Eli5: How is Tylenol bad for the liver??
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Your liver breaks Tylenol down into two different chemicals, one of which is toxic. Under ordinary circumstances, the toxic chemical is then immediately broken down into other, non-toxic chemicals.
Your liver has a virtually unlimited capacity to break Tylenol down, which means that the more of it you take, the more of the toxic byproduct that your liver will produce. On the other hand, your liver’s ability to break down that toxic byproduct is limited. If you just sit there popping Tylenols, you will eventually reach a point where your liver is producing more of the toxic byproduct than it can deal with, and that toxic byproduct begins to build up.
Buildup of the toxic byproduct damages and eventually kills your liver.
Under normal circumstances, your liver has more than enough capacity to deal with Tylenol. Other than people deliberately OD’ing on it, the vast majority of Tylenol overdoses comes from one of two situations:
1) Someone is taking multiple products that contain Tylenol without realizing it (ie, they take the recommended dosage of Norco, Nyquil, and Tylenol at the same time – all of which contain Tylenol).
2) They normally take another painkiller, like ibuprofen, and are used to being able to take a lot more than the recommended dose without serious side effects. Then, one day, they decide to try Tylenol and don’t understand that you can’t just take 5 Tylenols every 4 hours and walk away with an upset stomach.
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