Acetaminophen is a drug found in many common pain relievers. The FDA has some new warnings about this medicine and the possibility of accidental overdosing. Scot Ackerman, M.D. talks with First Coast Living about this new development and things to watch out for when taking this drug.
We are all pretty familiar with acetaminophen especially for me this morning a common drug contained in common pain relievers well the fda has come out with some new warnings and the doctor is in today advising us about the dangers of accidental overdose dr. ackerman’s joining us one of the first coast leading oncologists he joins us every friday of course in
Dr. ackermann is one of the things that even we were talking to dustin cross a second ago is coming up later in the show and he’s like i can overdose on a scene of medicine yeah and the fda is coming out saying you absolutely can and they have some warnings yeah thank you casey people don’t realize it but you can’t overdose with acetaminophen now it’s normally
Found in tylenol we know tyler acetaminophen but other other other brands besides tylenol that have acetaminophen there’s panadol which you might say here’s a generic of acetaminophen that we picked up at one of them yeah because they usually have the store brands and then they have the generic the cheaper yeah but they all both have a seat am innocent and so
Recently there’s been increasing concerns about the damage with excessive dose of acetaminophen and we always thought it’s a safe drug but it is safe in normal doses but in excessive doses it could cause liver damage and many people take it excessively accidentally they don’t really are just pop in tons of time off to take it accidentally so the fda has recently
Released new recommendations mainly for physicians now but ultimately it’ll also be on physicians for for prescription drugs but ultimately be on other drugs as well but the what the fd has urged us physicians to do is to minimize or stop preferably prescribing these certain combination drugs that have a lot of acetaminophen in them so you know for certain pain
We give patients drugs called tylox or percocet or vicodin these drugs have coding in them as well as some title in them and historically would you be able to get them with doses of tylenol of up to 500 milligrams which is like an extra strength tylenol so now the company has asked us to only prescribe these combination drugs with 325 milligrams of tylenol in them
So tylox or percocet which has codeine and tunnel will have a lower dose of title in them so fda asked the companies back in 2011 to stop manufacturing these combination drugs with high doses of town on them and over many of them almost all of them have complied thus far that’s just over the counter or this prescription there’s a warning applies to acetaminophen
Across the board well the warning applies across the board but right now the fda is focusing on prescription drugs and they’re going to address the concerns of over-the-counter drugs later this year but some drug companies tylenol because that’s their the biggest sure see ya they’ve taken a proactive approach so if you see you’re on tylenol the new has some new
Labeling on it that says do not use with other products that contain acetaminophen and this is mainly on those that are extra strength so this bottle of tylenol here’s extra strength has 500 milligrams in it as opposed to the normal strength tylenol which is 325 milligrams okay and the thing of it is is like you don’t even realize sometimes with like dayquil nyquil
Whatever that one of the ingredients in it is acetaminophen and so if you’re taking this and then you think oh i need to take some acetaminophen or tylenol you overdose but what does it mean to overdose on acetaminophen i mean how can someone do that i mean how can how can that affect your health adversely well it’s a lot easier than you think we recommend that
Adults take no more than 4,000 milligrams or four grams of acetaminophen per day and so if you don’t read the directions and you’re ignoring the dosage of the scene of medicine in your medications you can easily get to that amount of crack so a lot of patients take tunnel and then they’ll take a sudafed also when they don’t realize is the street if it also has
A pseudonym infant in it and this is the same amount as a regular tunnel so you take two x-ray and tylenol and a to suitable because you think you’re targeting the nose and the pressure here and you think you’re doing the headache with this one but you’re right you’re already up to 1,200 milligrams and so just doing that three or four three or four times a day
You’re over the amount that you should be so be careful there’s a lot that you could have this inadvertent overdose and if you inadvertently overdose i’ve seen patients in my own practice that they’ve probably been on combination drugs and then they take they get a cold to take some of the coffee talented and they start getting liver damage and we could see in
Their blood work that the liver enzymes are elevated and and what are some of the symptoms i mean what what should we be on the look for to try to recognize that we might have liver damage from inadvertently taking too much acetaminophen so when you see the position often like my patients are seeing me because i’m actively if i’m actively treating them i’ll do
Blood work and i’ll see if their liver enzymes are elevated and that may be an early sign that they can be taking too much tile and all that sort of thing but if you if you’re not getting your blood done and you take too much of it you will start having real signs and symptoms specifically you’ll have dark urine specifically you’ll have persistent nausea and
Vomiting you may have some abdominal pain and abdominal distress you may become extremely tired and if it’s pretty advanced you can get jaundice skin which is yellow skin and yellow eyes so what do you recommend then i mean reading the labels what what do people who are watching right now need to do to make sure that they do not put themselves in harm’s way by
Overdosing on this okay so when you’re taking these sort of medications number one read the labels of the medications that you take in a given day so you can see how much acetaminophen you’re taking in that day number two don’t take more than 4,000 milligrams or four grams in a single day and also finally avoid alcohol with acetaminophen because the to connect
Synergistically and increase the risk for liver damage alright well it’s a good morning it’s important to be we always talk about you your empower yourself with knowledge and knowing that you’re potentially at risk for overdosing on this stuff inadvertently is just the first step so thank you so much thank you dr. acula for being here we appreciate you as always
In coming in every friday of sponsoring this segment if you have questions regarding today’s topic at or any other health questions that you might have you can connect with dr. ackermann on facebook by visiting facebook.com forward slash first coast oncology
Transcribed from video
Doctor is In: Acetaminophen By Ackerman Cancer Center
