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Comment by astrange | Hacker News Reader

They are very safe when taken as prescribed but quite dangerous when you don't read the directions.

Although IIRC taking fever reducers when sick significantly increases how long it takes to recover. Those fevers are there for a reason.

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The problem with acetaminophen is that the dangerous dose is not much higher than the recommended dose for a subset of the population. There are people who can die if they only take a few extra... and since it has a reputation as a safe drug, people don't think twice about taking extra.

This is so strange to me. I would never in a million years go beyond the recommended dosage without consulting a doctor. But I now realize that's just me, and if we can offer safer drugs that won't be as harmful if people exceed the dosage, so much the better.

> taking fever reducers when sick significantly increases how long it takes to recover

I’ve also heard this, and always wondered whether it was true or a myth. I really have no idea. Any chance you have a reputable source?

Searching for "antipyretic prolong pubmed" turns up some good trailheads. Seems like consensus is that fever is likely beneficial and routine suppression is probably not supported by evidence. There's conflicting data on whether suppressing fever delays recovery.

A few jumping off points:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23664629/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4703655/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20920066/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11130213/

Would you turn off your CPU fan when it spins to 100% from opening ${electron app} just because the sound was annoying?

Suppressing the fever is more like significantly undervolting your CPU because the heat output of your gaming computer makes your room uncomfortably warm. Sure your room isn't too hot anymore, but the CPU needed that power to do useful work, and it's possible it won't be able to keep up with what you need anymore.

I guess theres always a caveat, but fevers can get too high and go for too long, in which case reducing the fever might be a good idea. But if it gets to that point, you should be working with a doctor to make those decisions.

This is a misnomer though. Your body will not make the fever too high in the case of fighting a virus, so danger is low. From an evolutionary standpoint this would make no sense. For a bacterial infection I think the chance of going to the danger zone is higher though.

Typically it's better to just let the fever ride when you have a virus, unless it's making you you so uncomfortable you can't rest/sleep.

Well, brain damage may not be a detriment to some.

Btw, "misnomer" doesn't mean what you think it means.

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