Here’s a brand new way NOT to use acetaminophen

 

Messing up the message

As far as headlines go, this one should have come with its own black box warning…

“Regular Acetaminophen Use Reduces Prostate Cancer Risk”

That’s probably not exactly what the researchers had in mind. But when headline writers boil the message down to just six words, little details tend to get glossed over.

Even when those “little” details are life-threatening.

A unique kind of crazy

I don’t know if the American Cancer Society is aware of this, but we’ve got something of a national health crisis going on with acetaminophen overdoses and the resulting liver failures.

Nevertheless, ACS researchers recently crunched some acetaminophen numbers gathered from 15 years of health records and questionnaires completed by more than 78,000 men.

Among men who said they used at least 30 acetaminophen pills per month for five years (that’s a LOT of headaches!), researchers found a reduction of prostate cancer risk close to 40 percent. (No reduced risk was seen in the same level of use for less than five years.)

Now, I’m guessing you didn’t, but if you happened to read this study in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, you’ll see that the researchers are actually in the hunt to understand the biological mechanisms of prostate cancer. So if acetaminophen really does reduce risk, that’s a clue that could lead to future breakthroughs.

It appears at least that the ACS team has no intention of promoting heavy acetaminophen use as a cancer preventive. And that’s a good thing. Because that would be insane.

And “insane” is not a metaphor. You would literally have to be out of your mind.

While the words “prostate cancer” are scary to any man, it pales in comparison to increasing the risk of acute liver failure and other dangerous side effects of prolonged acetaminophen use.

Getting super sized

The subtle strategies of cancer research are not of much interest to reporters who need to grab readers and pull them in with the first sentence.

So here’s how UPI launches into the ACS study: “A fairly heavy dose of acetaminophen for five years or longer was associated with an estimated 38 percent lower risk of prostate cancer.”

A “fairly heavy dose”? Gee — what could possibly go wrong there?

A report in Medical News Today was even worse, stating, “A man who takes one acetaminophen tablet each day for at least five years has a 38% lower chance…” etc.

Wait for further studies? No time for that! MNT is obviously sold on the plan: Men, take one pill a day for five years. Go!

To be fair, both articles do get around to mentioning the true intent of the study. But by then the damage is done. Because there really are men out there who will read the slapdash “recommendations” in the early paragraphs and head out to Sam’s Club to buy the biggest bottle of acetaminophen they can find.

Does that sound unlikely? After all, people are much more aware of the dangers of acetaminophen these days, right?

Well, that’s what I thought too. But a few weeks ago I came across the results of interviews conducted with focus groups in Atlanta and Chicago.

The responses are a little frightening…

More than two-thirds of the subjects were unaware that Tylenol contains acetaminophen. And well over half admitted that when they use OTC drugs they don’t read the labels.

We have a long, long way to go before we resolve the crisis of liver failure caused by acetaminophen overuse. And it doesn’t help a bit when media outlets casually inform men that they can avoid one of the most dreaded cancers by popping a daily acetaminophen.

Of course, popping a “fairly heavy dose” of acetaminophen could actually help you avoid any kind of cancer…since the liver failure will probably get you first.

Sources:
“A Large Cohort Study of Long-term Acetaminophen Use and Prostate Cancer Incidence” Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, Published online ahead of print, 5/17/11, cebp.aacrjournals.org
“Acetaminophen lowers prostate cancer risk” UPI, 5/25/11, upi.com
“Regular Acetaminophen Reduces Prostate Cancer Risk” Medical News Today, 5/25/11, medicalnewstoday.com