Ir al contenido principal

Nutrition - Health.com

Tylenol Provides More Than Just Pain Relief: 7 Things You Didn’t Know About Acetaminophen

acetaminophenAcetaminophen, more commonly known as Tylenol, is one of the most popular over-the-counter pain medications we encounter. Popping a couple Tylenol pills when you have a headache is as routine as brushing your teeth
 before you go to bed. But based on recent research, acetaminophen’s short- and long-term side effects may involve more than potential liver damage. Here are seven effects of acetaminophen that researchers have studied in recent years, and which call into question the safety and efficacy of the drug.

Reduces Empathy

Acetaminophen may alleviate your splitting headache, but it may also numb your emotions, according to researchers at Ohio State University. In a recent study, Baldwin Way, assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State, and his team investigated how acetaminophen could actually reduce people’s ability to feel both negative and positive feelings. When students were divided into an acetaminophen group and a placebo group, those who had taken the drug showed less empathy when rating sad short stories compared to those who hadn’t.
“If you are having an argument with your spouse and you just took acetaminophen, this research suggests you might be less understanding of what you did to hurt your spouse’s feelings,” Way said. He and his team have examined this trend for some time, and found similar results in a 2015 study. However, they still don’t completely understand the emotional or psychological mechanisms behind the drug’s ability to reduce empathy. Way hypothesizes that there’s a possibility acetaminophen blunts a part of the brain called the insula, which registers and responds to emotional pain.
Acetaminophen may affect our bodies in more ways than just pain relief. Getty

Kills Hundreds of Americans Every Year

Tylenol may seem like a safe drug, and for the most part it is. But long-term use of the pills, or taking one too many in a short period of time, may contribute to liver damage and even death from overdose. According to a ProPublica analysis of three sets of data, up to 980 people die each year of causes related to acetaminophen use, and over 300 die from direct acetaminophen overdose. The same report found that based on FDA data, the number of deaths caused by acetaminophen was increasing faster than those for other common pain medications like aspirin and ibuprofen. There’s a fine line between safety and risk when it comes to acetaminophen, and the recent stats prove that: taking the right dose, not more, is important.

Affects Your Brain’s Ability To Process Errors

It’s only been recently that scientists have begun investigating acetaminophen’s effect on the brain and behavior. The research that showed that the drug could dull emotions became something of a trigger for other scientists to delve further into understanding exactly how it affects pathways in the brain.
As a result, earlier this year, researchers published a study that found acetaminophen actually impaired people’s ability to detect errors, hinting that not only does it blunt feelings, but it may also mess with your problem-solving ability. “It looks like acetaminophen makes it harder to recognize an error, which may have implications for cognitive control in daily life,” author of the study Dan Randles said.

Makes You Less Existential

This all comes back to the same notion: that acetaminophen may affect the brain in more ways than we originally thought. Researchers are aware that brain pathways managing physical pain are linked to emotional responses, and believe that acetaminophen’s subtle effects on our emotions may be related to that. In 2009, researchers found that the drug could reduce feelings of social rejection and existential distress.
“When people feel overwhelmed with uncertainty in life or distressed by a lack of purpose, what they’re feeling may actually be painful distress,” the researchers stated. “We think that Tylenol is blocking existential unease in the same way it prevents pain, because a similar neurological process is responsible for both types of distress.”

Lowers Testosterone In Unborn Babies

Generally speaking, acetaminophen is safe to take in the form of Tylenol if you’re pregnant — and taking the right dose. But recent research questions the drug’s safety when it comes to the unborn baby. For example, a 2015 study discovered that acetaminophen was linked to lower testosterone in male infant mice. Since the study was only done in mice, there’s nothing to worry about if you take occasional Tylenol pills while pregnant, but the researchers still encourage pregnant women to talk to their doctors first.

Might Give Your Kids ADHD

Another recent study found that mothers who used Tylenol to treat fevers while they were pregnant reported more ADHD-like symptoms in their children. But the researchers were unable to fully conclude whether taking Tylenol during pregnancy was to blame more than other factors for the increased risk of ADHD symptoms within some children. Instead, the researchers note that mothers who take regular doses of Tylenol — especially to reduce fevers — should be totally fine, assuming they’re living a healthy lifestyle.

Doesn’t Always Work For Back Pain

Perhaps one of the most surprising discoveries about acetaminophen is that it’s not exactly the most effective medicine for back or neck pain. In 2014, a group of Australian researchers found that acetaminophen did nearly nothing to help treat back pain, though it did still prove useful for headaches, toothaches, and other types of pain. Another study came to a similar conclusion, noting that doctors should reconsider recommendations to use Tylenol for back pain or even osteoarthritis in certain joints, like the hip and knee. However, don’t be afraid to continue using safe doses of acetaminophen to treat pain and fever.

Comentarios

Entradas más populares de este blog

Vaccines for Children - A Guide for Parents and Caregivers

Vaccines for Children - A Guide for Parents and Caregivers Vaccines have contributed to a significant reduction in many childhood infectious diseases, such as diphtheria, measles, and  Haemophilus influenzae  type b (Hib). Some infectious diseases, such as polio and smallpox, have been eliminated in the United States due to effective vaccines. It is now rare for children in the United States to experience the devastating and often deadly effects of these diseases that were once common in the United States and other countries with high vaccination coverage. The vast majority of vaccines are given to healthy babies, children and adults; therefore, it is critical that vaccines be demonstrated to be safe and effective. Ensuring the safety and effectiveness of vaccines is one of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) top priorities. The Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) is the center within FDA that has regulatory oversight of vaccines in the United States ...

Chalazio: bolita en el ojo

Es un pequeño forúnculo que se forma debido al bloqueo e inflamación de una glándula sebácea de Meibomio (orzuelo interno) del parpado.  Inicialmente, el chalazión se manifiesta en el enrojecimiento, hinchazón y sensibilidad del parpado.  Sin embargo, en unos días el estado cambia, no duele, pero empieza a crecer un quiste en el parpado.  El chalazión empieza siendo bastante pequeño, casi imperceptible, pero puede llegar a crecer al tamaño de una arveja (chicharo).   Muchas veces este se confunde con el orzuelo que es una inflamación de las glándulas sebáceas de Zeiss (orzuelo externo) y es doloroso.  El chalazión por lo general no esta acompañado de una infección, pero puede surgir como consecuencia del orzuelo. Síntomas • Aparición de un forúnculo en la parte superior del parpado • Ojos llorosos • Visión borrosa Para poder diferenciar al Chalazión que requiere una cirugía del orzuelo que en general no requiere cirugía, se debe consul...

Enfermedades Venereas o Infecciones de Transmision Sexual

Las enfermedades venéreas o infecciones de transmisión sexual (I.T.S.) son muy comunes y en estos momentos están prácticamente afectando a   20 millones de personas en los Estados Unidos, de los cuales el 20% son latinos, y estos son solo los casos reportados. La incidencia en la comunidad latina está incrementando alarmantemente en jóvenes menores de 25 años donde conforman más del 50% de los casos, mientras que en jóvenes menores de 20 años se da en un 30-40%.   El gran problema en nuestra comunidad es la falta de información y comunicación sobre este tema que se considera aun tabú o algo de lo que da vergüenza hablar con los hijos.     Estas infecciones se trasmiten no solo a través del contacto sexual oral, vaginal o anal, sino también pueden ser transmitidas a través de la sangre (transfusiones, jeringas infectadas, maquinas de tatuajes, piercings, etc.), sino también pueden ser transmitidas al dar a luz o al darle de lactar a un be...