cloud Your Judgment

We have a tendency to be more comfortable with those things that are familiar, because we’ve been trained to be comfortable with them. Conversely, we have a tendency to be wary of things that are unfamiliar. That’s just human nature. But the mere degree of familiarity with a thing does not make it safe or unsafe.

As wise consumers, we need to be (accurately!) aware of the risk profiles of whatever healing modalities we use, and we need to take measures to use them safely. For acetaminophen that may mean paying careful attention to dosage, or even reducing the dosage under certain circumstances. For essential oils it may mean diluting properly and knowing which methods of application are sound for a given oil. For either one, it may include being aware of contraindications and/or knowing warning signs to watch for.

What measures do you take in your home to help keep children, especially, safe from the use or abuse of medicines and other substances? Leave a comment and share! It may be that something you’ve thought of another parent hasn’t, and you could save a life.

I’m not a licensed medical professional. This post is intended for educational purposes only, has not been evaluated or approved by the FDA, and should be construed as preventing, diagnosing, treating, or curing any illness. As always, please do your own due diligence and be responsible about your health!

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