Tylenol may raise ashtma risk in children ...

[Guest guest]

Tylenol may raise asthma risk in children

Study covered pain reliever's use among children in 31 countries

Reuters

updated 9:41 a.m. ET, Fri., Sept. 19, 2008

HONG KONG - Infants who have been given the common pain reliever

paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen, may have a higher risk of

developing asthma and eczema by the time they are 6 or 7, a large

study covering children in 31 countries has found.

The findings were published in the journal Lancet together with two

other studies, which found that runny noses and wheezing early on in

life may be strong predictors of asthma.

In the first study, researchers pored through data provided by

parents of more than 205,000 children and found acetaminophen use in

the first year of life was associated with a 46 percent higher risk

of asthma by the time the children were 6 or 7 compared to those

never exposed to the drug.

In the United States acetaminophen is widely sold under the brand

Tylenol and is used to relieve fever, minor aches and pain. It is

used in a liquid suspension for children.

Medium use of acetaminophen in the past 12 months increased asthma

risk by 61 percent, while high dosages of once a month or more in the

past year raised the risk by over three times.

Medium use was defined as once per year or more, but less than once a

month.

Suspicions of a possible link between acetaminophen and asthma

emerged in recent years when experts observed an increased use of the

drug to a simultaneous rise in asthma prevalence worldwide.

One theory is that acetaminophen reduces antioxidants in the body.

Some experts think antioxidants, which stop unstable molecules known

as free radicals from doing too much damage, can lower the risk of

cancer, heart disease and other ailments.

" Acetaminophen can reduce antioxidant levels and ... that can give

oxidative stress in the lungs and cause asthma, " one of the

researchers, Beasley at the Medical Research Institute of New

Zealand, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

As with asthma, monthly use of acetaminophen doubled the risk of

eczema and trebled that of rhinoconjunctivitis — repetitive sneezing,

rhinorrhea, nasal congestion and hay fever — by the time children

were 6 or 7, the study found.

Remains drug of choice

However, the researchers stressed acetaminophen should remain the

preferred drug to relieve pain and fever in children because its

alternative, aspirin, was linked to the risk of Reye's syndrome, a

rare but serious complication in children.

" The findings do lend support to the current guidelines of the World

Health Organization, which recommend that acetaminophen should not be

used routinely, but should be reserved for children with a high fever

(38.5 Celsius or above), " they wrote.

Another study in The Lancet found that rhinitis, or hay fever and

other allergic reactions causing a runny nose, was a strong predictor

of asthma that develops in adulthood.

Researchers monitored 6,461 people in 14 countries who were free of

asthma at the start of study for more than 8 years.

Those who suffered rhinitis and were allergic to an assortment of

agents like house dust mites, cat, grass and birch were 3.5 times

more likely to develop asthma later on compared to those who suffered

no allergies nor rhinitis.

The third study in Arizona in the United States found wheezing early

in life may be an ominous sign of asthma developing in adulthood.

Researchers pored through data on 849 people going back 22 years to

the time they were babies. Of 181 cases of active asthma, 49 were

newly diagnosed, of which 35 were women.

" In over 70 percent of people with current asthma and 63 percent of

those with newly diagnosed asthma at age 22 years, episodes of

wheezing had happened in the first three years of life or were

reported by parents at age six years, " wrote the researchers at the

Arizona Respiratory Center.

In an accompanying comment, Suzanne Lau of Charite University

Medicine in Germany, wrote: " These findings identify a population at

risk of chronic obstructive airway disease in early adulthood, and

they already showed a predisposition during preschool years. " Lau was

not involved in the study.

Copyright 2008 Reuters. Click for restrictions.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26788879/