Hands off my Excedrin!

Here we go again.  First, the FDA decided that parents can’t be trusted with decongestants for their children.

Now adults can’t be trusted with Tylenol.  Some people have taken too much acetaminophen because they don’t read the packaging and the inserts from their medicines.  If you take one medicine containing a drug, you shouldn’t take another medicine containing the same drug.  Duh.  Don’t take an all-in-one cold medicine and a pain reliever and a decongestant.  It’s either the multi-purpose pill or a selection of single drugs; don’t take both.

So, because some people don’t follow directions, all of us might be unable to purchase products containing acetaminophen in combination.  This could include Excedrin which is a proven anti-migraine medication.  The FDA is also suggesting banning Vicodin and Percoset which are widely used for relief of severe pain.  If the alternative worked as well, wouldn’t it be used already?

If everyone would just read the labels and adhere to the dosing schedules detailed on the packaging, all of us could keep our helpful meds while reducing accidental overdoses.  Could you try that?  Please?

Maybe I should add a giant bottle of Excedrin to my cold medicine stash.  What’s next?  Triple anti-biotic cream?  Watch out Neosporin!