Tylenol Can Destroy Your Liver

This is a continuation of an ongoing stream of articles on our health care system and the causes of out of control costs part of which are due to an over reliance on prescription and non-prescription drugs and part of which are the product of the consumption of highly advertised, great tasting but nutritionally deprived foods. The following comment was left by Frank Thomas on Robert Reich's blog.

Frank Thomas said:

In this regard, America seems to be a casual, quick slicking pill of all kinds and a welcoming over-prescribed medicines obsessed society. This compulsive cultural behavior in combination with nutritional bad habits, in excess of course, contributes to reducing or neutralizing the body´s natural immunity system´s development during our 30s, 40s and 50s ... just when a strengthened immunity system is most needed when it naturaly starts to decline in our 65s, 70s
and 80s.

I left the following comments here and here:

One of the aspects of increased health care costs is the veritable barrage of TV and magazine advertising for prescription drugs. This not only raises the cost of those drugs, but creates a culture where every problem seemingly can be solved by taking a pill. America is a culture of prescription and non-prescription drug addicts. Every malady or discomfort, we are told, can be cured by taking a pill.

The dirty little secret is that for every pill taken there are side effects. It has just come to light that the painkiller acetamenophen found in Tylenol and other medicines can cause liver damage even deaths in otherwise healthy individuals because of its destructive effects on the liver. So does it not stand to reason that, even in moderate doses, this drug is not doing any good for the liver? The cumulative effects over time can cause the type of problems in old age that Frank suggests.

With Mother Nature you don't get something for nothing. The cumulative effects of ingesting drugs and food laced with preservatives and other toxic substances leads to failure of various organs if not catastophically when young, then gradually as we age. The liver's function is to get rid of toxic substances. Obviously, as far as the liver is concerned, acetaminophen is a toxic substance. So while Tylenol relieves pain, it overloads the liver which has enough to do to get rid of toxic substances without the added burden of getting rid of acetaminophen. This is what Frank is talking about as far as "compromising the immune system." Compromising the various organs whose task is to eliminate toxic substances is the price paid by pain relief as well as the price to be paid for various other drugs and pharmaceuticals which serve no other purpose than pain relief or lifestyle enhancement. I include Viagra, Levitra and Cialis in this category. Short term enhancement is paid for by eventual breakdown of organs which have to deal with the elimination of toxic substances. This leads to an increased burden and cost on the health care system for people in the last stages of life.

The subsidization of corn products by the government leads directly to the subsidization of fast foods in terms of corn fed beef and high fructose corn syrup which are directly responsible for obesity. The proper combination of sugar, fat and salt in order to get people hooked on processed food products is something that is calculated in food giant chemical labs and even put in place in baby food products. Hooking people on fat, salt and sugar is something that food processors and in particular fast food giants pursue with a vengeance. This in combination with advertising encourages people to not consider the nutritional value of what they're consuming but only the taste value. To jack up the taste content of food products a whole host of unnatural substances are added. Read the contents on any label. This consumption of highly advertised, great tasting foods is largely responsible for much of the added burden to our health care system due to the results it engenders in terms of obesity and health problems related to obesity.

These additional health problems from consuming great tasting but nutritionally impoverished foods, we are told, can be alleviated by consuming prescription and over the counter drugs. So the health care industry and the food industry (particularly fast foods) are essentially in cahoots in producing a country of over medicated and nutritionally deprived people and overly emburdening the health care system which drives up costs.

The educational system is a total farce as it has produced a people who are financially and nutritionally illiterate among other forms of illiteracy. They are taught American history which is a fantasy, and they are not taught anything which might be critical of the large corporations and their hold on the power structure of Washington. We are just pawns of the large corporations whose goal is to turn the middle class into a nation of debtors, docile and complacent consumers of fast food and prescription drug garbage and health care system dependents.

Comments

[Ken]

With the exception of the new White House vegetable garden, President Obama has not been setting very good examples with his visits to burger joints and his laxity on school lunch program reform. A healthy nonviolent vegan diet has demonstrated substantial health and environmental benefits over the way Americans typically eat.

[Ken]

With the exception of the new White House vegetable garden, President Obama has not been setting very good examples with his visits to burger joints and his laxity on school lunch program reform. A healthy nonviolent vegan diet has demonstrated substantial health and environmental benefits over the way Americans typically eat.