Tylenol is the brand name of the drug that contains acetaminophen. Sixwise.com names Tylenol as the most widely used painkiller in the United States. Acetaminophen makes up the active ingredient of more than 200 drugs sold on the market and is the most widely used painkiller in the United States, says Sixwise.com. Known as an over-the-counter drug, Tylenol relieves headaches, colds, flu and even migraines. While the benefits of Tylenol remain vast, according to Sixwise.com, Tylenol and other drugs containing acetaminophen pose some risks as well.
Liver Damage
The liver is the organ that metabolizes and breaks down drugs, and Tylenol can cause severe liver damage, according to the New York Times. Those who take Tylenol for relief of fever and pain, are often not aware of the damage that it can cause. Sixwise.com notes that in a study published in the Journal of American Medical Association, an increase in liver enzymes was noticed in 41 out of 106 patients who took Tylenol. According to Mayo Clinic, increased liver enzymes signifies that damage has occurred in the liver. The potential liver damage caused by Tylenol can lead to a further buildup of toxic substances within the body.
Kidney Malfunction
As stated on CBSNews.com, a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine indicated significant results: Researchers monitored women who took regular dosage of Tylenol over an 11-year period, and one out of ten women experienced a 30 percent decline in kidney filtration function. Although results are not conclusive, this can indicate that even regular Tylenol users may be at risk given long-term use.
The kidney filters out waste from the body, so when damaged, an accumulation of waste occurs. Consequently, the body has to rely on other means to cleanse the body such as hemodialysis, which involves using an external machine to filter waste from the body.
Dangers for Infants and Pregnant Women
Many parents use Tylenol on infants to treat fever due to immunization and pain that comes with teething. The risk comes when parents give their infants Tylenol for pain and another medicine for colds or coughs. According to Helium.com, many of the cold and cough medicines today contain acetaminophen. This increases the amount of acetaminophen taken by the infants, and they could become at risk of liver damage.
Acetaminophen could pose some health risks to pregnant women as well, who, according to iVillage.com, usually feel headaches due to normal physiological processes such as vasodilation, or widening of blood vessels, and will take Tylenol over several months to relieve the pain. IVillage.com states that pregnant women should use Tylenol only for a short period and should not exceed one to two tablets every eight hours, to avoid the emergence of possible risks such as liver damage and kidney malfunction.
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