Know someone who's pregnant? You're definitely going to want to forward this to her.
Because I doubt much play is going to be given to this news in the mainstream media, and it's something all pregnant women need to know about.
A recent study, published in medical journal Thorax, found that children whose mothers took acetaminophen during pregnancy were more likely to have asthma symptoms at age five.
This builds on previous research that showed a connection between both prenatal and postnatal acetaminophen use and asthma. But this is the first to show a direct link between asthma and the body's ability to detoxify foreign substances.
In the study, 34% of mothers reported having used acetaminophen during pregnancy, and 27% of children exhibited wheezing, which is related to asthma. They were also more likely to visit the emergency room for respiratory problems and to develop allergy symptoms. And the risks increased with increasing days of prenatal acetaminophen use.
Pretty scary stuff, right? And it's even scarier once you throw in the fact that most women in the U.S. take acetaminophen during pregnancy.
The researchers concluded that the results of the study mean women should exercise caution in using acetaminophen while pregnant. A similar study conducted in the UK showed the same results.
It used to be that people thought you could pop a couple of acetaminophen (the main ingredient in Tylenol) without having to think about any risks to your health.
More and more, we're finding that's simply not the case. But, of course, the mainstream does their best to ignore the numerous studies that have uncovered the dangers of taking these "harmless" painkillers. Go to the Tylenol website, and they're pushing pretty hard that the safety of their drug has been "established for over 50 years."
Yeah, well, that safety is being questioned, and it's getting harder and harder to ignore.