Long-term use of Tylenol (acetaminophen) found to cause kidney damage, says new study

Tuesday, July 27, 2004 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: Tylenol, acetaminophen, painkillers

New research shows that long-term use of acetaminophen -- sold under the brand name Tylenol -- harms kidneys. This research was conducted on 1,700 women, and spanned 11 years. Overall, it showed that 10% of the women experienced a decline in their kidney function, indicating that their kidneys were being harmed by this over-the-counter painkiller. Women who took between 1,500 and 9,000 tablets over their lifetimes raised their risk of kidney impairment by 64%, and women who took more than 9,000 tablets increased their risk even further. This is yet more evidence of the dangers of consuming over-the-counter painkillers on a frequent basis. As a whole, over-the-counter painkillers are responsible for killing over 40,000 Americans each year -- that includes aspirin, acetaminophen, and other painkillers.

If it weren't for the extreme profitability of these pharmaceutical products, and the fact that their manufacturers hold such strong influence over the FDA, they would have been banned and pulled from the marketplace long ago. Consider this: Tylenol is being shown to damage 10% of the people who use it on a long-term basis, and yet the FDA remains silent on the issue of public safety. Had this been an herb, such as ephedra, the FDA would have held a press conference and shouted headlines about how dangerous this herb is to consumers. In fact, ephedra was banned after being associated with the deaths of only a few dozen people, representing a tiny fraction of the total users who were taking the herb on a regular basis, yet over-the-counter painkillers such as acetaminophen and aspirin are killing 40,000 people each year, and according to this study, seriously damaging the kidney function of an astounding 10% of its users. That's a figure that makes these over-the-counter pain killers far more dangerous than ephedra, and yet the FDA says nothing.

This research doesn't even mention the extreme liver damage caused by NSAIDs -- which are anti-inflammatory drugs. When consumed with alcohol, NSAIDs cause severe liver damage and may ultimately lead to liver cancer and / or failure of the liver. These risks are almost never mentioned in the popular press, nor are they publicized by the FDA, and so most people remain completely unaware of the significant health dangers associated with long-term use of these painkillers.

All this creates a rather frustrating situation: harmful products are being marketed and sold to consumers without adequate warnings about the serious detrimental health effects they cause. The FDA, which is supposed to be regulating the industry and protecting the public health, continues to ignore these safety concerns, and instead looks the other way for products that are manufactured by large pharmaceutical companies. Simultaneously, the FDA exaggerates the health risk of nutritional supplements and medicinal herbs in order to regulate or remove those products from the market, thereby increasing the market potential of highly profitable, but far more dangerous, painkillers and prescription drugs.

This is the structure of a drug racket -- extreme corruption in action, at the highest levels of government and industry. Potentially millions of Americans are being harmed and tens of thousands are being killed each year by over-the-counter painkillers such as acetaminophen and aspirin, and yet there is virtually no recognition of this problem in the press, and it receives almost no attention whatsoever by the FDA. Let's face it: the human body is not designed to consume over-the-counter painkillers on a frequent basis. If you find yourself needing painkillers every day, just to get from one day to the next, it's time to take a closer look at the source of your pain and seek treatments that can help balance your body and return it to a state of natural health without you needing to ingest pharmaceuticals that mask pain symptoms on a regular basis.