Just a quick note to add to Wednesday’s blog post “Time Heals” and our focus on drugs. (Please read it first, if you have time.)
How many of us have been told to give Tylenol with antibiotics? Tylenol before and after vaccines? Tylenol if you’re child is feeling a little warm? Tylenol for teething? Do we do this because we feel helpless when our children aren’t feeling well and it gives us something to do? Or because we really believe that it’s better for them to take medicine?
How many of us read yesterday’s announcement about McNeill’s Tylenol recall of 21 children’s and infant’s liquid products?
The active ingredient in Tylenol is acetaminophen. In fact, we have come to use the brand name interchangeably with the generic, in much the same way we buy Band-Aids or we used to Xerox when we made photocopies (this will date me, I know).
Bacterial contamination isn’t the only reason we need to be concerned about the drugs and other things we put into our body.
How many of us are aware about acetaminophen toxicity and its relationship to gastroenteritis? Read this article Acetaminophen Poisoning from Merck Manual’s online medical library. Take special note of the mention that acetaminophen reduces hepatic glutathione stores. Glutathione is often called the body’s master antioxidant. It protects us against free radicals, detoxifies carcinogens and other toxic compounds, plays a key role in health of our immune system, nervous system, gastrointestinal system and our lungs. When you or your child takes Tylenol, you could be setting yourselves up for a one-two punch… 1) your body will deplete precious glutathione levels to handle toxicity from acetamiophen, and then 2) your body receives the full toxic brunt of the antibiotic, vaccine, cough medicine or other drug.
The next time you reach for the Tylenol, or any other drug for that matter, consider first whether you’re comfortable with the risk/benefit tradeoff. There are times when drugs can be lifesaving. But these would likely not include the $5.4 billion Americans spend annually on cough and cold remedies, $2.7 billion on headache remedies, and $411 million on chest rubs and other analgesics.
Feel better?
Most parents don’t know about the glutathione depletion of Tylenol. I only recently learned about it myself after researching the importance of glutathione and came across info Tylenol by chance. Thanks for all the great info in your Blog. Will pass it on. Keep up the great work. - Helen
Comment by Helen — September 25, 2009 @ 10:19 am
A couple of thoughts…
1) The glutathione depletion noted in the Merck manual is mentioned in the context of acute overdose. The key question is what level of acetaminophen causes what level of depletion over what period of time.
2) As for the 21 child and infant formulations of Tylenol, isn’t this more related to economics than an impatience with being sick, as noted in the newsletter? Daycare generally won’t accept a sick child on any given day. Most parents have trouble taking a day off on short notice due to the illness of a child. Hence the need for medications that treat, or at least hide, symptoms of illness.
This is a large market so there will be a lot of product targeted to it.
Comment by Bob — September 25, 2009 @ 10:57 am
Hi, Bob. Indeed… at what level? Wouldn’t we all like to know? We don’t all start with the same level of glutathione stores. Some of us are getting more acetaminophen than others. With varying child care settings, schedules, caregivers, and product formulations, we may not even be keeping good track of how much a child is getting. Some of us are taking other drugs that further stress the liver. I don’t recall my children’s pediatrician raising any concerns about Tylenol whatsoever. I don’t recall reading about any of this on the baby Tylenol bottle.
In Medscape’s article on Acetaminophen Toxicity, they report that acetaminophen is used casually and warns that all patients and especially the parents of children should be taught about its use and dangers. Here’s another article Why Tylenol Would Kill You If You Didn’t Have the “Master Antioxidant” Glutathione based upon the ScienceBlogs post Glutathione.
I liken this to the teflon issue. Teflon becomes toxic very quickly when you cook above certain temperatures. Its manufacturer recommends that teflon not be used on high heat. How many people know this? How many people carefully regulate the temperature of their skillets when cooking? How often do we burn things anyway? Might we prefer to avoid teflon in the first place? The people who live near teflon plants certainly wish we did.
Comment by Louise — September 25, 2009 @ 11:33 am
Forgot to respond to your second point, Bob. It’s pretty easy to bring almost everything around to economics. Follow the money trail and it will tell the story. Companies sell products that people buy. There wouldn’t be 21 different formulations for long if people weren’t buying them. My point is: stop buying them! Being sick is part of a process of getting well. Vomiting, fever, diarrhea are all ways that our bodies excrete toxicity, kills pathogens and regain homeostasis. We need to slow down and honor the process because the alternative is killing us. I know it’s inconvenient to miss work or school. I can invite thousands of parents to tell you how inconvenient it is to have a child who’s really sick… the kind of sick that doesn’t go away in a few days.
Comment by Louise — September 25, 2009 @ 11:53 am
Louise,
You probably know that Acetaminophen is not allowed to be sold in many foriegn countries, like Israel. I don’t think it’s available in France or Italy either. Do they know something we don’t?
Lori
Comment by Lori — September 25, 2009 @ 12:37 pm
Since I became a mom, I’ve relied on the book How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Doctor by Robert S. Mendelsohn, MD. It encourages parents to trust our own instincts and details the treatment of regular childhood ailments at home without running to the drug store for every slight fever, cough or scrape.
Comment by Cornelia — September 25, 2009 @ 3:03 pm
Hi,, Nice post!!
Simply put, glutathione (GSH) is the body’s master antioxidant. It is a small protein (thiol) produced naturally in our cells when certain required elements are present. It functions both as an antioxidant and an antitoxin and is a major defense system against illness and aging. Our glutathione level actually indicates our state of health and can predict longevity. Thanks
Comment by weight loss pills — September 25, 2009 @ 11:14 pm
All the best for your future.
Comment by blondinkaya — September 26, 2009 @ 2:32 am
And what is the cut of taxes that are bewitched out of your/others give checks to defend the cost of health care? It cant possibly be that simple, right? -Kelli
Comment by yapapanyatt — September 27, 2009 @ 2:31 pm
John Stone,
Apologies about posting this here but just in case Age of Autism goes off line as it were.
Robin Rowlands
EXTRACT FROM
AGE OF AUTISM
Daily Web Newspaper of the Autism Epidemic
Article
UK’s NHS Report Suggests Autism Increase Due to Oversight?
September 25, 2009
Blog Comments
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John
Since I sent my letter in March I have been isolated and have had to watch the letter discussed cyptically in the media and parliament.
There is dark talk of a constituional crisis.
Rumours that the British Government refused to stand down when so instructed by Her Majesty.
We dance with shadows beyond the veil.
Robin
Posted by: Robin Rowlands | September 30, 2009 at 11:29 AM
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Robin –
“he knows whats coming once the American Press smell the blood”
Sadly, I think you are seriously overestimating the American Press. They’ve been completely feckless when it comes to vaccine issues; they are too beholden to pharma advertising dollars and stock options. They have been complicit in training the American public to regard anyone who questions the safety of vaccines as a village idiot. We are viewed with an unvarnished contempt. You might have the most explosive document in the world, but you are right that “few would believe it” because the media will never present it in a way that leads people to believe, let alone be outraged. The cognitive dissonance is still too great between what people have been taught to believe about vaccines and their sad reality. They still can’t wrap their heads around Simpsonwood, and that was ten years ago!
Posted by: Garbo | September 30, 2009 at 05:17 AM
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Robin,
I don’t know what you know - or at least don’t have any specific idea of what it is, and I am certainly not wittingly party to any state secrets. There are, of course, many appalling things which are not state secrets which are also not reported. You may also be right that the use of D notices is more widespread than I thought.
It wouldn’t surprise me given what is in the public domain, that what isn’t would be vile beyond words.
John
Posted by: John Stone | September 29, 2009 at 03:56 PM
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John as you are aware a D Notice is notionally a voluntary agreement / understanding by the media not to cover a story that compromises the security or stability of the nation.
Whilst it cannot be enforced as such the newspaper or TV channel that breaks such a notice will suffer dire consequences.
It would be easy enough for me to issue the letter direct to the USA but to do so would let the British Government of the hook
1. Few would believe it.
2. Once Public the Government UK & USA would not be guilty of suppressing it.
Someone once said the difference between fascism and democracy is that in a fascist state the dissident is buried in the ground, in a democracy the dissident is buried in the crowd.
The NAZI’s justified Auschwitz by claiming that:
1. They all acted under orders
2. Jews were not really considered human.
It is encouraging to see that in the Modern World are excuses for GENOCIDE have become so much more sophisticated and people just as happy as ever to avoid such an unpleasant and awkward subject.
Perhaps the USA feel free of it but in a murder the police follow the blood - blood doesn’t flush away (but then again it does doesn’t it) - blood tends to get everywhere.
In the UK we do not have freedom we have rights - and the rights of the many always outweigh the rights of the few - i think you know in America what this is called.
Obama isn’t worried about the British voters it is the American voters he fears and the British Government by putting a D Notice on my letter have let the cat out of the bag.
That is why Obama doesn’t want to hug Gordon Brown or have anything to do with him he knows whats coming once the American Press smell the blood
Posted by: Robin Rowlands | September 29, 2009 at 12:09 PM
Sorry correction:-
“We do have an example of an editor of a national newspaper, Roger Alton, losing his job over MMR when in July in 2007 ahead of [the GMC hearing] the Observer published alarming figures about the autism rate. The Observer was pilloried by a journalist (Ben Goldacre) from its sister newspaper, the Guardian, by study author Simon Baron-Cohen and Fiona Fox of the industry lobby group Science Media Centre, though subsequently the story proved to completely correct:”
Posted by: John Stone | September 29, 2009 at 11:30 AM
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Hi Robin,
Many thanks for your remarks. First of all let me say that I am not the author of this article,
which has caused confusion on other sites. Let me also say that my opportunities to drink
with journalists are few and far between these day.
For the benefit of American readers I should also explain that a D notice, or more correctly
these days a DA notice is an injunction forbidding the reporting of certain matters for security reasons,
handed out by the UK Ministry of Defence. I have never really been sure how relevant
this is to vaccine issues because my impression is that media discipline, which is powerful
but not absolute, is largely maintained by other means - but it is also the case that
in some instances things that are widely talked about, virtually never come out through mainstream media sources.
For instance, it was never reported over years that the child of Sally Clark died 5 hours after receiving 5 vaccines - although the media wept buckets over her wrongful inprisonment for the infant’s murder and after her death, they never reported this basic fact. But then there was an article in the Spectator, which is a mainstream source, and this was even available on the web for two years, though I note it has recently been removed.
Another example of the press not reporting was in April of last year when before a number of senior journalist’s Andrew Wakefield refuted the allegations of Richard Horton before GMC, and only a rather weasel report emerged in the news columns of BMJ, downplaying its significance.
We do have an example of an editor of a national newspaper, Roger Alton, losing his job over MMR when in July in 2007 ahead of the Observer published alarming figures about the autism rate. The Observer was pilloried by a journalist (Ben Goldacre) from its sister newspaper, the Guardian, by study author Simon Baron-Cohen and Fiona Fox of the industry lobby group Science Media Centre, though subsequently the story proved to completely correct:
http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/04/autism-the-64-billion-dollar-a-year-question-for-simon-baroncohen-ben-goldacre-fiona-fox-and-autism-.html
So, for all I know Robin may be right about some of it, though I suspect most of it is done by professional intimidation - and I know that many journalists in the British press would like to report and it is the editors, unsure of their ground, who largely chicken-out.
Posted by: John Stone | September 29, 2009 at 11:24 AM
Why is Gordon Brown desperate for a hug from Barrack Obama why is Barrack Obama stiff as a board.
Robin Rowlands
Posted by: Robin Rowlands | September 29, 2009 at 01:43 AM
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John Stone
Have you found anybody who will talk to you yet.
Telephones and Email are not the way.
Turn up at your journalist freinds office ask if has time for a A pint.
Tell him you need to talk tell him how parents of autistic children are treated
tell him how it hurts tell him how the politicians dont give a damn.
A few more drinks let the journalist talk more than you.
Let him tell you - you dont know the half of it.
Tell him you had heard talk but didn’t know what to make of it.
Let him tell you about the letter the letter that is D Noticed don’t mention the D Notice that will worry him.
Once he starts talking about the letter sympathise, how ghastly to have such a letter and be powerless to do anything about it.
Look him in the eye ask him for a copy of the letter and the D Notice.
The letter has done for New Labour in Britain it affects not just Britain - the USA France Germany will all take a seismic hit.
Robin Rowlands
Posted by: Robin Rowlands | September 29, 2009 at 01:23 AM
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The Guardian article begins with neurodiversity quackery:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/24/adults-autism
Darwin, Einstein, Mozart, Beethoven, Newton and even Adolph Hitler have all been diagnosed with autism.
Nothing is more science based than diagnosing the dead which seems to be a peculiar fascination with English authors.
I’m surprised the authors of this study didn’t find 1 in 50 or 1 in 25.
Posted by: RAJ | September 27, 2009 at 10:56 PM
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John Stone
I suppose you are pretty sick of this on going cover up when year after year
more and more parents have to suffer what we have all sufferd both in the USA and UK.
If you have freinds in the British Press who will talk to you of record it will have to be of record.
Ask them about me Maybe they will let you have a copy of the non existent letter.
Robin Rowlands We were on the Guardian Site at the same time - well for a while
Posted by: Robin Rowlands | September 27, 2009 at 04:35 PM
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Comment by Robin Rowlands — October 2, 2009 @ 3:46 am
Louise,
I beg to differ. The answer is not stop buying them, the answer is to use them responsibly. Your examples all site irresponsible usage - acute overdose/used casually.
I’ll differ on another point too…some products are not, nor were ever intended to be, lifesaving. They are life improving and serve that role well, when used responsibly.
Comment by Bob — October 27, 2009 @ 1:37 pm
Hi, Bob. Don’t be so sure we disagree! The answer is always responsible use… be it Tylenol, vaccines, or McDonald’s French fries. I advocate informed choices. I believe people get to make their own tradeoffs and decide what’s best for themselves and their families. When there’s gatekeeping of important information by people or entities that may have a broader agenda, that’s when I have difficulty. Most people think Tylenol is one of the safest drugs around. They will take it, and give it to their babies, at the drop of a hat. For a minor headache. For the slightest fever. For preventive reasons (who hasn’t taken a couple Tylenol after drinking a few too many, in anticipation of the morning after?). McNeill doesn’t go out of their way to emphasize the risks, to the public at large or the doctors who serve them. But they should. Louise
Comment by Louise — October 27, 2009 @ 2:04 pm
The article is very good.
http://www.lifehealthchoices.com - go to my favorites!!!
Comment by homemastergoga — October 31, 2009 @ 4:28 am
Good article
Comment by business stationery — November 1, 2009 @ 9:27 pm