What I learned in Relief Society today

[landpoke]

Originally Posted by Archaea

I cannot imagine somebody starting with Vodka or Gin.

Exactly. Here is how one starts drinking, eerily similar to my experience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epa5YZIJU8I

[ERCougar]

A little clarification on the medical issues...
1) Yes, you can get rebound headaches when you stop taking OTC pain medications. But the people who are "abusing" them aren't going to stop taking them because they're taking them for daily arthritis pain--and there's really no problem with this. I wish my MIL would trust me and take Tylenol. It might get her out walking once in a while--which is typically too painful for her and would probably do wonders for her arthritis.
2) Daily ibuprofen can slam your kidneys in certain susceptible people. This is a small minority however, and in most cases, stop the ibuprofen and the kidney function returns to normal. The much more serious risk from ibuprofen is GI bleeding (stomach ulcers, gastritis, etc). But again--most people will do just fine with it, as long as they know the warning signs to watch out for.

My big question is--do you really think Elder Uchtdorf intended this kind of discussion over his talk? What message did he want us to receive? I doubt it has anything to do with the WOW, yet predictably, that's where we go off. And even when we get onto the WOW, why doesn't discussion ever get into getting healthier--get off your fat, lazy butt and exercise, eat healthier, etc. Instead, we're worried about sparkling cider and tylenol.

[MikeWaters]

Originally Posted by ERCougar

A little clarification on the medical issues...
1) Yes, you can get rebound headaches when you stop taking OTC pain medications. But the people who are "abusing" them aren't going to stop taking them because they're taking them for daily arthritis pain--and there's really no problem with this. I wish my MIL would trust me and take Tylenol. It might get her out walking once in a while--which is typically too painful for her and would probably do wonders for her arthritis.
2) Daily ibuprofen can slam your kidneys in certain susceptible people. This is a small minority however, and in most cases, stop the ibuprofen and the kidney function returns to normal. The much more serious risk from ibuprofen is GI bleeding (stomach ulcers, gastritis, etc). But again--most people will do just fine with it, as long as they know the warning signs to watch out for.

My big question is--do you really think Elder Uchtdorf intended this kind of discussion over his talk? What message did he want us to receive? I doubt it has anything to do with the WOW, yet predictably, that's where we go off. And even when we get onto the WOW, why doesn't discussion ever get into getting healthier--get off your fat, lazy butt and exercise, eat healthier, etc. Instead, we're worried about sparkling cider and tylenol.

the issue of acetaminophen and chronic renal failure--it appears to be a muddled picture, even though I was taught there was a link a few years ago.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...ubmed_RVDocSum
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...med_RVAbstract

Of course, too much acetaminophen can harm the liver. Including people that make a suicide attempt, thinking tylenol is innocuous, and then dying a terrible death of liver failure.

[ERCougar]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

the issue of acetaminophen and chronic renal failure--it appears to be a muddled picture, even though I was taught there was a link a few years ago.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...ubmed_RVDocSum
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...med_RVAbstract

Of course, too much acetaminophen can harm the liver. Including people that make a suicide attempt, thinking tylenol is innocuous, and then dying a terrible death of liver failure.

Interesting studies--I'd be curious to read them. I'd also be curious to see the real outcomes involved. Most people can take a decrease in their GFR of 30 and not even notice it. Older people are obviously a little more susceptible, but how many dialysis cases can you really attribute to Tylenol and not the myriad other conditions they may have. I'm guessing very few.

Obviously, we both deal with Tylenol overdoses in our careers. Kids, if you want to really kill yourself, take a bottle of tylenol. Don't mess around with sleeping pills, narcotics, antidepressants (well, except for the TCAs--they'll kill you in a hurry, but no one's on them anymore), seizure meds, etc. Stick with tylenol--it's cheap, it's OTC, and it does the job. Of course, it's one of the worst ways I can think of to die, but it'll work.

But back to the point, 4 g of tylenol a day (2 extra-strength tabs four times a day) is pretty effective, won't kill you, and even given the risk of liver/kidney issues, is arguably much safer than the standard pain regimens docs use.