emmer

Hi, I have abused many types of drugs for many years but I am on the mend now.
I have been attending N.a. for 3 1/2 weeks and am commited to stoping my drug abuse, and addiction. Mostly benzos,but I have also taken probably 10,000 tylenol 1's with coedine (roughly) in the last 12 years or so. I'm not that concerned about the coedine in my system but about the (tylenol) at one time I was taking 200 a day.
I heard that tylenol will turn your liver to soup. I'm a bit scared because I've been taking a large # of them again after stopping for awhile to aid in benzo withdraw. The # of these tablets I have taken might alot higher than my guess, I don't even want to think about it,but I must. Does anyone know how bad T'1s are for your liver and kidneys ?? Here in Canada you don;t have to have a presciption for them. Should I stop them right now?? Joe

veryscared

For the average healthy adult, the recommended maximum dose of acetaminophen over a 24 hour period is four grams (4000 mg) or eight extra-strength pills. (Each extra-strength pill contains 500 mg and each regular strength pill contains 325 mg.) A person who drinks more than two alcoholic beverages per day, however, should not take more than two grams of acetaminophen over 24 hours, as discussed below. For children, the dose is based on their weight and age, and explicit instructions are given in the package insert. If these guidelines for adults and children are followed, acetaminophen is safe and carries essentially no risk of liver injury.

On the other hand, a single dose of 7 to 10 grams of acetaminophen (14 to 20 extra-strength tablets) can cause liver injury in the average healthy adult. Note that this amount is about twice the recommended maximum dose for a 24 hour period. In children, a single dose of 140 mg/kg (body weight) of acetaminophen can result in liver injury. Amounts of acetaminophen, however, as low as 3 to 4 grams in a single dose or 4 to 6 grams over 24 hours have been reported to cause severe liver injury in some people, sometimes even resulting in death. It seems that certain individuals, for example, those who regularly drink alcohol, are more prone than others to developing acetaminophen-induced liver damage. To understand this increased susceptibility in some people, it is useful to know how acetaminophen is processed (metabolized) in the liver and how the drug causes liver injury.

veryscared

How is acetaminophen processed (metabolized) in the body?

The liver is the primary site in the body where acetaminophen is metabolized. In the liver, acetaminophen first undergoes sulphation (binding to a sulphate molecule) and glucuronidation (binding to a glucuronide molecule) before being eliminated from the body by the liver. The parent compound, acetaminophen, and its sulphate and glucuronide compounds (metabolites) are themselves actually not harmful. An excessive amount of acetaminophen in the liver, however, can overwhelm (saturate) the sulphation and glucuronidation pathways. When this happens, the acetaminophen is processed through another pathway, the cytochrome P-450 system. From acetaminophen, the P-450 system forms an intermediate metabolite referred to as NAPQI, which turns out to be a toxic compound. Ordinarily, however, this toxic metabolite is rendered harmless (detoxified) by another pathway, the glutathione system.