| By :
Wendy Moyer
One of the most popular pain medications in the United States is acetaminophen. It can be bought over-the-counter under the brand name Tylenol®. In some countries it is called Paracetamol® or Panadol®. The typical recommended dosage for an adult is to take up to 1,000 milligrams of acetaminophen at a time a maximum of four times a day. It is also recommended that children should not be given more than ten to fifteen milligrams of the drug up to four times daily. Acetaminophen is quite harmless if it is taken in safe doses and the person who takes it has a fully functioning liver. The drug enjoys a long history of being one of the most favored medications for pain relief in the world. However, if someone has a liver disorder then serious problems could potentially arise because overdosing on acetaminophen tends to cause acute liver failure. Like with many other types of drug, many people mistakenly believe that if taking one or two capsules is a good thing then taking twice or three times that amount just has to be a lot better. The problem associated with taking too much acetaminophen - the active component of Tylenol® - is that taking not too much more than the recommended maximum of four grams per day can actually do very serious, and potentially deadly damage. Acetaminophen and Alcohol Taking acetaminophen either before drinking alcoholic beverages or to try to cure a hangover should not be done. That's because it is even easier to overdose on acetaminophen if there is alcohol in your body. A lot of people take Tylenol® the "morning after" to try and cure a hangover. That's one of the worst things you can do because the risk of liver failure from mixing acetaminophen and alcohol is the greatest within twenty-four hours of consuming alcoholic beverages. However, this risk can last for as long as five days after you have consumed alcoholic beverages. In the United States roughly fifty thousand people a year end up going to the emergency room because they have taken too much acetaminophen. And approximately five hundred people per year end up dying from liver failure that was caused by an overdose of acetaminophen. Studies, along with information that can be found in the FDA's adverse event database, have shown that the median dose of acetaminophen that is related to liver injuries is between five thousand to seventy five hundred milligrams per day. These levels are very close to the four thousand mg per day maximum recommended dose.
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