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Acetaminaphen & Liver Failure
Posted by Jackie
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Acetaminaphen & Liver Failure January 22, 2014 02:17PM |
Registered: 6 years ago Posts: 18,881 |
posted by Alliance for Natural Health
Everyday” Drug Causes Acute Liver Damage
Posted By ANH-USA On January 21, 2014 In Food and Supplements Are Not Drugs, Why Do the Major Media Get it so Wrong? But the New York Times blames supplements instead. Action Alert [1]!
According to the FDA [2], acetaminophen—the active ingredient in Tylenol—was the leading cause of acute liver failure in Americans between 1998 and 2003. There is no reason to think this has changed since.
Every year, 78,000 people go to the emergency room from intentional or accidental acetaminophen overdose; 33,000 are hospitalized, at last count 458 die (2006 data). The problem has gotten so bad that the FDA has asked doctors [3] to stop prescribing any medication that has more than 325 mg of acetaminophen per dose.
Acetaminophen is dangerous because just a small extra amount can create a dangerous overdose: twice the maximum safe dose [4] taken over just several days could cause severe liver damage. Sometimes, according to[4] the former head of the Drug Information Center at the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania, “the difference between a safe dose and a dangerous dose is two Extra Strength Tylenol tablets.”
The FDA has been aware of the acetaminophen problem since 1977 [5], when an expert advisory panel recommended that drugs like Tylenol carry a warning label about liver damage. Yet the agency refused to implement the warning label until a fullthirty-two years later [6], in 2009.
Given the lack of FDA action, it would make sense for the media to publicize the dangers of such a common and ubiquitously available over-the-counter product. But when the New York Times published an article on liver damage and health products, they said not one word about Tylenol or acetaminophen. They instead put the blame solely on nutritional supplements!
What has happened to the New York Times? It was once our national “newspaper of record.” Now it seems to be engaging in cover-ups for the drug industry.
The article, “Spike in Harm to Liver Is Tied to Dietary Aids [7],” cites some seemingly alarming statistics: based on a recent study presented by the Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network at a November 2013 conference, “nearly 20% of drug-related liver injuries” that require a hospital visit can be attributed to dietary supplements.
First, note that the above quote mistakenly equates dietary supplements with drugs. How can “drug-related liver injuries” be attributable to supplements? This could be either sloppy journalism (dietary supplements are in a different regulatory category—if they were drugs, then they’d be regulated as drugs!), or a deliberate political statement: after all, the aim of anti-supplement politicians and entities like Senator Durbin is toregulate supplements like drugs [8].
Second, the article fails even to mention what caused the remaining 80% of liver-damage hospital visits [9]—drugs, especially acetaminophen. And once you look at the complete data from 2004 to 2012, the percent of visits attributable to supplements falls to 15%.
What’s going on here? With drugs causing the most liver damage (and let’s not forget that prescription drugs in general are the fourth leading cause of death in America [10], based on hospital data alone), why is the New York Times attacking dietary supplements? After all, at the very same conference [11] where the cited study was presented, there were eighteen sessions on liver damage due to acetaminophen—and only two presentations on dietary supplements and liver damage.
We are sorry to say that it may be linked to the pharmaceutical industry’s advertising clout, which the NYT depends upon. In its 2012 annual report [12], the NYT stated the obvious fact that it depends for its survival on advertising revenue. In 2012, Big Pharma spent $90 million [13] on print advertising. The dietary supplement industry spends far less: $20 million [14] on print advertising in 2010. Due to the FDA and FTC’soverzealous regulation [15] of health claims and gag orders on dietary supplement advertising, there’s little incentive for supplement companies to advertise their products and anyway they have far less money with which to do so.
Given the rapid decline [16] of the industry, newspapers are facing increasing competition for advertising dollars; a pharmaceutical company miffed by an anti-drug NYT article could take their massive advertising budget elsewhere, whereas an article that bashes dietary supplements would be looked upon favorably. After all, drug companies are so scared of “competition” [17] from dietary supplements that they’re beginning to swallow up [18] small supplement companies!
For the NYT, the choice between attacking dietary supplements or dangerous drugs is easy. Given the media’s aversion to the truth about natural health, the importance of grassroots advocacy like yours grows daily. Please don’t stop taking action and sharing the truth with your friends and family—ANH-USA and the natural health community is depending on you!
Action Alert! Ask the New York Times to protect the public, save lives, and correct their misleading, anti-supplement article by giving at least equal coverage to Tylenol and acetaminophen. Please take action today!
[1]
________________________________________
Article printed from The Alliance for Natural Health USA: [www.anh-usa.org]
Copyright © 2013 Alliance for Natural Health USA (ANH-USA). Permission granted to forward, copy, or reprint with date and attribution (including link to original content) to ANH-USA. Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Use of This Website: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of the Alliance for Natural Health USA (ANH-USA), unless otherwise noted. Information on this website is provided for educational purposes only; it is not intended as a substitute for medical or professional advice of any kind. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of ANH-USA and the natural health community. Reliance upon any such opinion, advice, statement, or other information shall also be at your own risk. Neither ANH-USA, nor any of its respective agents, employees, information providers, or content providers shall be liable to any user or anyone else for any use or misuse of the information, inaccuracy, error, omission, interruption, lack of timeliness, incompleteness, deletion, defect, failure of performance, computer virus, communication line failure, alteration of, or use of any content herein, regardless of cause, or for any damages resulting therefrom.
Everyday” Drug Causes Acute Liver Damage
Posted By ANH-USA On January 21, 2014 In Food and Supplements Are Not Drugs, Why Do the Major Media Get it so Wrong? But the New York Times blames supplements instead. Action Alert [1]!
According to the FDA [2], acetaminophen—the active ingredient in Tylenol—was the leading cause of acute liver failure in Americans between 1998 and 2003. There is no reason to think this has changed since.
Every year, 78,000 people go to the emergency room from intentional or accidental acetaminophen overdose; 33,000 are hospitalized, at last count 458 die (2006 data). The problem has gotten so bad that the FDA has asked doctors [3] to stop prescribing any medication that has more than 325 mg of acetaminophen per dose.
Acetaminophen is dangerous because just a small extra amount can create a dangerous overdose: twice the maximum safe dose [4] taken over just several days could cause severe liver damage. Sometimes, according to[4] the former head of the Drug Information Center at the Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania, “the difference between a safe dose and a dangerous dose is two Extra Strength Tylenol tablets.”
The FDA has been aware of the acetaminophen problem since 1977 [5], when an expert advisory panel recommended that drugs like Tylenol carry a warning label about liver damage. Yet the agency refused to implement the warning label until a fullthirty-two years later [6], in 2009.
Given the lack of FDA action, it would make sense for the media to publicize the dangers of such a common and ubiquitously available over-the-counter product. But when the New York Times published an article on liver damage and health products, they said not one word about Tylenol or acetaminophen. They instead put the blame solely on nutritional supplements!
What has happened to the New York Times? It was once our national “newspaper of record.” Now it seems to be engaging in cover-ups for the drug industry.
The article, “Spike in Harm to Liver Is Tied to Dietary Aids [7],” cites some seemingly alarming statistics: based on a recent study presented by the Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network at a November 2013 conference, “nearly 20% of drug-related liver injuries” that require a hospital visit can be attributed to dietary supplements.
First, note that the above quote mistakenly equates dietary supplements with drugs. How can “drug-related liver injuries” be attributable to supplements? This could be either sloppy journalism (dietary supplements are in a different regulatory category—if they were drugs, then they’d be regulated as drugs!), or a deliberate political statement: after all, the aim of anti-supplement politicians and entities like Senator Durbin is toregulate supplements like drugs [8].
Second, the article fails even to mention what caused the remaining 80% of liver-damage hospital visits [9]—drugs, especially acetaminophen. And once you look at the complete data from 2004 to 2012, the percent of visits attributable to supplements falls to 15%.
What’s going on here? With drugs causing the most liver damage (and let’s not forget that prescription drugs in general are the fourth leading cause of death in America [10], based on hospital data alone), why is the New York Times attacking dietary supplements? After all, at the very same conference [11] where the cited study was presented, there were eighteen sessions on liver damage due to acetaminophen—and only two presentations on dietary supplements and liver damage.
We are sorry to say that it may be linked to the pharmaceutical industry’s advertising clout, which the NYT depends upon. In its 2012 annual report [12], the NYT stated the obvious fact that it depends for its survival on advertising revenue. In 2012, Big Pharma spent $90 million [13] on print advertising. The dietary supplement industry spends far less: $20 million [14] on print advertising in 2010. Due to the FDA and FTC’soverzealous regulation [15] of health claims and gag orders on dietary supplement advertising, there’s little incentive for supplement companies to advertise their products and anyway they have far less money with which to do so.
Given the rapid decline [16] of the industry, newspapers are facing increasing competition for advertising dollars; a pharmaceutical company miffed by an anti-drug NYT article could take their massive advertising budget elsewhere, whereas an article that bashes dietary supplements would be looked upon favorably. After all, drug companies are so scared of “competition” [17] from dietary supplements that they’re beginning to swallow up [18] small supplement companies!
For the NYT, the choice between attacking dietary supplements or dangerous drugs is easy. Given the media’s aversion to the truth about natural health, the importance of grassroots advocacy like yours grows daily. Please don’t stop taking action and sharing the truth with your friends and family—ANH-USA and the natural health community is depending on you!
Action Alert! Ask the New York Times to protect the public, save lives, and correct their misleading, anti-supplement article by giving at least equal coverage to Tylenol and acetaminophen. Please take action today!
[1]
________________________________________
Article printed from The Alliance for Natural Health USA: [www.anh-usa.org]
Copyright © 2013 Alliance for Natural Health USA (ANH-USA). Permission granted to forward, copy, or reprint with date and attribution (including link to original content) to ANH-USA. Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Use of This Website: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of the Alliance for Natural Health USA (ANH-USA), unless otherwise noted. Information on this website is provided for educational purposes only; it is not intended as a substitute for medical or professional advice of any kind. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of ANH-USA and the natural health community. Reliance upon any such opinion, advice, statement, or other information shall also be at your own risk. Neither ANH-USA, nor any of its respective agents, employees, information providers, or content providers shall be liable to any user or anyone else for any use or misuse of the information, inaccuracy, error, omission, interruption, lack of timeliness, incompleteness, deletion, defect, failure of performance, computer virus, communication line failure, alteration of, or use of any content herein, regardless of cause, or for any damages resulting therefrom.
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