I made a tongue-in-cheek reference to this on my MySpace blog, but, at the risk of repeating myself, I am going to reissue this warning to the if-a-little-is-good-more-is-better crowd.

Over the counter drugs are NOT benign.  Do NOT exceed the dose on the package even if you think you are so much of a man that you need more.  And acetominophen is NOT the “safer” alternative.

At the risk of having my ass sued, I am not going to name brand names, but I have never been one to jump on the acetominophen bandwagon.  At the dosage on the package, it is an effective analgesic.  It has the slight advantage of being more easily tolerated by the digestive tract, but it is not as effective of an anti-inflammatory as the anti-prostglandins (i.e. ibuprofen), it has almost NO antispasmodic activity, and it doesn’t have any of the healthy side-benefits of aspirin.  I cringe every time I have see somebody chase a hangover with a couple of acetominophen.  Your head may thank you, but your liver is screaming.  I am not saying it doesn’t have a place.  As OTC painkillers go, it’s pretty much THE option for those who need to avoid blood thinners.  But I think that place on the shelf is narrowing.

Stepping beyond my anti-T bias, however, there is this macho I’m-a-big-man-I-need-a-big-pill issue to address.  Not to attribute this soley to the estrogen-impaired gender, but there does seem to be a rather bimodal distribution of philosophies among the men I know when it comes to taking (non-recreational) drugs.  Either they won’t take so much as an aspirin for the pain if they broke their leg in three places, or they down six Extra Strength Advil with a swig of beer.

So, speaking not as a nagging member of the distaff side, but as an actual, bonafide, diploma-on-the-wall biochemist:

More.  Is.  Not.  Better.

 No matter how burly you think your constitution is or how “special” your pain receptors may seem to you, taking twice the recommended dose on the package does not kill the pain (or clear your nose) better or faster.  Really.  Scout’s honor.  I have seen the uptake profiles and done the math.  With few exceptions (and no, you are not one of the few, so don’t even go there), all “more” does is crap out your liver, short-circuit your central nervous system, and blow out your veins – if you are lucky.  During the time I was in grad school, TWO undergrads died of diphenhydramine (that’s the B-antihistamine to the generically-impaired) overdoses on my campus in less than a year.  Apparently the second kid missed the month of front-page headlines (small town) and warning pieces about the dangers of dose doubling.  If the drug ain’t working, you need a different drug, not more of the same-old same-old.

So, don’t do it.  Your best-case scenario is that you are throwing your money down the drain – and who needs to give the drug companies more money, anyway?  The worst case scenario is that you will throw your health down with it.