Tylenol for Your Super Bowl Hangover: Why Mixing Alcohol and Tylenol Are a Bad Idea

With Super Bowl Sunday last weekend, many people attended Super Bowl parties which frequently included consuming too much alcohol. Many people have approaches for dealing with the negative effects of excessive drinking, including taking a Tylenol or some other over-the-counter pain medicine containing the active ingredient acetaminophen. While this is something that most people have done at some point in their life, the choice to take Tylenol or other over-the-counter pain medication containing acetaminophen to combat your alcohol-induced symptoms can be a dangerous choice.

Tylenol and its active ingredient, acetaminophen, are common in many over-the-counter cold and pain relief medicines. However, the FDA has indicated that acetaminophen is the leading cause of liver injuries in the U.S. Most people who use Tylenol and other products with acetaminophen for headaches and other minor symptoms have no idea of the serious risk of liver damage, nor that taking acetaminophen and alcohol together greatly increase this risk. At Montlick and Associates, Attorneys at Law, we represent people injured by Tylenol and other over-the-counter and prescription drugs that contain acetaminophen who suffer serious liver injuries and damage including impaired liver function, liver failure, liver transplants and even death.

According to the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, excessive doses of acetaminophen are responsible for 50,000 emergency room visits and over five hundred deaths per year.

While there is an available treatment for acetaminophen overdose, called NAC, it must be taken within an eight-hour period of ingesting the excessive dose of acetaminophen to prevent liver damage. Because alcohol also affects liver function, people who consume three or more drinks on a daily basis are at a much greater risk of suffering serious liver damage from their use of acetaminophen.

Many health care professionals advise heavy drinkers (three or more alcoholic drinks per day) to take a different type of pain medication. Even consumers who have two or fewer drinks per day are still at risk. This risk increases if you take the maximum dose of acetaminophen. If you consume alcohol on a frequent basis or regularly in higher quantities, experts advise that the best option is to avoid taking acetaminophen in both over-the-counter drugs like Tylenol and prescription pain medications like Percoset and Vicodin.

While drug companies typically attempt to develop, produce and market drugs that fight disease and save lives, they sometimes ignore negative test results and scientific data that indicate adverse side effects so that they can recover development costs and generate profits. Many people believe that drug related injuries, such as liver failure or impairment of kidney function from drugs is a rare occurrence. However, studies show that prescription drugs rank among the fifth leading causes of death in the U.S., with unsafe drugs claiming the lives of over 200,000 people per year and leading to drug related injuries in more than 2.2 million more people.

McNeil Consumer Products, the subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson that makes Tylenol, has recalled different versions of Tylenol products for various issues since late 2009 because of quality control and related issues. If you believe you have suffered serious injury from taking Tylenol or another drug containing acetaminophen, especially a recalled version or lot, contact Montlick and Associates, Attorneys at Law, so that we can determine if you are entitled to legal compensation for your injuries.

Our Georgia Tylenol injury lawyers are available to assist clients throughout all of Georgia and the Southeast, including but not limited to Albany, Athens, Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus, Gainesville, Macon, Marietta, Rome, Roswell, Savannah, Smyrna, Valdosta, Warner Robins and all smaller cities and rural areas in the state. No matter where you are located our knowledgeable acetaminophen liver damage attorneys are just a phone call away, and we will even come to you. Call us 24 hours a day/7 days a week for your Free Consultation at 1-800-LAW-NEED (1-800-529-6333). You can also visit us online at www.montlick.com and use our Free Case Evaluation Form or 24-hour Live Online Chat.