As an American this is such a weird question to me. I purchase my ibuprofen and benadryl in bottles of anywhere from 400 to 1000 pills every few years.
Apparently a common source of problems is taking two different medications without realizing they both contain acetaminophen.
Suppose your arthritis is acting up, so you start taking Tylenol 8hr Arthritis Pain[1]. That's 2 tablets every 8 hours. They're extended-release with 650mg per tablet. A total of 3900 mg in 24 hours.
A few days later you get the flu, so you decide to add what seems like a completely different medication: Theraflu Flu Relief Max Strength[2]. It has a cough suppressant and an antihistamine. But each caplet also contains 500 mg of acetaminophen. It says to take 2 caplets every 6 hours, so you take 8 of them in 24 hours[3]. That's another 4000 mg.
Between the two, you're at 7900 mg.
Then you wake up in the morning and take both medications, but 30 minutes later you've forgotten you took them. You're not thinking straight because you're sick. So you accidentally take a second dose. That additional 2300 mg brings your total to 10200 mg.
[3] You weren't supposed to take 8 of them, though. If you'd read the label very carefully, you'd have seen it also says not to exceed 6 in a 24-hour period.
My personal rule is to only purchase over-the-counter meds with a single active ingredient. I'd rather separately take an antihistamine, expectorant and painkiller than a concoction where I have to read the whole label and do math while sick to separate the doses and timings.
This can easily happen over the course of 24 hours if you're in "fuck me I'll do anything to make it stop" levels of pain. I've taken more than 20 ibuprofens in a day a few times in my life, which, while not medically advised, did not kill me. I actually had no idea acetaminophen was so dangerous.
Just in case, ibuprophen does not work well for pain relief [at lest for some kind of pain]. Paracetamol [acetaminophen] usually is much better against pain.
And paracetamol + ibuprophen can help with strong pain for which neither paracetamol or ibuprophen work at normal doses.
The .nl indicates the netherlands. Many people in the netherlands vent/joke about how the doctors here only ever tell you to take paracetamol and come back in two weeks if it's still a problem (recursive solution).
However the last time I went to my GP she scoffed at me taking the maximum and suggested I take literally double the maximum recommended dose 4-5 times a day which totaled I think 2.5x the daily maximum on the package. I am very much a "believer" in science and reasonable medical authority but this experience sowed the seeds of doubt, because from what I have always heard, that can actually kill you or cause permanent liver issues. I was also taking diclofenac simultaenously, and when I told her how many mg, she asked "where can you even buy such small doses, that's what I would give a small child" =/
They are widely sold at 1000 mg (1g) tablets in Europe, but in many countries they require doctor's prescription. There are also purchase limits to the number of pills you can buy at once.
They are common in France, but not in such packages: There are restrictions that prevent you from buying more than than 8g/day (theoretically at least, I don't believe they are strictly applied in practice).
As an American this is such a weird question to me. I purchase my ibuprofen and benadryl in bottles of anywhere from 400 to 1000 pills every few years.
Is this not suicidal behavior?
Apparently a common source of problems is taking two different medications without realizing they both contain acetaminophen.
Suppose your arthritis is acting up, so you start taking Tylenol 8hr Arthritis Pain[1]. That's 2 tablets every 8 hours. They're extended-release with 650mg per tablet. A total of 3900 mg in 24 hours.
A few days later you get the flu, so you decide to add what seems like a completely different medication: Theraflu Flu Relief Max Strength[2]. It has a cough suppressant and an antihistamine. But each caplet also contains 500 mg of acetaminophen. It says to take 2 caplets every 6 hours, so you take 8 of them in 24 hours[3]. That's another 4000 mg.
Between the two, you're at 7900 mg.
Then you wake up in the morning and take both medications, but 30 minutes later you've forgotten you took them. You're not thinking straight because you're sick. So you accidentally take a second dose. That additional 2300 mg brings your total to 10200 mg.
---
[1] https://www.tylenol.com/products/arthritis/tylenol-8hr-arthr...
[2] https://www.theraflu.com/products/day-night-flu-relief-max-s...
[3] You weren't supposed to take 8 of them, though. If you'd read the label very carefully, you'd have seen it also says not to exceed 6 in a 24-hour period.
My personal rule is to only purchase over-the-counter meds with a single active ingredient. I'd rather separately take an antihistamine, expectorant and painkiller than a concoction where I have to read the whole label and do math while sick to separate the doses and timings.
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Doin' the Lord's Work here, sir.
Also, loved your TV show back in the day. :-)
I took 2 full packs in a day once while trying to recover from severe pain. Didnt find out until later that it was supposedly a fatal dose.
Mm. Apparently i don't understand pain and the medication it drives people towards.
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Did you suffer any liver function damage as a result?
I presume your protein intake was adequate and diverse prior to this misadventure....
This can easily happen over the course of 24 hours if you're in "fuck me I'll do anything to make it stop" levels of pain. I've taken more than 20 ibuprofens in a day a few times in my life, which, while not medically advised, did not kill me. I actually had no idea acetaminophen was so dangerous.
Just in case, ibuprophen does not work well for pain relief [at lest for some kind of pain]. Paracetamol [acetaminophen] usually is much better against pain. And paracetamol + ibuprophen can help with strong pain for which neither paracetamol or ibuprophen work at normal doses.
2 replies →
Only if you take them all at once.
Also dementia
Or 10 slightly larger ones
edit: https://www.24pharma.nl/paracetamol-eg-1000mg-120-tabletten
I’ve pretty much only ever seen them sold at 500mg; are you regularly seeing them where you are sold in 1g form?
The .nl indicates the netherlands. Many people in the netherlands vent/joke about how the doctors here only ever tell you to take paracetamol and come back in two weeks if it's still a problem (recursive solution).
However the last time I went to my GP she scoffed at me taking the maximum and suggested I take literally double the maximum recommended dose 4-5 times a day which totaled I think 2.5x the daily maximum on the package. I am very much a "believer" in science and reasonable medical authority but this experience sowed the seeds of doubt, because from what I have always heard, that can actually kill you or cause permanent liver issues. I was also taking diclofenac simultaenously, and when I told her how many mg, she asked "where can you even buy such small doses, that's what I would give a small child" =/
They are widely sold at 1000 mg (1g) tablets in Europe, but in many countries they require doctor's prescription. There are also purchase limits to the number of pills you can buy at once.
They are common in France, but not in such packages: There are restrictions that prevent you from buying more than than 8g/day (theoretically at least, I don't believe they are strictly applied in practice).
The linked size is also quite common in Belgium.
In Europe for sure they're also sold in 1g dosing. I think the packages don't contain lots of pills, though. Definitely not US style buckets of pills.