Acetaminophen
Acetaminophen is an analgesic and antipyretic medication that reduces fever and pain by preventing the body from making prostaglandin, a chemical that normally causes inflammation. It works on the hypothalamus to lower fever.
This drug, acetaminophen, can block pain that impulses within the central nervous system and alleviates pain. It reduces pain by preventing the body's natural chemical prostaglandin, which causes inflammation, from being produced. Tylenol, containing acetaminophen can be used to relieve various types of pain; headaches, menstrual periods, toothaches, backaches, osteoarthritis, flu aches, muscle aches, and arthritis
Acetaminophen is made by the chemical structure of C8H9NO2.
Hypothalamus is a structure deep inside your brain. Its major job is to maintain homeostasis, a constant state of equilibrium in the body. It carries out its function by controlling hormones or by directly affecting your autonomic nervous system. Acetaminophen works in this part of the brain to reduce river and aches.
Overdose of Acetaminophen
Taking Acetaminophen for too long or overdosing enables the liver to filter toxins properly which builds up and causes liver disease or damage. Adults and teens who weigh at least 50 kg should take less than 1000 mg at once or more than 4000 mg in 24 hours. Children younger than 12 years old should take 5 doses in 24 hours. Moreover, you should not take acetaminophen over 10 days.
When taking acetaminophen, you should not have cirrhosis, take vitamins, or herbal products or be drunk. Cirrhosis is a long-term scarring of the liver. It is caused by repeated damage to the liver over time. The damage is mostly by drugs or other chemicals. Scar starts to replace the healthy liver and this scar tissue blocks the liver from working properly.
Some signals of overdose are loss of appetite, stomach pain, sweating, confusion, weakness, yellowing skin, whites of eyes, fainting and etc.
NSAIDs
Many drugs that reduce fever and relieve pain are categorized as NSAIDs. NSAID stands for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. However, acetaminophen, Tylenol, is not categorized as NSAID. Acetaminophen is antipyretic and analgesic but is not an anti-inflammatory and anticoagulatory drug therefore not categorized as one of the NSAID drugs. Antipyretic is a type of drug that lowers body temperature, anti-inflammatory is a substance that reduces inflammation or swelling and anticoagulatory is blood thinners, a substance that reduces blood from coagulating.
Aspirin pain reliever, acetylsalicylic acid, is a Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drudge to reduce pain, fever, and inflammation and is antithrombotic or in other words, a drug used to reduce the formation of blood clots.
Acetaminophen Level Test
First, you would remove blood through a vein in the arm and your blood sample will be handed over to the laboratory to examine blood to see levels of acetaminophen. In the lab, they put sample blood in the drug-level testing device ADEXUSDx Acetaminophen Test.
Various results in this test mean different things. If less than 150 mcg/L after 4 hours of taking the medicine, liver damage is low. If over 200 mcg/L after 4 hours of taking the medication, your liver risk is very high. If over 50 mcg/L after 12 hours of having acetaminophen, it shows that there is a high possibility that you’ve been exposed to liver damage. The normal level is considered between 10~20mcg/L result of the test.
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