Tylenol linked to asthma

Acetaminophen or Tylenol use in children and adolescents is linked to development and maintenance of asthma, eczema and rhino conjunctivitis, according to a pair of global studies reported today online in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Higher hay fever also was mentioned by New Zealand researchers, analyzing more than 300,000 questionnaires filled by adolescents in 113 centers throughout 50 countries. Participants were helped by video explanations and questioned regarding their experience of current symptoms of asthma, rhino conjunctivitis, and eczema.

The conclusion of the study is that the risk of asthma for medium users is 43 percent higher. They also have 38 percent higher risk of allergic rhino conjunctivitis and 31 percent higher risk of eczema.

Acetaminophen is better known as Tylenol in the U.S., but how it might increase risk of asthma and allergy? The researchers suggested several possible explanations. It may have a systemic inflammatory effect or possibly increasing oxygen stress, but other large-scale clinical tests are necessary before to prove that this common pain reliever may generate such problems and extended randomized study among adult population is also required to determine this relationship further.

Some critics of this study indicated over 50 years of clinical history of Johnson & Johnson, the producer of Tylenol, to support its safety and efficacy, but it’s difficult to forget that in the last months this corporation had so many problems and surprises with their own products.

In the mean time a precautionary measure warding off impending danger.

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