There's No Free Lunch: Acetaminophen
10 MAY 2023The whole business of pain relieving medicine has always seemed suspicious to me. You have some pain, you take medicine, and the pain goes away. But by what process? And what are the side effects?
Now the side effects of one pain reliever, acetaminophen, are becoming clear. A recent meta-analysis shows prenatal exposure to acetaminophen increases the odds of autism and ADHD.
In the most basic sense, pain is a signal. Blocking that signal has consequences.
As the saying goes, there is no free lunch. If you take a medicine to make pain go away, there can be unwanted side effects.