Why Tylenol should be avoided by everyone

Posted on March 6, 2016 by Dr. G

Let’s stop beating around the bush. Tylenol should be avoided by everyone, especially pregnant women and children.

Read on to learn about Tylenol’s contribution to:

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Autoimmune disease
• ADHD
• Autism
• More….

Tylenol is a brand name for a common over the counter pain medication called acetaminophen.  If you’ve ever had a terrible headache, back ache, or any other acute pain brought on by inflammation, chances are you’ve tried an over the counter remedy like aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin), Naproxen (Aleve) or acetaminophen (Tylenol).  If one of them has worked for you, you are likely to use that particular brand and dose in the future.  

All of these drugs have side effects of course.  Eli Lilly founder of the pharmaceutical giant that carries his name, famously stated “if it doesn’t have side effects it’s not a drug”.  I can talk for hours about the common deadly side effects of these common over the counter medications but that’s not what this article is about.  People with acute pain will do their own risk to benefit ratio, calculations and there is no shortage of statistics out there for you to look up.  For example there are 17,000 hospitalizations per year and 6000 deaths per year from the “proper” use of this class of medications called NSAIDS (Non Steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs).

This article is not so much about not so rare side effects, it is about “effects” that everyone who takes Tylenol has that no one has discussed with you.  These effects have a direct impact on all adults, children and unborn children who take it.

Tylenol is widely prescribed by our trusted doctors and pediatricians to treat childhood inflammation and pain after injury or vaccines.  Tylenol is also promoted as the safe pain medication to take during pregnancy.  Don’t believe it for a minute.  This post will explain how these two common uses for Tylenol can cause severe consequences for our children.  

Tylenol depletes Glutathione in our cells.  Okay, what is Glutathione?

Glutathione is our own internal antioxidant.  We don’t have to eat it, we make it.  As a matter of fact it is the most powerful antioxidant, without it all of the food based antioxidants you’ve heard of would be useless.   Every cell in the body experience stressful forces everyday that result in a drive toward oxidation (think about rusting metal or an apple slice that turns brown if left alone for a few minutes) Oxidation is what aging, cell damage and disease are.  Oxidation results in inflammations and dying cells. It makes sense that 600 million years of evolution or our creator (whatever your belief system is) would create a system that protects each cell from these constant forces.

Glutathione stops inflammation.  My mentor and colleague Dr. Datis Kharrazian says that Glutathione is the body’s secret service agent that is willing under any circumstance to jump in front of a bullet to save you.  Doing anything to deplete this protector of our health is crazy.  

Studies show a direct correlation between a breakdown in the Glutathione system and autoimmune disease.  Glutathione is an immune regulator.  Immune regulation is necessary for proper immune responses to any immune challenge.  Immune challenges from food antigens, environmental antigens, viruses, bacteria, parasites, and even vaccines.  

Glutathione depletion in an infant or unborn child may be the mechanism for developmental challenges we see increasing at alarming rates.   The damaged or deficient Glutathione system may precede an abnormal immune response in children who are presented with immune challenges like viruses, bacteria and even vaccines.  

The Glutathione system can be the difference that would explain why one child with an immune challenge early in life has long term severe complications and another child with the same challenge does fine.  Let’s be very clear, if there is one thing we know for sure, it’s that Autism is not a psychiatric problem but rather an immune mediated inflammatory problem that is very similar to autoimmune disease.  As a matter of fact the evidence for chronic inflammation explaining or playing a central role in anxiety, depression, ADHD etc is growing and increasingly undeniable.  No one in the research community is talking about “chemical imbalances”.  

Liver failure: Side effect of Tylenol

Glutathione is involved in one of the major detoxification pathways used by the liver to rid our bodies of waste products.  The depletion of Glutathione is the mechanism for liver toxicity.  

MTHFR defects.

Much has been said about the relationship between a genetic SNP called MTHFR and autism, autoimmunity and other chronic disorders.  This is a common defect of a chemical reaction in the body called methylation.  30-40% of the population can have a defect that can reduce methylation from 20%-80% depending on the type of genetic presentation you have.  

Methylation is a key step in the internal production and recycling of Glutathione.  If you have been diagnosed with elevated homocysteine in your blood, there is a good chance your Glutathione is depleted.  Knowing your genetic profile for this common defect is as simple as a cheap blood test performed by any lab or cheek swab with a company like 23andMe.  

Knowing if you have an MTHFR defect is enough to raise your risk of side effects from Tylenol tremendously.  

To read more about MTHFR, click here.

Thanks for reading!