Tylenol vs. Ibuprofen: A Liver Doctor’s Take 

Me neither, and I have no idea why. My mom is the same way

Taken from another comment: "As i understand it ibuprofen is therapeutic, meaning it can help reduce inflammation that causes pain, whereas Tylenol is simply palliative, has no therapeutic action like reducing inflammation but only works by blocking pain signals. This may explain why ibuprofen often works when Tylenol doesn't. Ibu works to reduce what causes pain, Tylenol only blocks pain signals but doesn't make anything better."

Before Tylenol came out when I was still a kid I can tell you that aspirin never worked for me and it was also sometimes more of a problem than anything else because it used to bother my stomach a lot, it was thought that when Tylenol came out that people like me who had problems with Aspirin would find Tylenol and it would or better than playing aspirin and would in fact be better for pain relief for me but it never did never worked but then again a lot of things don't work for me most pain relievers don't work at all for me at 4 works mostly for reducing swelling not really so much for pain relief but it's better than if they say nothing, unless you consider the fact that I'm always in pain and have been for most of my life in which case you understand why I avoid taking any painkillers at all and just live with the pain for the most part. And there's also the fact that anesthetics don't seem to work at all for me either. The amount of times that I had friends who took marijuana and even gave me some and it didn't work and I just used to wish it wouldjust so I could be without pain for a little while I can tell you that it didn't work and it has never worked in fact I've never understood how so many people could get high on it I just I didn't understand it as a teenager and I still don't understand why it is that apparently I don't respond to any form of anesthesia, or any kind of aesthetic that most people have fun with I'm talking the legal stuff as well like you know getting drunk some people can get drunk I can't. So you are not alone when you say that Tylenol has no effect you're right the majority of people in my family are that way it has no effect.

I prefer m & m’s to Tylenol. They work just as well, but taste better!

@@dougberrett8094 That’s basically what my mom says. “I could drink a glass of water and it would have the same effect!” Though hydrating could help with pain too, depending

Got diagnosed with a DVT and put on a blood thinner...no one told me to avoid NSAIDs. I literally have a prescription for two different NSAIDs so the pharmacist knew I was taking NSAIDs.

Yipes!

Yep, so many docs do not say what they mean. I had a doctor tell me to stop drinking coffee. Which was impossible, because you can't stop doing something you don't do, but he actually meant caffeine. Which I don't do because it annoys my migraine. But I could totally see someone who was having problems from drinking coffee due to caffeine switching to energy drinks.

Yes, doctors often feel the need to dumb things down to the level that they're giving confusing or false information which ultimately can cause a lot of damage, all for the greater purpose of saving time and effort for themselves

@@limiv5272"dumbing things down" doesn't save them any time. it takes time to try to explain things to people that aren't educated on the matter and all doctors do that. naturally, though, thorough explanations can take time, so they take shortcuts, which can lead to issues

Classic trick from a movie too!

😂😂😂

Hehehe, my father used to tease my mother by saying that was how pharmacists would diagnose diabetes as well. My mother was a pharmacist.

Oooh that's mean!😂

That was a very ancient way of diagnosing it, but also back then the only real treatment was a near starvation diet

Thanks for sharing that! How about ibuprofen?

@@alexp2915 It’s a little less toxic, but still dangerous. It has such a narrow margin of safety, even a small overdose can cause serious symptoms in dogs. The only human NSAID that’s safe for dogs is meloxicam, but that has to be used carefully, too. Cats are a whole different ball game. NSAIDS are just not well-tolerated. Even a few consecutive doses can put a cat into liver or kidney failure. Same goes for ferrets. (Edited to add) And yet, meloxicam is well-tolerated by rabbits and Guinea Pigs. We use it all the time on those guys. Vet Med is crazy like that sometimes.

Thank God I'm not a dog or cat. I have spinal stenosis that my neurosurgeon wants to do surgery on. Just waiting to get through physical therapy because if insurance. I've had it for years and then this past February was in a car accident that wasn't my fault. I was wearing seat belts. I'm greatful for them, but a car cut a left turn in front of me on a highway and I couldn't stop in time throwing my entire body forward. My pain is worse now. I went by ambulance to the ER where they did a full body scan. Now I can barely walk around or lay down to sleep without taking Tylenol. The doctor has put me on less than 4,000 mg in a 24 hr period. I'm very careful to keep it around 3,500 in 24 hours, but I don't want to keep taking it at this level. It does help. I have one kidney because I donated my left kidney to my son in 2001. The nephrolgist told me no ibuprofen ever. I stretch my doses out 10 hrs or more. I hope I don't end up damaging my liver.

@@DH-gk8vh I hope not, too. 3500 mg every 24 hours would scare me; but, then again, that’s mostly because I see what it does in animals, so I tend to stay away from it. I hope you get better soon!

Well, we're not talking about cats, right? Also, what's a raw onion do to a dog? My grandpa used to eat them like apples.

That's one of the sadder sides of Tylenol abuse, by the time the damage is done often times the person has already calmed down and is thinking more clearly but it's too late

If you allow your self to become hysterical, this will happen.. more people are killed by emotional reactions then anything else!

She was 14. Expecting someone of that age to govern their emotions is unrealistic.

@@kathleenstoin671 you have just grown unrealistic. I did, and I have see teenage girls do it too. Responsible parents produce rational children.

@@Number6_ Oh, if only. It's just not that simple! At my age of 78, I've seen many examples of children of good parents who acted irrationally. And vice versa. There are no guarantees when bringing up children. We do our best as parents, and we hope for the best.

May I ask, what did he prescribe? I have McCune-Albright Syndrome and I could use a change myself.

I live with chronic pain and because of the crackdown on controlled pain medications I had to stop taking everything…. Frustrating can’t find a doc who can or wants to help so I just live in a constant state of pain.

@@George-sc3wo Yeah, it sucks. There are only a few doctors who are allowed to prescribe it, and they get a printout FROM THE DEA every month showing how many people they prescribed it to, and the amount. One month they go a little over the limit and they can be cut off from prescribing it. Just to keep 'em overcautious, because who wants to go to jail just for taking someone's pain seriously? Also, apparently vicodin/norco have been linked to increased suicidality, and they can get blamed for that, too. I take 2400mg ibuprofen and 1000mg tylenol per day. And that just keeps my pain down to a "dull roar." Without it, I wouldn't be able to function. With it, I'm risking both my liver and kidneys. I've been referred to a "pain clinic" where they do things I've already done for years (PT, meditation, psychology. But I'm trying to get back surgery for the now severe arthritic changes in L5-S1 causing spinal stenosis. Like, I can't even walk for 5 minutes. I can't sit for more than 15 minutes. I can't stand more than 10 minutes. My length of sleep is determined by when my back pain wakes me up. And now the spine doctor, after making me get a bunch of tests is saying he doesn't even want to send me to an MD (anaesthesiologist) on the other side of the pain clinic. He's pushing back and saying "Cortisone only works for a few weeks," and "What pain do you think your back is causing?" B*tch, I already told you!! But that's just the start of it, so maybe some of the other things caused by hEDS can be helped by the sort-of pain clinic.

This is a time-honored practice called denaturing. You can see it in its original habitat at the hardware store, where you buy a can of fuel alcohol and it's "denatured." This is ethyl alcohol, the same stuff as in 151 rum, but the "denatured" part means that it has been mixed with just enough wood alcohol to poison you if you ingest it. The purpose of denaturing nearly all opioid pain meds with Tylenol is quite simple, it's to kill you if you abuse the opioid, because we all know that's an absolutely fair and just punishment for violating drug laws. If it had any other purpose you would see rows of opioids mixed with other non opioid pain meds like ibuprofen. It is, after all, cheap enough to supply a bottle of Tylenol along with whatever prescription you really need.

As someone with really shitty teeth and way too much dental work, in my experience ibuprofen works a lot better for toothaches cause of it's anti-inflammatory properties. Two extra strength ought to do the trick.

​​@@st.haborym Seconding: I got prescribed 800mg ibuprofen pills alongside the antibiotic treatment when I had a tooth abscess with severe pain. It worked great. Also, I used to rotate between aspirin, ibuprofen, and paracetamol (tylenol iirc) for my severe period pains back when I had them (rotate so I could take more painkillers within the same 24 h than just the max dose of one type) because otherwise I wasn't able to function the first two days of my period. Ibuprofen worked the best. Naproxen felt like a less strong but more long lasting ibuprofen. So that wasn't useful to take instead of ibuprofen for me, since I needed maximum pain relief. Once, diclofenac gave relief for the extreme pain of a sinus infection none of my three usuals touched. I rarely have to take pain killers these days in comparison to the past, when I do it's ibuprofen for headache or similar pain, or sumatripran for migraines.

It's because nsaids are older while Tylenol is newer - and the toxic level is way way way less than ibuprofen or other nsaids for otherwise healthy people. So to many people, it's not as dangerous as it is.

@@komikbookgeek Tylenol as you americans call it, is just paracetamol, which was available in the US from 1960. Ibuprofen for example, available in the US from 1974. These substances where synthesized much earlier ( still, paracetamol was known earlier than NSAIDs) . Paracetamol/acetaminophen is metabolized by the liver and forms a toxic metabolite known as NAPQI which is responsible for liver toxicity. NSAID's are metabolized by the liver aswell , like most of the drugs are , but they DO NOT form toxic metabolites. They do however cause damage to kidneys when overdosed (as literally anything) . Don't spread false information about medication when you clearly have no idea what are you talking about

When a weak analgesic like Tylenol does not work, you don't increase the dosage multiple times. You change the active substance and switch to more potent analgesic like Naproxen, Nimesulide, Diclofenac or Tramadol. Morphine is total overkill.

You can slow down the speed if you need to-Just click on the gear in the upper right corner of the video…you’ll find the control there.

@@archibaldy1929 thanks

​@@archibaldy1929 Yes! There are a few channels on RU-vid that I do this for, it's very helpful.

This was quick. (Nice!) So there's time enough to listen more than once...if it's important to you.

@mrcryptozoic817 my comment said, "Great information" and that I listened to it several times. Thanks.

I’m a retired respiratory therapist and I’ve seen similar situations. Dying from liver failure is not a good way to go! People think Tylenol is benign, when it’s not.

It's a go-to for kids attempting suicide; in the psych ward (as a teenage patient multiple times) it was a common anecdote from fellow patients

No, it's obviously because he's a member of the Fellowship of the Liver. I wonder which volcano they're taking it to

Well, as long as he's not secretly a cannibal. 😉

Excellent comment.

Please look into Whole Food Plant Based Nutrition, and Dr. Neal Barnard's book "Your body in balance"!

Please get help

Of course! Some people just DON'T GET IT!! Thank you for explaining the differences and what can male your medical issues worse!! ❤❤ Doctor Schmidt❤❤❤❤

That's the bear of it, balancing insult vs therapeutic effects. In general, drugs basically come in two flavors, kidney insulting or liver insulting, to super-Goober things by a lot. Balancing things out, hell, I know of physicians that call specialists just for that, things can get that tangled. And when one wants to let doctor know they're in for some fun, one need only mention the cytochrome P450 enzyme systems... ;) Something higher levels in the liver, but ubiquitous, as it's pretty much mandatory for survival.

WHY DOES AN ER NURSE NOT ALLREADY KNOW THIS?!?!?!

​@@Ranstone😂

@@Ranstone LMAO it is the practice of medicine smartass.....and smart people are aware of what they don't know and appreciate continual learning. Idiots never lose an opportunity to sound smart at the expense of others even though they are idiots

I've been a light drinker, start drinking when it's light. Went for routine blood test recently but the sample evaporated..

George Burns smoked for 90 years and never got lung cancer.

My father was a heavy and daily drinker for a good 70 years and it hasn't killed him. His liver and kidney function were impaired, yet after 5 years in a nursing home with no booze, his organ function has improved and that tough old bird is still kicking at 92.

I have that same story with ibuprofen and usually choose aspirin. It's very individual with medicine.

@kimr3755 Interesting since Tylenol works better for me than any of the others.

Dengue is awful, sorry you're going through that!

Oh yes I’d be interested

Aspirin is an NSAID. Sorry you are going through this!!

@@nancydemarco7421 It is and IIRC, the main issues with aspirin have to do with what it does to the stomach and it's tendency to reduce the blood's ability to clot. But, at least it works to reduce fevers and kill pain.

Aspirin is another good example of a "safe" drug that can quickly become dangerous, especially in kids

I worked in an ER in the eighties ....teenagers were committing suicide with Tylenol ......taking a huge dose to produce liver failure and permanent coma or brain death ....count me out 😮

@@kingofthedots3835 Tylenol is particularly egregious as there's little science to back it addressing any sort of pain. IIRC, it can be useful for children in reducing fever, but there isn't really any reason to take it as a pain reliever as the science just isn't there.

Tylenol does nothing for me either. I dislocated my wrist and was in a cast. My hand and fingers were swollen badly. They told me to take Tylenol for the pain, so yook some, nothing. I took ibuprofen for the inflammation, which was causing the pain!!!

Tylenol doesn't work for me either. Never has. Ibuprofen is a miracle drug.

I agree! Tylenol has never worked for me. I started taking Ibuprofen when my gynecologist told me to take it instead of aspirinfor cramps. I consider it a wonder drug.

Tylenol works good as a fever reducer for me, it does absolutely nothing for pain, never has. I always wondered why people even took it. 🤔🤓🍻

Studies have repeatedly shown it really doesn't work for a lot of kinds of pain, you're not alone. It does reduce fever, though.

​@@dianeviviana9830I'm the same way. The first time I took ibuprofen for my cramps I was sold. I couldn't believe how effective it was. I used to take midol or pamprin for cramps to no avail. Basically one was asprin with a diuretic and the other was Tylenol with a diuretic. Both were equally useless.

Why not alternate the meds? What this doctor forget to say that his video is for patients that have chronic pain not acute.

This is a science fact.

Geez, that’s tough, I hope he gets some relief

Doctors went from prescribing enough opioids to kill an army, to prescribing suckitup and take an aspirin. Liability is the main reason.

This is why oxycodone is useful - it doesn’t affect either organ. The only down side is, you want to make sure that you don’t have an addictive gene, and you also make sure you stick to the label, never taking more. A little goes a long way!

There's a problem with medical professionals not taking pain seriously. It's definitely a liability concern, I get that, but if a person's pain is affecting their functionality, maybe they actually do need the meds??

@@safaiaryu12 It's turned into a moral panic. I'm lucky that I only need Norco to handle breakthrough pain so my doctor is still willing to prescribe it to me. I have a follow-up colonoscopy next month to find out if the damage to my stomach lining from too much ibuprofen has healed, so I have to be careful about that too. There's research that shows that one of the causes of chronic pain is untreated or undertreated acute pain.

I swear he just said Tylenol was worse for kidneys

@@M_SC Sounds like you should rewatch the video

​@@M_SCListen to what he says at 1:50

When I was first diagnosed with end-stage liver disease, that was one of the first things I was told. Tylenol only. I’m 10 years post-transplant as of yesterday (and after the kidney damage caused by my liver failure) and it’s even more true now.

@@mirandacoulter888 Whoo hoo! 10 years! Congrats! I'm blessed to be 14 years post transplant. I'm right there with you on the kidney damage but I'm so happy to still be above ground!

Maybe

Oh my gosh. I hadn't noticed. There is nothing else in the world that looks like except a sample cup. Green lid and everything. I peed in one of those two days ago.

Let's just say its organic fertilizer for his garden.

😂

😂😂😂

Perhaps the lesser of two evils?

Yeah, that's pretty common now. It's kind of a double-edged sword... yes, Tylenol and ibuprofen in combination can effectively treat pain, and they're not addictive, but there are other consequences. I assume with your medical history, you're getting your blood checked for liver and kidney health, so this is probably the best you can do. From a fellow chronic pain patient, I'm sorry and stay safe. 🫤

Yes, I know you can take an NDAID and Tylenol together. If I have bad pain I do that, but not too often.

Likewise for me. The only thing acetaminophen works on for me is fever reduction, and I would rather take aspirin for that.

Same here. Two extra strength Tylenol equals one standard aspirin tablet for me. If my muscles are complaining after a hard workout I'll take an ibuprofen. That seems to work better than aspirin in that specific case.

Huh. Lots of people report that. But it's the opposite for me.

I believe It has something to do with heart and blood pressure and Meloxicam vs Ibuprofen

Senna like that dangerous "dieting" tea?? Just get more water and fiber into your diet, fiber without more water will just make constipation worse. Psyllium husk / metamucil is a classic. Edit: Some benefit from a little more healthy oils in their diet too for both better health and better poops.

Soluble fiber is the key. It turns into a gel that lubricates your colon. I eat peas every day, though almost any legume will do.

Stick to Whole Food Plant Based Nutrition!

Eat prunes. If that doesn't work, get some Mexican food from a street cart. Natural methods only.

Yep, so many people don't know the drug name for meds they take. It's kinda scary. I had someone tell me ibuprofen is useless and I should be taking Motrin, and then called me a slur when I said that's the same thing.

One interesting point on Ibuprofen. There are 11 distinct molecular varieties and 3 of them work slightly differently. Discovered this by accident after buying Ibuprofen and a ski resort and it felt really different for the same dosage than Kirkland brand i usually used. Plus Ibuprofen is affected by the binders with different binders letting it hit your system at different rates.

Liver nurse?

They both are different medications and work differently in the body

@@philbenson6041and harm different parts of the body if too much is taken

Better off with small doses of your oxy

I move up to Excedrin which does seem to work.

Similar experience. I had acute appendicitis and 1000mg of tylenol alone brought the pain down to nearly zero.

There is a local (to Australia) brand of ibuprofen that has 500mg of paracetamol already in the tablet, that's generally the strongest over the counter painkiller here. I normally avoid ibuprofen (I'm hypertensive) but my doc told me that if I keep to the dosage limits, for a short time, I should have some (following some surgery on my thumb, somehow got a wart growing under the nail and had to have said nail half removed).

Yep. Well I don't specifically avoid it, but due to chronic pain very often by the time pain is bothering me OTC meds won't help most of the time. So I just don't take it much.

I never thought about that being an option. Thankfully I don't need this info yet, but who knows, I could in the future. Thanks!

​@@Just_SaraI am NOT a medical professional, just another chronic pain patient - but yes, this can be effective. I think the best way to do it is to do a couple hours between meds. So like, take Tylenol, wait two hours, take ibuprofen, wait two hours, take Tylenol... repeat. Obviously the longer you can stretch between doses, the better, BUT if you let the pain get too bad, it can be harder to get it under control.

I do that when I get a migraine.

Ive been taking ibuprofen nearly every day for about 15 years

Get your daily dose of Vitamin I

seemingly always in giant 800mg tablets

800mg and return to duty!

@@johnsyler8580don’t forget the monster energy drink

Generally, doses less than 2g per day in healthy patients does not cause acute damage. That's not to say it can't, nor that it doesn't cause cumulative damage: it does. However, taking 2 500mg tylenol pills for a migraine is not going to immediately do your liver in. Taking it every day, or taking more than 2g per day can. It's a lot like drinking alcohol in that way.

I'm not sure exactly what the studies say about this, but acetaminophen (Tylenol) helps me the most for head pain if taken early with early signs. I have migraines regularly, so if I take it early enough I can stop them from disabling me. If I take it too late, it won't matter. Ibuprofen helps me the most with anything associated with inflammation, i.e. joint pain, muscle issues and period related pain. Similarly, the earlier I take it, the more effective it is, so if I know I'm going to be getting my period, I'll take it before the cramps get really bad. If I take it later, I feel less effectiveness and I have to end up taking a higher dose. Something like aspirin helps me more with nerve pain, and naproxen (Aleve) helps me the most with chronic injury type pains. And it is safe to take acetaminophen (at normal dose) with ibuprofen (at normal dose), which I have done on multiple occasions but I don't do it regularly. Something else I've heard is that name brand can be more effective. I used to think it was BS but learned that the filler ingredients sometimes have a purpose for delivery method, can effect delivery method and absorption or people can have reactions to those ingredients. Since the non medically significant ingredients don't need to be regulated like the main active ingredients do, it can vary a lot depending on the drug. I'm not a name brandist, but it's something worth considering. Of course do research about all of this. I have known how to take OTC meds mostly from my parents who are in the medical field, and generally know how to read labels, compare drugs and what is ok to mix or not mix but it's all tertiary information.

I'm surprised the ER doc tried to prescribe you ibuprofen while you were pregnant! 😮 I've always been told it's a no-go during pregnancy.

Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is an NSAID. It's not the same drug as ibuprofen, but it's in the same class of drugs with similar potential risks. "Aspirin" used to be a trademark for Bayer's version (just like "Heroin" was a trademark for Bayer's version of diamorphine), but over the years it became such a common term for acetylsalicylic acid that it lost trademark protection.

It can also be a Willow Bark Tea or Willow Bark extract. Be *careful* in that form. One lady was taking the equivalent of 75 aspirin per day. Aspirin can be helpful to thin the blood for people with cardiac risk. Aspirin has a different affect for me. It's better for headaches but not as good for general body aches.

Once I saw it, I can’t seem to take my eyes off it.

The packages come with a pamphlet, It has precise info about doses

All medicine comes with recommended dosages lol. If you have current issues then that's something to talk to your doctor about.

Meds tell you "do not take more than X amount in 24 hours" in the box. As for Tylenol, you can take 3000mg per day, definitely no more than 4000mg I believe.

I used to like taking Aleve because like you said it works. Now I have stage 3 kidney disease and Aleve will get me to kidney failure a lot faster! I can’t take any pain killers that work otc, I told my doctor I’m in constant pain and she told me to get used to it 🤬

@@ericnyysti1920sorry you have to go through this. Get another opinion

Yeah, it sucks having to take medication. I was taking Azathioprine for about 4 years. It wasn’t really fixing the problem it was supposed to and it caused all kinds of issues. It raised my Gamma Gt levels substantially. Then one day they just shot into orbit without alcohol, Ibuprofen or Tylenol. Fortunately, I was getting blood tests every month so they detected it and moved me onto something else. It took about a year and a half for my liver enzymes to return to normal.

Aspirin is also an NSAID like ibuprofen.

Talk to YOUR doctor.

Yeah, this isn't something to come to youtube or social media about, you need to speak to your doctor 100%.

I have but this info is changing all the time and my doctor is just a family doctor.

@@chantellenew2331 I know, you need a gastroenterologist for sure ! Who is treating your diverticulitis(gastro dr ?) Also, do you have issues with blood clotting ?(taking any blood thinners?)

@@chantellenew2331 Then ask for a referral. The general internet is literally one of the worst places to ask.

Because calling them by commonly known names is easier to understand, most people don't know their chemical names lol

@@TheVivi13 If people used the correct names, those names would quickly become commonly known. I'm not talking about chemical names. I'm talking about the standard names of the drugs. Like "ibuprofen" or "paracetamol" (or "acetaminophen" if you prefer - I don't know why that one has two names, which is unhelpful in itself). I'm not expecting anyone to call ibuprofen "isobutylphenylpropionic acid".

@@thomasdalton1508 Yea I know what you meant, most people don't really know those. They know them by their trade names. You are correct that if we called them only by their drug names then the brand names would be less confusing, but that's not the world we live in lol. If I tell my parents that I need ibuprofen, they have no idea wtf I'm talking about. Same with acetaminophen.

@@TheVivi13 It is the world we live in. It just isn't the country you live in. Other countries call drugs by their names. Not doing so allows drug companies to rip you off - Advil costs much more than generic ibuprofen despite being exactly the same thing, but you can't buy generic ibuprofen because you don't know that's what it's called.

@@thomasdalton1508 I mean I feel like a lot of countries use trade names for it, so no not really.

What bothers me is that the USA & Japan uses the word acetaminophen instead of Paracetamol 🙃

I bet Lasix vs spironolactone would bother you the same way! 😁

In the US, Tylenol has become a generic name but Advil hasn't, it's that simple. Much like Jello is generic for gelatin but Yoplait isn't for yogurt.

New grad?

What bothers me is that you are comfortable critiquing a Doctor, when you should be studying for the nclex rn. What would Florence Nightingale say?

I am a NYer and understand him fine.

Appreciate it!

Must be italian