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One of the most consumed drugs in the US – and the most commonly taken analgesic worldwide – could be doing a lot more than simply taking the edge off your headache, new evidence suggests. Acetaminophen, also known as paracetamol and sold widely under the brand names Tylenol and Panadol, also increases risk-taking, according to a new study that measured changes in people's behaviour when under the influence of the common over-the-counter medication.
"Acetaminophen seems to make people feel less negative emotion when they consider risky activities – they just don't feel as scared," says neuroscientist Baldwin Way from The Ohio State University.
[...] participants had to pump up an uninflated balloon on a computer screen, with each single pump earning imaginary money. Their instructions were to earn as much imaginary money as possible by pumping the balloon as much as possible, but to make sure not to pop the balloon, in which case they would lose the money.
The results showed that the students who took acetaminophen engaged in significantly more risk-taking during the exercise, relative to the more cautious and conservative placebo group. On the whole, those on acetaminophen pumped (and burst) their balloons more than the controls. "If you're risk-averse, you may pump a few times and then decide to cash out because you don't want the balloon to burst and lose your money," Way says. "But for those who are on acetaminophen, as the balloon gets bigger, we believe they have less anxiety and less negative emotion about how big the balloon is getting and the possibility of it bursting."
Journal Reference:
Alexis Keaveney, Ellen Peters, Baldwin Way. Effects of acetaminophen on risk taking [open], Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsaa108)
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 10 2020, @02:13AM (1 child)
What is the daily consumption in kiloton at the fed?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 10 2020, @09:12PM
That all depends on whether "kilo" is 1,000 or 1024. :)
Come on, PDWs (Pedantics Justice Warriors), troll my troll!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday September 10 2020, @02:15AM (20 children)
They used to hand out Sudafed & Suphedrin (pseudoephedrine) like candy for anything that involved pressure changes: flying, diving, even space travel. Wonder what its behavioral influences were?
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 10 2020, @02:30AM (12 children)
Pseudoephedrine is a known psychotropic, though rather mild.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 10 2020, @02:47AM (11 children)
Pseudoephedrine is also a precursor to meth, thus controlled in many places. But you probably knew that already.
Back to tfa, the amount of "risk" in the activity/game used for the experiment seems so trivial as to be almost meaningless.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 10 2020, @02:59AM (5 children)
Besides, tylenol's efficacy is about that of placebo* anyways, and its excess use (all kinds of otc drugs contain large dose of it) and the resulting assault on the liver makes it a net negative.
* I've heard intravenous version can be quite different, but that version is still under patent so rather expensive and rare.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday September 10 2020, @04:39AM (4 children)
Disagree. A single 1000mg dose gives me significant relief from headaches and muscle pain, and also has a bizarre anti-anxiety effect. This is probably because one of its metabolites looks a lot like anandamide, an endogenous *cannabinoid,* with a phenyl ring stuck into the side chain.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 10 2020, @04:45AM
That's ... just ... like ... your opinion, man.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Muad'Dave on Thursday September 10 2020, @11:47AM
There have been a few studies on the effects of acetaminophen on the brain besides pain control: A Social Analgesic? Acetaminophen (Paracetamol) Reduces Positive Empathy [nih.gov]. An article at psychologytoday.com claims popping a tylenol [psychologytoday.com] can help with anxiety. Searching for "acetaminophen and mood" returns many more hits.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by DannyB on Thursday September 10 2020, @03:10PM (1 child)
I take 2000 mg in four doses per day for arthritis pain. Plus potent prescription anti inflammatory. Occasional narcotic pain killer hydrocodone.
I'm glad for you that 1000mg does helps. But wow, that is big for a single dose.
Personally, I have not been aware of any behavioral or psychological changes when I began taking it Nothing like when I took Tramadol daily for a while back in 2010 and soon grew to hate it. (Although I was in an artificially good mood. All the time. Constantly. And that's just not natural.)
I believe that Acetaminophen is the biggest cause of liver failure in the industrialized world.
When Lucifer was cast out of heaven down to Earth, theologians debate whether he landed in Florida or Texas.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 12 2020, @03:14AM
You and Azuma and Muad' above - thank you each for the high signal posts here.
Muad - I'm reading that now. Figure 1 in the study [nih.gov] is interesting - look at the gap and confidence for personal pleasure, and empathic feelings! And yet "Consuming acetaminophen relative to placebo did not change general positive or negative affect measured 1 h after drug administration (just prior to reading the empathy scenarios)." so it's not just happiness/contentment trickling down.
Interesting.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 10 2020, @02:48PM (4 children)
I certainly know it, since none of the Pseudoephedrine-free decongestants work for me at all. Really tired of the behind-the-counter hoops to get the good stuff, especially since it does effectively nothing to cut the meth supply (and particularly since I think the War on Drugs is idiotic in the first place: see Prohibition).
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 10 2020, @03:18PM (2 children)
Prohibition was stupid. The War on some drugs is also stupid -- except that I don't want society to have to pay for someone's choice to smoke, or use drugs that make them require expensive care (or incarceration) later due to their lifestyle choice. I say incarceration for the possibility that someone addicted descends into being homeless, and stealing to acquire their next drug dose. Treatment to get off the addiction would be best, if it can work. But best of all is to prevent the situation. Although I think the War on some drugs hasn't worked so well in hindsight. But what to do? Education doesn't prevent addiction.
When Lucifer was cast out of heaven down to Earth, theologians debate whether he landed in Florida or Texas.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by sjames on Thursday September 10 2020, @07:06PM
I would guess that the war on some drugs has cost a hell of a lot more than the expensive care would, especially when you consider the excess of expensive care from people taking unreliable drugs cut with God knows what plus the violence associated with the black market.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 12 2020, @03:24AM
Just a quick note - addiction-related crime is very common among the housed, also. Lots of addicts would rather pay rent and steal for drugs, than live on the street and pay for drugs but not steal, and when marginal incomes are available (part time or very low paying work, work-exchange, social assistance) some people choose to spend the legal bux on food and shelter.
Source: personal experience. I used to know West Coast addicts. Rarely were any homeless. Commonly they engaged in crime for money, in part because they mostly couldn't hold down jobs (and let me tell you, when one person gets fired from their third McD's in about a month, all firings on the first day, and all considered successes because enough cash was swiped for a 2-3 day binge, it gives perspective to metrics of success and failure. Also to the failure of franchises to warn each other about things.)
(Score: 1) by fakefuck39 on Thursday September 10 2020, @08:27PM
In France you can get up to 3 packs of pseudo at 35mg per pill mixed with 200mg of ibuprofen - behind the counter, but no prescription, no need to show id. it's like $5 a pack. then you dump those 3 packs in a glass of hot water, leave it in the fridge overnight, and decant off the liquid into a bowl. put that bowl in a pot of boiling water for an hour so it evaporates, and you got a gram of pure pseudo. no need to make it into meth - you got two good doses of what's essentially speed, and it'll keep you up for 3 days so you can continue drinking and fucking. ah, the good 'ol days.
Then you can get 3 packs of otc codeine at 40mg with 500mg of tylenol, and do the cold water extraction on that to get 1.5 grams. It'll make the hangover part fun after the 3 days of partying.
*the more you know*
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday September 10 2020, @09:29AM (6 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday September 10 2020, @11:26AM
>prescription only
Not in 'murica - and if you're about to go SCUBA diving and have serious nasal congestion, Sudafed is far from overkill.
I did safety diving instruction for a short while, keeping noobs from floating up while holding their breath, and thus had to dive on a schedule that happened to be right after a 45 minute rush hour drive - I would indeed self-medicate with booze to wind down the driving stress before getting in the pool. There are some things that you don't tell the master instructor.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/06/24/7408365/
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday September 10 2020, @03:16PM (4 children)
Considering all of the side-effects and deaths caused by alcohol consumption, it'd be nice if people didn't imbibe said substance.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 10 2020, @03:21PM (1 child)
I would ditto that for cigarettes too.
And Big Macs.
When Lucifer was cast out of heaven down to Earth, theologians debate whether he landed in Florida or Texas.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Thursday September 10 2020, @03:35PM
Alcohol + Cigarettes have been easily proven to directly affect the lives of others. Big Macs are more of a direct affect on your waistline. There's no direct link between me watching you eat a burger and me getting cancer. At a certain point, personal choice / freedom is well worth defending. Alcohol + Cigarettes are on the very much would be best to regulate them like the drugs they are. Except, something like that was already tried with Alcohol during Prohibition and that didn't work. Which leads-in to the "War on Drugs". At this point, we may as well slap a "Sin Tax" on all of the "reasonably safe" recreational drugs, focus on education regarding their use, and keeping them out of the hands of anyone younger than 21 years of age. That way, those that are partaking of the substances are as well informed as they'll get and their developmental years won't be screwed by the drugs.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday September 10 2020, @07:20PM
Sure, idiocy abounds, but the cause of the idiocy is generally the idiots. Just because a small fraction of people misuse something that's been part of human culture for millennia doesn't mean you should remove the right to enjoy that thing from the rest of the population.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 12 2020, @08:26PM
Sure, and while we're wishing I'd like a pony, and a lamborghini, and a ... wait, these wishes aren't actually going to happen? Dammit.
Reality is that of all the drugs, alcohol is just about the easiest to produce with raw materials that pretty much have to stay legal. Shrooms? You can outlaw psilocybin (but good luck enforcing it) so I guess that they're a close second - but at least there's a baseline of knowledge and skill involved in shroom-hunting. Opium? Not too far off, but still a pain in the butt. Mary Jane takes a little more work, but if you can cut an apple or squeeze a berry or even get your mitts on sugar or honey - you can get your drink on. Next to alcohol, with opium and shrooms as honourable mentions, heroin looks like rocket science, and meth looks like alchemy to produce.
Then we get to the flipside: people generally use *insert drug here* because they're self-medicating. For pain, or for anxiety, or for problems related to self-regulation.
In other words, you have a close connection between (perceived) need on the one hand, and possibility on the other. Alcohol is something that a hillbilly with a breadline budget and time on his hands can sort out.
So go ahead, wish for that alcohol ban. See how it works out for you. Think prohibition was a flop and just needed better enforcement? Saudi Arabia and Iran both have strict laws, enforced by people with relaxed views on human dignity and humanitarian procedures, and plenty of drinking behind closed doors and high walls.
Maybe they just need to enforce it harder?
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 10 2020, @03:15AM
In other news, McNeil Consumer Healthcare granted a new patent on acetaminophen for use as an anti-depressant. Anti-depressant acetaminophen tablets to retail for $20 per tablet, and are distinguishable from analgesic acetaminophen tablets only by their price.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by fustakrakich on Thursday September 10 2020, @03:21AM
Who let the cat in?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 4, Interesting) by sgleysti on Thursday September 10 2020, @03:22AM (1 child)
Subsequent decades-long large sample size studies determine that Tylenol only affects the perception of the size of animated balloons displayed on LCD screens...
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Thursday September 10 2020, @04:01AM
And heck, with study 3 they give us their own home made failed replication.
They don't say much in the discussion section about why they think a failed replication doesn't undercut the whole idea.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by RS3 on Thursday September 10 2020, @04:00AM (1 child)
A few years ago studies showed acetaminophen reduces empathy for others' pain. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5015806/ [nih.gov]
(Score: 2) by bussdriver on Thursday September 10 2020, @03:55PM
The risk taking also fits. He must be taking a lot of it. Combined with his dementia...and the mini-strokes he accidentally disclosed when it was not explicitly asked. (https://www.btimesonline.com/articles/138210/20200902/trump-denies-having-mini-strokes-without-being-asked-question.htm)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Thursday September 10 2020, @06:59AM (13 children)
We all have preferred OTC drugs, for headaches or whatever. My own favorite is ibuprofen. In recent months, I've been given a couple of prescriptions that are common for older people. Imagine that you've been taking your script for weeks, and experiencing some odd effects. Only after you've mentioned those effects to the sixth or seventh medical professional, are you warned that ibuprofen amplifies the intended effects of your prescription, as well as contributing to the known possible side effects.
Do your own diligent research into your drugs. The safeguards built into the system don't always work as intended.
Of course, diligent research on the part of a layman isn't going to inform you of undocumented effects, such as this article suggests for acetaminophen.
And, all of that is just reinforces the idea that recreational drugs are just plain bad. Stupid, even.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by legont on Thursday September 10 2020, @12:44PM (11 children)
As a cardio patient I can't use Ibuprofen - at least my doctor told me so. I use paracetamol only.
Back to the article, I call it bullshit specifically designed to push the cheapest and one of the most effective drug on the planet off the shelves. That's my strong suspicion anyway.
It's already way too expensive in the West - in most countries acetaminophen costs about 1c per pill.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Thursday September 10 2020, @01:31PM (10 children)
That's interesting. I wasn't aware that ibuprofen had cardiac ramifications. Do you know specifically why in your case?
There is at least 1 cardiac problem that seems to be treated and healed by ibuprofen: patent ductus arteriosus, but it only seems to help babies. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1173385/ [nih.gov]
Adults generally need surgery which can sometimes be done through a minimally-invasive procedure (several short pages ahead):
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/17325-patent-ductus-arteriosus-pda#:~:text=Most%20PDAs%20in%20adults%20are,of%20breath%20and%20heart%20palpitations. [clevelandclinic.org]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday September 10 2020, @03:17PM (4 children)
NSAIDs (the class of drugs including ibuprofen, naproxen, meloxicam, piroxicam, etc) inhibit cyclooxygenase I and II. Aspirin does too but its inhibition of cyclooxygenase enzymes, if I remember right, is irreversible, while that of NSAIDs proper isn't. Platelets have no DNA and no mechanism to produce more of themselves, so aspirin's irreversible COX-I inhbition inactivates their clotting ability.
This changes the balance of prostaglandin (broadly pro-inflammatory) and prostacyclin (broadly anti-inflammatory) production, as the COX isoenzymes produce these. The upshot is that NSAIDs thin the blood *and* may make you more likely to have a heart attack or stroke. It sounds paradoxical, and I still don't quite understand the entire underlying mechanism, but this is what my pharmacy manager in Erie told me and what I've read bears it out.
Then there are the COX-II-specific inhibitors, the -coxib class. As far as I know the only one on the market still is celecoxib (Celebrex), and you may remember the infamous Vioxx (rofecoxib) leading to almost all of them getting pulled off the market. These were supposedly pursued because they should have less risk of GI bleeding, but it turns out most of the class has direct cardiovascular adverse effects.
Oh, want to know a real kicker? Ibuprofen and aspirin have similar targets, which means if you're taking baby aspirin, ibuprofen might nullify its effects! I would guess the two are competing for the cyclooxygenases and some of the aspirin is getting displaced, unable to do its job. And all this from drugs you can buy over the counter for pennies a dose! Medicine is scary stuff sometimes. I try to stay away from all medicine in general, but will take acetaminophen and an aspirin now and then when needed.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 3, Informative) by RS3 on Thursday September 10 2020, @05:17PM (3 children)
Oh my gosh, thank you so much. Your knowledge is off the charts. I tend to be private but in general I'm in pretty good health. 12ish years ago a doctor told me to take an aspirin a day. I did for a while, then decided, based on some things I read, that 1/2 (162 mg) was better. Now I don't want to take any!
Acetaminophen doesn't seem to help me with an occasional headache, so I very rarely take it. Based on the culture here (SN), I need to start taking it en mass. :) But that aside, I've heard that acetaminophen compliments aspirin or NSAIDS so if I really have a bad headache, I'll take usually 400 mg ibuprofen and 325 or 500 acetaminophen.
With everything I'm reading now, maybe bloodletting would be best. :-|
Sometime ask me if you want gory details, but basically acetaminophen triggered a series of events that resulted in my dad's death. A little over a year ago he was taking 3-4 G / day, unbeknownst to me. He thought it was his back problem rearing up, but it turned out to be tumor. I got him treatment for that, but part of the treatment was dexamethasone, which helped amazingly with the pain- it was gone. But it may have suppressed dad's immune system too much, such that shortly afterward he contracted a pneumonia that the hospital couldn't isolate until 6 weeks later. By that point poor dad was greatly damaged systemically, and only lived about 3 more months.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday September 10 2020, @06:12PM (2 children)
My God, that's awful :( I'm so sorry you and he went through that...
I personally feel safer with aspirin than ibuprofen, but that's because I've actually had a rogue blood clot once and would prefer not to up the chances of it happening again. The rule seems to be that acetaminophen can be combined with either aspirin or NSAIDs, but that NSAIDs and aspirin is a bad combination and will reduce aspirin's potential cardiovascular-protective effects.
And yes, over 4 grams (so they say...) of acetaminophen a day can cause severe liver damage. I'm super-paranoid and never go over even half that. Dexamethasone does indeed depress the immune system. I have to wonder if the combination of high APA dosing, dexamethasone, and cancer all together is what lead to this. Hope you've recovered from the grief sufficiently...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday September 11 2020, @02:16AM (1 child)
Thank you, sincerely. No, not over the grief at all. So many unsaid things, trips not taken, wisdom and knowledge lost. It was all fairly sudden.
A backstory is that he had had some kind of back injury- I was never sure what- early 1990s- herniated disk somewhere around L4 and had some surgery on it. I wasn't aware of it bothering him, but he wasn't the type to tell you unless you asked, and you wouldn't normally ask unless you noticed something.
Beginning of 2012 he had presented with great upper back / neck pain and high BP when he was normal low. They found an upper spine tumor (T4 iirc) and some but quite small lung neoplasm. Moderate radiation took care of the spine issue, and a particularly good hematologist / oncologist did some very mild chemo- no apparent reactions. He ended up in a wheelchair for a year or so, but fully recovered and lived normally, driving, etc., fully independent, by 2014.
I wasn't aware but he had gone back to the same oncologist a couple of years ago and gotten pembrolizumab. Still living fully independently, at age 90, maybe April or May 2019 I noticed change in gait.
About the same time my sister was encouraging him to get some medical checks, and we started with a PET scan that showed really bad L5 (iirc) involvement, and a couple of lung lesions. Medical oncologist started him on pembrolizumab but she wanted to hold off on radiation for the L5. During this time dad was taking the 3-4 G acetaminophen. Dr. ordered MRI, which wannabe Dr. me got my hands on, was quite unhappy with what I saw, and got an immediate consult with an amazing super-focused radiation therapy place that immediately prescribed the dexa. IIRC it was 8mg / day? It gave him immediate relief, and off the acetaminophen, and within a few days they got him into 5 of the hyper-focused rad treatments. AFAIK they worked extremely well. He did a long slow taper off of the dexa. Toward the end of the dexa he ended up on the floor twice. Not hard, but still. Still driving, going to a PT (not sure if that was so good) and one day around July 20 he came back with fairly high fever, so I took him to ER, and was in hospitals and SNF until he passed away in November.
A critical part of the story is that when he was first in the hospital July 2019 they knew he had some kind of pneumonia. They had eliminated viral, but weren't sure if it was bacterial or fungal. They wanted to do bronchoscopy, but my sister blocked them from doing it. They started all kinds of antibiotics, then anti-fungals, weren't done treating, but my sister pressured them (she raged at me saying that at the time) to send him to SNF because "he wasn't getting any PT", which might have been very bad for him. He spent a full month of August 2019 coughing and coughing at SNF until he had a major pulmonary event and they sent him back to ER. His lungs were so full of fluid- we've all heard deep rumbling coughs, I had never heard gurgling bubbling underwater-sounding coughs before. He was in ICU and a pulmonary therapist must have overheard hospital staff talking to my sister and he just went in a suctioned out more than 1/2 liter (might have been close to a liter) of fluid, which they analysed, isolated the bacteria (maybe 2) and treated. Coughing all but went away within a couple of days. But, his lungs were very messed up. One afternoon they said he wouldn't live through the night. Well, he lived another 2 months. I'm really not sure what killed him, but I have a very strong opinion that too too much O2 was being given. He had all the symptoms of oxygen toxicity.
I feel badly for the medical world in the USA. Lawsuits and courts have decimated an otherwise amazing system. We constantly heard "we don't want to make him worse", rather than them trying to treat and heal him. If my sister wasn't involved, I'm quite sure he would still be very alive today. 1 week before he ended up passing away his head doctor (oncologist) said to me "we wanted to do the bronchoscopy in July but your sister blocked us."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 12 2020, @03:34AM
I'm so, so sorry. :(
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 11 2020, @01:25AM (2 children)
Long story short, I'm suddenly a bleeder. After six decades of relatively careless life, I'm suddenly in danger of bleeding to death from a minor cut or scrape. Needless to say, I've invested in gauze, tape, and those stretchy/clingy wraps. 'Zumi covered the issue with better detail than I could have. ;^)
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday September 11 2020, @01:36AM (1 child)
Wow, that's awful. I work with my hands a lot, wear shorts a lot, get cuts and scratches everywhere, but I don't bleed much at all, even with the aspirin. Maybe that's why the doc told me to take them- without them my blood would be too thick? There are meds for the bleeding. I hope you don't have a more serious blood disorder. Have you been to a good hematologist? I assume so...
'Zumi's gold. I vote her Surgeon General! I sincerely hope she pursues med school. I wish I had.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 11 2020, @03:11AM
Actually, the prescriptions thin the blood, and the ibuprofen thinned the blood even more. I'm stuck with the meds for the foreseeable future. It was easy enough to swear off of Ibuprofen, but the meds are here to stay.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by legont on Friday September 11 2020, @02:10AM (1 child)
It's related to other drugs I take I believe. My doctor told me this a decade ago and I did check it then and safely forgot. Perhaps I should have to research it again, but see, I don't trust modern science any more. I believe it's an extension of politics and finance and as such has questionable relations to the reality.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday September 11 2020, @02:31AM
Your sig is right in line with the problem. You could/should do some research. We have a resident pharmacological genius who might shed some light for you if you bring her some well-deserved goodies and treats of her choosing. :)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Thursday September 10 2020, @02:35PM
To be honest, my favorite pain-reliever, if at all possible, is *nothing*. Pain is a signal from your body to not do certain things, and the right answer if you can manage it is to not do those things. I get that sometimes that's not an option, but for, say, headaches, my goal isn't to dull the pain but to make sure I get as much rest as I can and drink plenty of fluids, and use the pain as a gauge for how well I'm doing.
That doesn't mean I'll never use them, but I'm unlikely to dip into the supply without a very good reason.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2, Informative) by oumuamua on Thursday September 10 2020, @02:40PM
You should keep acetaminophen on emergency supply to prevent kidney failure:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527464-300-headache-pill-could-save-earthquake-crush-victims/ [newscientist.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 10 2020, @10:06PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracetamol#Liver_damage [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by legont on Saturday September 12 2020, @03:49AM
Actually, the wonder drug was produced in Soviet block and contained: Metamizole, Paracetamol, Caffeine, Phenobarbital, Codeine.
It would stop any pain and bring dead bodies up with no serious dependencies or side effects. Highly recommended for emergencies especially migraines and severe outdoor situations. Not available any more without certain troubles.
I do carry Tylenol #3, which covers Paracetamol and Codeine, with me when hiking, along with Caffeine. Two are missing, unfortunately. Have to take along opiates, which are way worse.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.