Many people think of Tylenol as a harmless necessity  for pain relief. Recently, Dr. Laura Markham, PhD did some research which was published recently on a Wellness site.

Her findings?  Tylenol/Acetaminophen is absolutely toxic to the human body. It causes liver poisoning. Did you know that the analgesic effects of the drug emanate from the liver's attempt to fight the drug by releasing enzymes to break it down? Most people do not. A liver that is not healthy or  one that is overwhelmed by other toxins (such as alcohol), or that has not been sufficiently fueled by food intake, can become overwhelmed and fail, leaving  poison in the body causing organ damage and even death.

She also reports the danger is that there isn't much difference between a safe, effective dose, and a toxic dose.  Dr. Markham states that just a doubling of the maximum daily dose can be enough to kill, according to Dr. Anne Larson of the University of Washington Medical Center. Also, if you have no food in your stomach, or if you have alcohol in your system, or worse yet, both,  the normal dosage can be toxic because of the overload to the liver.

Acetaminophen (the active ingredient in tylenol) accounts for 100,000 calls to poison control centers, 56,000 emergency room visits, 26,000 hospitalizations, and 450 deaths annually. The Tylenol company has a alot of educational material on their website pertinent to taking the drug safely but can this be done?

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that even at recommended doses, acetaminophen can cause organ damage. Out of 106 patients in the study, 39% who took acetaminophen showed increases in liver enzymes to more than three times the normal upper limit, indicating potential liver damage. Another 25% of the patients had enzyme levels at five times the normal level, while 7% of the patients' enzyme levels increased to eight times the normal level! Their enzyme levels continued to increase for up to four days after the acetaminophen was stopped, and their enzyme levels did not return to normal for as long as 11 days, researchers said.

"This study shows that even taking the amount on the package can be a problem for some people," said Dr. William M. Lee of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, who was not involved in the study. Unfortunately, we all know people who take far more even that the listed dosage.

In a different study,  published recently in the Archives Of Internal Medicine, one in 10 women who took acetaminophen over an 11-year period experienced a 30 percent decline in kidney filtration function. The study showed that the more acetaminophen pills taken during a lifetime, the higher the risk of the drug's detrimental effects, indicating that the organ damage from even routine doses is cumulative.

Please take this information seriously and pass it on to others. Also check out some natural pain relievers such as Wobenzym and Curcumin available at my store, FREE shipping! I have a ton of suggestions for chronic conditions like arthritis. So visit our Natural Pharmacy.