The White House claimed that Dr. Andrea Baccarelli has found a "causal relationship between prenatal acetaminophen use and neurodevelopmental disorders of ADHD and autism spectrum disorder." Not true.
Gee, "heavy or prolonged use," doesn't that apply to just about anything? There have even been cases of people so psychologically driven by irrational obsessions who could not stop drinking water - that's right, WATER - such that they threw off their electrolyte balance, and died. Uh, remember Aristotle, "Moderation in all things"?
But the question now to be asked is, just what pills has Trump been poppin' that has led to his present mental state? Or is he off his meds?
I’m old enough to remember the “lipstick causes cancer” scare. IIRC, one had to eat hundreds of lipsticks to ingest enough heavy metals to reach dangerous levels.
Ironic that the FDA Commissioner is referencing a study funded by the NIH at the same time Trump is cutting billions of dollars in NIH research grants and terminating current NIH-funded research projects.
While I think it is probably not a good idea for pregnant women to take Tylenol, and that doing so may slightly increase the risk of autism in the baby, I don't think that Tylenol is the primary cause of our skyrocketing autism rates. I suspect the primary cause is probably some other environmental exposure, like pesticides or vaccines. Also, I suspect that some autism cases are not actually autism, but rather brain damage from vaccine induced encephalitis. Brain damage and autism have many overlapping symptoms, and are difficult to distinguish from each other in young children
Please note that roughly 25% of autistic people have what is called "profound autism" aka severe autism. These are people who are non-verbal and require around the clock support. I agree that increased testing and broadened definition have contributed to the rise in cases. However, even if we exclude the 75% of autistic people who don't have profound autism, that still leaves us with a huge increase in autism rates over the past 50 years. For instance, in 1970 the rate of autism in the USA was roughly 1-4 cases per 10,000. The current rate of autism in the USA is roughly 1 in 38 children. So, after we exclude the 75% who don't have profound autism that works out to roughly 1 in 152 children who have profound autism. So, we can say with a high level of certainty that autism rates have in fact gone up significantly over the past 50 years.
Get your facts straight. Baccarelli, et al. did an exhaustive review of existing studies. Of 46 studies, 27 reported that mothers who take acetaminophen while pregnant are at greater risk of having a child with a brain development disorder including, but not limited to, autism and ADHD. Four studies found that the drug protects against brain disorders and 9 didn't show an association. The researchers state "Appropriate and immediate steps should be taken to advise pregnant women to limit acetominophen consumption to protect their offspring's neurodevelopment." What else are they going to say in light of the scientific data? Should they keep it a secret? Should they say hey take this great stuff while you're pregnant?
Why would ingesting this particular chemical during pregnancy NOT affect the brain of the fetus when other chemical drugs, smoking, etc. do? This happens the NUMBER ONE POISON in America according to the POISON CONTROL CENTER. More people die from acetaminophen poisoning than any other poison. It should have never been allowed on the market in the first place, and should be taken off the market immediately. These are the FACTS. See them for yourself and quit having a knee-jerk reaction to everything RFK is doing because of his association with Trump. I despise Trump, et al. But RFK has scientific facts backing him up much of the time. Know the scientific facts before you take a scientific stand. See these links:
BTW, publisher Taylor & Francis wants you to pay $68 to access this government report on poisoning in the U.S. that taxpayers paid for. That's why we need to support Sci Hub.
Given that the relevant research is almost entirely funded by the pharmaceutical industry, and given the track record of their research being ridiculously biased in favor of approving drugs that later turn out to be either useless or harmful, I'm going to go with Tylenol should never be taken by pregnant women.
This is what is most concerning: "as the only approved medication for pain and fever reduction during pregnancy, acetaminophen remains an important tool for pregnant patients and their physicians." Why would Tylenol have been approved at all - much less the only approved pharmaceutical - if it had been fully studied in the first place? There's probably a million other harms it's actually *associated* with. The public is woefully unaware that big pharma's "studies" are completely corrupt. They are not what folks consider "science" and are mainly about marketing. That's the only way that folks came to believed that Tylenol was safe in the first place.
Curiously enough, ADHD and autism (spectrum disorder: ASD) are among the few psychiatric conditions most massively overdiagnosed (diagnosis applied where the condition does not exist).
Just today or yesterday, I heard it reported that the diagnosis of ASD has quadrupled in about the past 20 years, while the use of acetominophen has not changed.
It is also treacherous to assume humans respond as do non-humans. That becomes more true regarding psychiatric conditions, which are vastly harder to infer in non-humans, because they cannot speak.
Gee, "heavy or prolonged use," doesn't that apply to just about anything? There have even been cases of people so psychologically driven by irrational obsessions who could not stop drinking water - that's right, WATER - such that they threw off their electrolyte balance, and died. Uh, remember Aristotle, "Moderation in all things"?
But the question now to be asked is, just what pills has Trump been poppin' that has led to his present mental state? Or is he off his meds?
I’m old enough to remember the “lipstick causes cancer” scare. IIRC, one had to eat hundreds of lipsticks to ingest enough heavy metals to reach dangerous levels.
Ironic that the FDA Commissioner is referencing a study funded by the NIH at the same time Trump is cutting billions of dollars in NIH research grants and terminating current NIH-funded research projects.
While I think it is probably not a good idea for pregnant women to take Tylenol, and that doing so may slightly increase the risk of autism in the baby, I don't think that Tylenol is the primary cause of our skyrocketing autism rates. I suspect the primary cause is probably some other environmental exposure, like pesticides or vaccines. Also, I suspect that some autism cases are not actually autism, but rather brain damage from vaccine induced encephalitis. Brain damage and autism have many overlapping symptoms, and are difficult to distinguish from each other in young children
Autism rates are not skyrocketing. Higher rates are a result of testing, a broadened definition, and greater awareness.
Please note that roughly 25% of autistic people have what is called "profound autism" aka severe autism. These are people who are non-verbal and require around the clock support. I agree that increased testing and broadened definition have contributed to the rise in cases. However, even if we exclude the 75% of autistic people who don't have profound autism, that still leaves us with a huge increase in autism rates over the past 50 years. For instance, in 1970 the rate of autism in the USA was roughly 1-4 cases per 10,000. The current rate of autism in the USA is roughly 1 in 38 children. So, after we exclude the 75% who don't have profound autism that works out to roughly 1 in 152 children who have profound autism. So, we can say with a high level of certainty that autism rates have in fact gone up significantly over the past 50 years.
Get your facts straight. Baccarelli, et al. did an exhaustive review of existing studies. Of 46 studies, 27 reported that mothers who take acetaminophen while pregnant are at greater risk of having a child with a brain development disorder including, but not limited to, autism and ADHD. Four studies found that the drug protects against brain disorders and 9 didn't show an association. The researchers state "Appropriate and immediate steps should be taken to advise pregnant women to limit acetominophen consumption to protect their offspring's neurodevelopment." What else are they going to say in light of the scientific data? Should they keep it a secret? Should they say hey take this great stuff while you're pregnant?
Why would ingesting this particular chemical during pregnancy NOT affect the brain of the fetus when other chemical drugs, smoking, etc. do? This happens the NUMBER ONE POISON in America according to the POISON CONTROL CENTER. More people die from acetaminophen poisoning than any other poison. It should have never been allowed on the market in the first place, and should be taken off the market immediately. These are the FACTS. See them for yourself and quit having a knee-jerk reaction to everything RFK is doing because of his association with Trump. I despise Trump, et al. But RFK has scientific facts backing him up much of the time. Know the scientific facts before you take a scientific stand. See these links:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40804730/
See Table 18 in https://piper.filecamp.com/uniq/dPhtQdu6eCQnIQ5R.pdf
BTW, publisher Taylor & Francis wants you to pay $68 to access this government report on poisoning in the U.S. that taxpayers paid for. That's why we need to support Sci Hub.
Clearly women are expected to just grin and bear it, bearing (to term) being the operational word here.
Given that the relevant research is almost entirely funded by the pharmaceutical industry, and given the track record of their research being ridiculously biased in favor of approving drugs that later turn out to be either useless or harmful, I'm going to go with Tylenol should never be taken by pregnant women.
This is what is most concerning: "as the only approved medication for pain and fever reduction during pregnancy, acetaminophen remains an important tool for pregnant patients and their physicians." Why would Tylenol have been approved at all - much less the only approved pharmaceutical - if it had been fully studied in the first place? There's probably a million other harms it's actually *associated* with. The public is woefully unaware that big pharma's "studies" are completely corrupt. They are not what folks consider "science" and are mainly about marketing. That's the only way that folks came to believed that Tylenol was safe in the first place.
Curiously enough, ADHD and autism (spectrum disorder: ASD) are among the few psychiatric conditions most massively overdiagnosed (diagnosis applied where the condition does not exist).
Just today or yesterday, I heard it reported that the diagnosis of ASD has quadrupled in about the past 20 years, while the use of acetominophen has not changed.
It is also treacherous to assume humans respond as do non-humans. That becomes more true regarding psychiatric conditions, which are vastly harder to infer in non-humans, because they cannot speak.
Why is Trump so envolved in this? Did somebody at Tylenol call him a jackass or not cough up a big campaign contribution?