The more I read about Tylenol/acetaminophen/paracetamol, the more I wonder why it is still on the market.
None of the following are "conspiracy theories." You won't get banned from YouTube or Facebook for spreading misinformation if you post it.
None of the following are "conspiracy theories." You won't get banned from YouTube or Facebook for spreading misinformation if you post it.
- At a standard dose, paracetamol only slightly decreases body temperature, it is inferior to ibuprofen in that respect, and the benefits of its use for fever are unclear.
- It appears that 0.2 °C decrease of the body temperature in children after a standard dose of paracetamol is of questionable value, particularly in emergency situations.
- Meta-analyses showed that paracetamol is less effective than ibuprofen in children, including children younger than 2 years old, with equivalent safety.
- Paracetamol may relieve pain in acute mild migraine but only slightly in episodic tension headache. However, the aspirin/paracetamol/caffeine combination helps with both conditions where the pain is mild and is recommended as a first-line treatment for them.
- Paracetamol is effective for post-surgical pain, but it is inferior to ibuprofen.
- The pain relief paracetamol provides in osteoarthritis is small and clinically insignificant.
- Pain after a dental surgery provides a reliable model for the action of analgesics on other kinds of acute pain. For the relief of such pain, paracetamol is inferior to ibuprofen.
- Paracetamol fails to relieve procedural pain in newborn babies. For perineal pain postpartum paracetamol appears to be less effective than non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
- American College of Rheumatology and Arthritis Foundation guideline for the management of osteoarthritis notes that the effect size in clinical trials of paracetamol has been very small, which suggests that for most individuals it is ineffective.
- The evidence in its favor for the use in low back pain, cancer pain, and neuropathic pain is insufficient.
- Chronic consumption of paracetamol may result in a drop in hemoglobin level, indicating possible gastrointestinal bleeding, and abnormal liver function tests.
- There is a consistent association of increased mortality as well as cardiovascular (stroke, myocardial infarction), gastrointestinal (ulcers, bleeding) and renal adverse effects with taking higher dose of paracetamol.
- The drug may also increase the risk of developing hypertension.
- Elevated frequency of asthma and developmental and reproductive disorders is observed in the offspring of women with prolonged use of paracetamol during pregnancy.
- Some studies suggest that there is evidence for the association between paracetamol during pregnancy and autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
- Meta-analyses suggest that paracetamol may increase the risk of kidney impairment by 23% and kidney cancer by 28%. Paracetamol is particularly dangerous to the liver in overdose, but even without overdose those who take this drug may develop acute liver failure requiring liver transplantation more frequently than the users of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
- Paracetamol poisoning is the foremost cause of acute liver failure in the Western world, and accounts for most drug overdoses in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.
- According to the US Food and Drug Administration, the drug may cause rare and possibly fatal skin reactions such as Stevens–Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis.