PhytoScience - Article
Tylenol Causes 650 Cases of Liver Failure in 2007
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
It would cause great pain to the medical establishment to suggest that liver toxic drugs in common use, such as Tylenol and antibiotics, should be consumed with antioxidants so as to protect against liver failure. For the 1600 Americans last year with acute liver failure, such a warning could have saved a lot of misery.
While the FDA twiddles its thumbs, 650 Americans had their livers fail directly as a result of Tylenol ingestion (see Study abstracts below) – the number one cause of the problem. In children, toxic antibiotics caused even more cases of liver failure than Tylenol.
The sad part of the story is that these liver injuries are unnecessary. It has been known for two decades that these liver toxic drugs drastically reduce the liver’s antioxidant system – especially the core antioxidant enzyme in liver cells known as glutathione (GSH). It is also known that many nutrients can directly boost your liver’s production of GSH, and have even been shown to guard against Tylenol toxicity. Common examples include the herb Silymarin, R-Alpha Lipoic Acid, and N-Acetyl-Cysteine (NAC). In fact, IV NAC is the standard emergency room treatment for Tylenol-induced liver failure.
What this means is that if a person is low on antioxidants and takes Tylenol, they are at increased risk for liver damage. Since alcohol causes an acute challenge to your liver’s antioxidant status, combining Tylenol and alcohol is a really bad idea. The higher the dose of Tylenol, or the regular use of Tylenol, combined with any form of antioxidant depleting stress, will increase the risk of liver failure.
It should also be noted that many lesser cases of liver injury occurred from the use of Tylenol, but were not at the level of acute liver failure. Because your liver is the “brain” of your body, such injury is not a trivial matter and warrants proper warnings from public health officials and the FDA.
Since a majority of Americans have lessened antioxidant function, especially those who are likely to take Tylenol in a high dose or ongoing basis, a warning to consume antioxidants at the same time could save a lot of needless serious liver problems.
Byron Richards, CCN