United States: Recent study due in Britain indicates that it harms the health of those adults who take high quantities of paracetamol which is also known as acetaminophen or Tylenol. A repeat survey concluded that the medication raises the probability of gastrointestinal, cardiac, as well as renal problems.
The study published in the Arthritis Care and Research journal more recently shows what might happen if older people took too much of this painkiller for chronic conditions like osteoarthritis pain for example.
Acetaminophen find its application for the treatment of mild to moderate pain and fever for a limited period. Some people also include it in cold and flu formulations, but it is also used on its own occasionally. We know it interrupts messages that tell people their body is sore and alters chemicals their body uses to control temperature.
As reported by the HealthDay, it also shows that, acetaminophen, a common painkiller dulls the body’s ability to manufacture prostaglandins, which the body produces to manage diseases and injuries.
The study was led by Weiya Zhang of the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre in the School of Medicine at the University of Nottingham.
”Thus paracetamol [acetaminophen] long has been used as the first line drug treatment for OA recommended by many treatment guidelines and especially in older people who are at highest risk …of drug related complication,” stated Zhang in a university press release.
In the study, data from more than 180,400 adults emphasised 65 and using repeated acetaminophen prescription (more than two times in the six months).
It was then compared with almost 402,500 of the same population whose GP had never prescribed the drug more than once.
What did they discover?
The data revealed that the long-term treatment with acetaminophen resulted in a higher risk of gastrointestinal bleeding 36%; peptic ulcers 20%; heart failure 9%; hypertension 7% and chronic kidney disease 19%.
“While we need to do more research now to verify our findings, since paracetamol is extremely limited in its pain-relieving capability, the use of the drug for treatment of chronic pain, for instance osteoarthritis in elderly chromes, requires more serious thought.”