So, for many years, if I needed a painkiller, I’d try to take ibuprofen rather than acetaminophen. My logic was that if eight grams of acetaminophen could kill my liver, then one gram was probably still hard on it. I’m fond of my liver and didn't want to cause it any unnecessary inconvenience.

But guess what? My logic was wrong and what I was doing was stupid. I’m now convinced that for most people in most circumstances, acetaminophen is safer than ibuprofen, provided you use it as directed. I think most doctors agree with this. In fact, I think many doctors think it’s obvious. (Source: I asked some doctors; they said it was obvious.)

Should this have been obvious to me? I figured it out by obsessively researching how those drugs work and making up a story about metabolic pathways and blood flow, and amino acid reserves. It’s a good story, one that revealed that my logic stemmed from an egregious lack of respect for biology and that I’m a big dummy (always a favorite subject). But if the clearest road to some piece of knowledge runs through metabolic pathways, then I don't think that knowledge counts as obvious.

So how is a normal person meant to figure it out? Why doesn't the fact that acetaminophen is typically safer than ibuprofen appear on drug labels or government websites or WebMD? Are normal people supposed to figure it out, or has society decided that this is the kind of thing best left illegible?

Note: You should not switch medications based on the uninformed ramblings of non-trustworthy pseudonymous internet people.