Linda Bailey, owner of Total You Health, talks about acetaminophen and it’s effects on the liver. She talks about why the liver is such an important organ and why protecting it and keeping it healthy is a big deal. Lastly, she mentions signs you can look for to see if you may have liver damage and need to see a medical professional.
Do you want to feel better have more energy and be your best and healthiest self we want the same for you and that’s why your friends at the total you show are connecting with top industry experts to deliver the best information to you right where you are please welcome your host from the total you show hello and welcome to the total you show this is season
Three episode five and i am linda bailey and we are going to talk today about acetaminophen and why that well it can really cause a lot of damage to our liver and just due to the number of people that come into our office and tell us how many prescriptions that they take we just felt like this is this is a big topic and you know it’s allergy season we we’ve
Come off of some cold very little flu evidently seasoned but just the amount of prescriptions alone and combined with over-the-counter medications can can really cause a lot of damage and i’ll give you some examples so for some in the office we’ve noticed that you know seven medications or more are taken on a daily basis um for others they may just mention that
They take acetaminophen or aspirin or ibuprofen something along those lines daily to help manage pain and i think it’s far too common for people to just take these types of over-the-counter medications and not even think about how many they may be taken at a time or over the course of a day so over time these medications can cause issues in the body and some
Of these can be irreversible to the point that they have you know permanent stomach or even liver damage and some of these people can’t even take these medications anymore because it’s done so much damage so that’s kind of what prompted me to to cover this topic today many people don’t know the dangers of taking too many of these over-the-counter drugs and what
They can do until it’s too late but first let’s talk about the importance of our liver and why we need to take care of it so it’s the largest organ in the body it’s on our right side right under the rib cage and it does more than 600 essential jobs in the body it plays a key role in helping eliminate toxins including alcohol anything for medications it also
Metabolizes carbohydrates so basically that means it breaks down carbohydrates to make energy it produces bile which is helpful for digestion it also stores vitamins a d e and k and energy from the carbohydrates that it broke down it also helps our immune system fight against infection so again our liver is really important but one interesting fact did you know
The organ can regenerate itself yeah the liver can regenerate itself so even though this is the case though it can become damaged and some things that can damage the liver are too much alcohol use conditions like fatty liver disease and hepatitis c cancer and then drug use and we’re going to focus on the damage that can come from using too many over-the-counter
Pain medications and namely acetaminophen many of us have heard acetaminophen is in many medications but do you know how easy it is to overdose on it it is the leading cause of acute liver failure in the u.s and that’s according to the national institute of health so just taking more than 2 grams of acetaminophen in 24 hours can cause liver damage over 4 grams
Can produce severe liver damage to the point where it could be irreversible and unfortunately the effects of acetaminophen can be exacerbated by taking it with alcohol tylenol is one of the most common forms of it but it also comes in many other medications and again that’s what can make it so easy for it to be taken too much of as a matter of fact it’s an
Ingredient in over 600 prescription and over-the-counter drugs and some common names for it are tylenol or tylenol pm percocet there’s mydol sudafed nyquil just to name a few of them so getting to two grams of acetaminophen a day is not hard to do one extra strength tylenol has 500 milligrams of acetaminophen and if someone takes four of those a day that equals
2 000 milligrams and if that person adds a cold cough or even an allergy medication to what they’ve already taken in you can easily exceed the recommended daily allowance of acetaminophen this overdose is the largest reason people call poison control throughout the country every year and as a matter of fact unintentional overdoses due to taking two or more
Products containing acetaminophen at the same time account for 40 of all people who suffer from acute liver failure so what’s more the effects of the long-term use of acetaminophen have not even been studied much and the guidelines are weak so some things you can do to avoid an overdose read all the ingredients on the labels of all your medication whether they
Are prescribed or they’re over the counter products make sure you know the right dosage to take and know how much you’re taking at a certain time don’t take more than than it’s directed you know again read those labels don’t take more than one medication at a time when both those medications contain acetaminophen unless it’s directed by a medical professional
It’s best to keep those separate and again don’t drink alcohol when taking anything that includes acetaminophen and if you have nausea vomiting stomach pain or sweating after taking acetaminophen you really should call poison control that that’s a good chance that you’ve overdosed on that product so some signs of liver damage and again if you have any of these
You should especially if you have multiple of these symptoms you need to seek medical advice so there’s 10 different signs i’m going to go over with you one is abdominal aches and pains so if you have any unexplained pain especially if it’s in the upper right part of the abdomen then you should probably see a medical professional the pain could range from a dull
Ache to just a sharp stabbing type of pain then if you have pain in the back there are many things that can cause that type of pain but liver damage causes it from as a result of fatty liver disease fatty liver diseases when cells in the liver accumulate fat that causes inflammation and the pain from that can radiate into the back pain in the right shoulder so
Again due to an inflamed liver it can push on the nerves that extend all the way up to the right shoulder and if you have other signs just like what we’ve already mentioned along with the shoulder pain it could be a sign that it’s coming from your liver yellowing of the eyes and skin so that happens when the liver can’t take care of bilirubin bilirubin is a byproduct
Of when the liver is breaking down old blood cells it has a yellowish tint to it and so when it gets to the bloodstream it can actually make your eyes and skin look yellow if you have pain in your joints now there are obviously many things that can cause that type of pain too but if you have hepatitis c you can also develop inflammatory joint disease and that’s
Obviously going to cause pain in the joint so if you have that and some of these other symptoms again that could mean that you have some liver damage spots on the skin so those spots can look red or purplish and extend outward kinda like spider veins those are swollen blood vessels and it represents issues that you might have with clotting and that’s a job of
The liver so if you have three or more of those spots you might want to see a medical professional mental confusion and that can range from losing train of thought to forgetting who people are or even the right words to use this happens because high levels of copper can build up in the bloodstream and in the brain so if you have this along with other symptoms
Again you may want to seek professional advice odd colored stool if it’s different than what you normally experience it could mean your liver has issues and that mean can mean you know if it’s lighter or darker in color fluid retention in the abdomen so if you have an achy or painful abdomen it can mean there’s an increased blood flow to the liver which would
Cause the fluid retention and then lastly and this is kind of towards the end stage of liver damage highly unpleasant breath and i know many things can cause that there’s tobacco use sinus issues tooth decay but if damage has become severe in the liver it can cause this and if you have that along with some of these other symptoms again you probably should seek
Medical advice the bottom line here though is do what you can to protect your liver and the rest of you be careful of how many of these over-the-counter pain medications you’re taking and keep your liver healthy and that means over-the-counter pain medications as well as any other prescription medications check all of them out you know ask your pharmacist do
These contraindicate each other do what you can to be proactive and keep yourself healthy one other thing i would just suggest is try to seek out alternatives to these medications and don’t add to your chemical intake we get enough of of you know chemicals just by being in our environment each day we’re bombarded with exhaust fumes smells from various chemicals
Cleaners perfumes and a whole lot more so just try to do what you can to you know take in as little chemicals as you can and then really we all need to focus on what causes our pain to begin with and not just take a pill for a possible quick fix you know if that’s one thing we try to do at total you health is to get to the root cause of health issues by using
Non-toxic solutions that heal on a cellular level so if you don’t know any other alternatives to medications and if you’re in the area come by let us talk to you about our alternatives and even if you’re not in the area there is something new to total you health that we can discuss uh one-on-one and show you some self-care options via zoom or skype or whatever
But either way we are here to try to help you heal from within and so that is it for this episode of the total you show so stay tuned every tuesday at 8 pm for another health topic and until then stay safe and stay healthy bye that’s all for this episode of the total you show be sure to subscribe to our youtube channel podcast follow us on social media and tune
In to next week’s episode helping you achieve the healthiest version of you that’s total you
Transcribed from video
"Acetaminophen Damages Our Liver?" – Linda Bailey – The Total You Show – S3 E5 By Linda Bailey
