According to a 6-year study of the Nurses Health Study conducted by scientists from the American Thoracic Society found that the extensive use of the analgesic acetaminophen (paracetamol) contributes to the onset of bronchial asthma in adulthood.

The main group of subjects was the average female medical staff.

Acetaminophen sold under various trade names is one of the most commonly used analgesics that is dispensed without a prescription. The drug relieves pain of minor and moderate severity and reduces fever. It is often taken instead of aspirin, since this drug has a less pronounced harmful effect on the mucosa of the gastrointestinal tract.

According to the authors of the study, acetaminophen increases the glutathione content in the lungs, a substance that is a predisposing factor in the oxidative damage of the lungs and the development of bronchospasm.

From 1990 to 1996, of the 229 newly diagnosed cases of asthma, 108 patients did not take acetaminophen, 112 took it at a frequency of 1 to 4 times a month, 41 patients took it 5 to 14 times a month, 16 took the drug from 15 to 21 once a month, and 22 people took it more than 22 times a month. In addition, several months ago, acetaminophen was discovered in the development of asthma in children in a large-scale, cross-sectional, randomized study with children of childhood, which also indicates an allergic effect of the drug.

What is especially alarming is the fact that acetaminophen is very widely used in pediatric patients, which in principle can contribute to the appearance of a bronchial asthma dosage form in children, or to predispose to a variety of allergic diseases already in adulthood.

The authors of the study also state that bronchospasm due to acetaminophen was observed in parts of patients who did not previously have evidence of aspirin-dependent bronchial asthma.

sportzal. com.