TYLENOL PANIC! SOME FACTS

As the whole world seems to know, the Trump administration (through President Trump and Secretary RFK, Jr.) made an announcement this week that Tylenol usage in pregnant women could cause autism in children. 

All the headlines have some sort of reference to "Trump says..." and makes the statement that he is making unsubstantiated claims, intimating that it is all his thoughts and idea.

I have been following the acetaminophen (Tylenol ingredient) issue for over 10 years. Numerous agencies and studies have mentioned a connection between acetaminophen and fetal developmental issues and/or autism in childhood. 

How can I say this? Here are just a few of the links to studies and statements by researchers and medical journals and organizations.

 First, how about a Twitter post from Johnson & Johnson (the owners of Tylenol at the time - now owned by Kenvue, a spinoff from J&J) from 2017. They posted "we actually don't recommend using any of our products while pregnant." A pregnant lady had asked if she should/could take Tylenol while pregnant.

Second, how about a National Institute of Health (NIH) article from 2016 that said: "We have shown in a case-control study that use of acetaminophen early in life is associated with increased likelihood for ASD [12]. We showed in this study that children who used acetaminophen at age 12 to 18 months vs. those who did not were eight times more likely to have ASD when all children were considered and nearly 21 times more likely to have ASD when limiting cases to children with regression in development." See the article here:  https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5044872/

 

Third, a peer-reviewed article in publication "Science Direct" that stated: 

• • Prenatal acetaminophen exposure was related to higher attention-related CBCL scores.

• •More use in especially the second trimester was related to more attention problems.

• •Increases in CBCL scores were small but apparent at 2, 3, and 4 years of age.

• •Acetaminophen use in pregnancy may be related to worse attention in early childhood.

Not autism per se, but developmental issues. Link here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0892036224000011

A site called "Documenting Hope" a support site for parents dealing with autistic children and supporting autism research has this on their site: 

• Acetaminophen can cross the blood-brain barrier and enter the protected part of the brain: the hippocampus, a very complex part of the brain that is responsible for memory and learning.

• Acetaminophen is a neuroendocrine disrupter because it negatively impacts the developing brain of the fetus by reducing testosterone production. This will affect hormonal development which ultimately plays a very crucial role in fetal brain development.

• Acetaminophen increases oxidative stress by increasing free radicals and reducing the number of antioxidants to get rid of them. This disrupts normal neural development and could potentially increase the risk of autism. 

link here: https://documentinghope.com/acetaminophen-and-the-autism-connection/

 

Then my conspiracy theory part - I mentioned at the beginning that I had been looking into the connection between acetaminophen and brain development for years. There is a site that I visited from time to time and most recently within this week. They had a couple of great articles that I had saved links to in anticipation of writing this post. They had an article entitled: “Acetaminophen Causes Neurodevelopmental Injury in Susceptible Children”

 It was in the June 2023 edition of the "Journal for Clinical & Experimental Pediatrics". The link that I copied less than a week ago is now disabled. Makes me wonder who and why.

 

Now, this post was not and probably will not change anyone's mind that truly believes that Trump and RFK Jr. are totally crazy or out in left field. I do hope it makes all realize the statement from these folks was not formulated by them over the last week. The ongoing debate about acetaminophen being dangerous and damaging to a developing fetus has been ongoing for while and is accepted by a lot of very qualified folks.