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Comment by tokyobreakfast

9 hours ago

You can still die if you take your idiot-proof Aussie blister packs with alcohol. So it's more an inefficient use of cabinet space.

You can overdose on water too, they haven't banned 5-gallon jugs (yet).

6 comments

tokyobreakfast

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adithyareddy  9 hours ago

Yes, and you can still die in a car crash if you're wearing your seatbelt, and wearing a helmet on your motorcycle won't save you from a head-on with a truck, and you can still drown in a pool with a lifeguard, and you can still die in a burning building with smoke detectors.

Harm reduction is about shifting probability distributions, not guaranteeing outcomes. Kids can still get into pill bottles with childproof medication caps, but accidental ingestion of aspirin by children reduced by 40-55% after they were mandated. [0]

[0]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/440889/

epcoa  9 hours ago

No. Ethanol and tylenol compete for CYP2E1 that produces toxic NAPQI, so no, acute alcohol intoxication has a protective effect at least where it comes to tylenol toxicity.

  • robocat  5 hours ago

    No.

    Alcohol and Acetominophen/paracetamol should not be mixed.

      When alcohol enters the picture, it increases the activity of CYP2E1, so the body produces more of the NAPQI toxin. Alcohol also decreases glutathione production, the body’s natural defense mechanism, meaning NAPQI is more likely to build up in the liver in dangerous concentrations.

    https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322813

    Sorry, crappy link. If you don't like it, it is easy to search for a better one.

    • Flashtoo  2 hours ago

      There is a danger in chronic abuse resulting in upregulation. Mixing the two at once is no problem for the liver, which is also why patient information leaflets for paracetamol do not contain a warning to avoid alcohol, only about chronic alcohol abuse.

      Your crappy source is vague in what consumption pattern constitutes a risk and actually cites a better source that supports the idea that acute alcohol consumption reduces paracetamol toxicity. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.07.191916v1....

      That's a mathematical model, but this relationship between the two is what I was taught in medical school and it is still supported by the science. There's plenty of other sources, I just picked that one because your article cites it. Just search for "paracetamol ethanol" on Google Scholar.

perching_aix  3 hours ago

s/idiot-proof/idiot-resistant/g

Also applies to most similar phrases ending in -proof. Should be eye-opening.