What's good in small concentrations, but lethal in higher? What's a glaring red flag you're encroaching on a lethal concentration?

ilex@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 102 points –

Like Fluoride or Oxygen.

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Panadol / Paracetamol / Tylenol / Acetaminophen / C8H9NO2 is exceptionally easy to overdose on. I've done it accidentally a couple of times. It causes liver damage at even lower overdoses, you really don't want that.

The maximum dosage is 1g every 4 to 6 hours, maximum total 4g a day. I am no doctor but I strongly recommend 6+ hours between doses (I set a timer) and I try very hard to not get to 3g or above per day. It's even worse that plenty of medications just throw it in to the mix casually.

Unfortunately as the only first line of defence I have against pain, I cannot avoid it altogether. Redflags for me were light abdominal pain and yellowing of skin under eyes. Plus fatigue, but that's normal in my world.

Huh. That might explain the last two weeks. Dental pains. Lot's of tylenol. And why I feel much better now.

For dental pain I recommend ibuprofen (advil). Seems to work significantly better than acetaminophen (Tylenol) and seems to be much safer.

NSAIDs can be just as bad in different ways. They cause your digestive tract to bleed and can cause perforations.

Tylenol can be taken with ibuprofen to increase pain or fever relief. Just follow directions for both.

Definitely ease up on it if you can, especially if you've been taking it for more than a week regularly. If you can't reduce usage/dose, then be much more generous with the minimum gap between doses, especially if your liver is already under a bit of pressure from other meds or alcohol.

Pain sucks, and pain management causes pain. Sorry about the dental stuff, my issue isn't teeth but I know that is no fun too.

I accidentally overdosed on acetaminophen after a surgery once. Doctor forgot to tell me (or I was still high when he told me) he gave me acetaminophen during/after the surgery. I thought I still could take up to 4g that day. A few hours after the surgery, the pain started to kick in so I took some acetaminophen. Ended up vomiting uncontrollably.

Can you not use ibuprofen?

Sadly no, the entire NSAID class are off the table. I'm one of the "lucky" few who gets one of the rare but serious side effects.