Don't mix paracetamol & alchohol
An NHS doctor has shared the dangerous reasons why you shouldn't take paracetamol to treat a hangover.
Discover our latest podcast
Dr Karan Rangarjan, a surgical doctor and lecturer at Sunderland University, regularly shares his knowledge on TikTok to educate people about medicine, expose myths and share secrets on doctors' lives in hospitals.
In a recent video, he revealed why you should never mix paracetamol and alcohol–as it could have dire consequences.
In the clip, that has been viewed almost one million times, Dr Rangarjan explains why it's so dangerous to take paracetamol while drinking alcohol.
Paracetamol is a common painkiller used to treat an array of symptoms, including headaches, migraines, fever, body aches and pains.
However, mixing the two substances could cause severe damage to liver cells.
The doctor explains that both paracetamol and alcohol produce 'toxic products' when broken down in the body.
The liver suffers
When taken together, the body may not be able to produce enough of a certain chemical called glutathione to neutralise the toxic compounds quickly enough–which could impact the liver.
The doctor said:
When you take paracetamol, it’s broken down by the body to various chemicals, one of these chemicals is a toxic compound that can damage liver cells.
To prevent this damage the liver produces glutathione to neutralise this toxic compound. Glutathione also neutralises acetaldehyde, the toxic breakdown products of alcohol.
If you mix paracetamol and alcohol, it’s just not enough glutathione to go round neutralising the toxic breakdown products alcohol and paracetamol.
Dr Karan recommends taking ibuprofen instead of paracetamol to treat hangover headaches.
Since being posted, the video has racked up more than 92,900 likes and comments from users saying they weren't aware of the issues – and many having taken both many times.
A third user wrote:
So me popping paras daily for my stress headaches and chasing them with wine to combat stress once a week is a bad idea. Who knew
Someone else put:
Oh god why hasn’t anyone said this before, surprised my liver still works.
