On Painkillers

My dear ones,

There are things you didn't know about Acamol, Dexamol and Excedrin.

Acamol (paracetamol) is a very old drug and one of the best-selling in the world.

In Israel and Europe the active ingredient is called paracetamol, while in the United States it is called acetaminophen. Paracetamol is used to relieve pain and reduce fever and is considered a fast-acting drug. Paracetamol is also a very popular drug in Israel and is known to most of the public by its brand names Acamol, Dexamol and Excedrin. In the US it is called Tylenol.

For decades Tylenol has been used as a painkiller, but research reveals that it has psychiatric side effects, including blunted emotional responses to both positive and negative stimuli.

You need to understand that many over-the-counter painkillers do more than just kill pain; they sometimes kill the emotions of those who take them, and sometimes even the people who take them...

For example, a 2013 review of 754 clinical studies published in the Lancet found that NSAID use (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) doubles the risk of heart failure. Ibuprofen (Etopan), in particular, is estimated to cause thousands of deaths from cardiovascular events every year, and according to the lead researcher of the Lancet review, it is as dangerous for long-term users as the drug Vioxx, which was estimated to have caused 30,000 excess heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths between 1999-2003 alone.

Popular over-the-counter painkillers include acetaminophen (Tylenol), ibuprofen (Advil and Nurofen), naproxen (Naxyn, Narocin, Point) and aspirin. They are handed out to us like candy to reduce pain and inflammation, without anyone ever looking for or questioning the underlying causes of those symptoms in order to address them.

Now research reveals that acetaminophen (Tylenol/Acamol) not only affects the body but also blunts users' emotional responses.

The study, published in the journal Psychology Science, titled “Over-the-Counter Relief From Pains and Pleasures Alike: Acetaminophen Blunts Evaluation Sensitivity to Both Negative and Positive Stimuli,”

Over-the-Counter Relief From Pains and Pleasures Alike: Acetaminophen Blunts Evaluation Sensitivity to Both Negative and Positive Stimuli

found that:

“Participants who took acetaminophen evaluated unpleasant stimuli less negatively and pleasant stimuli less positively, compared with participants who took a placebo.”

In the study, participants were randomly assigned to take acetaminophen or a placebo, both in liquid form. The study was double-blind: neither the experimenters nor the participants knew which treatment each participant received. After a 60-minute waiting period to allow the Tylenol to enter their brains, the participants were shown images depicting positive and negative events in order to gauge the intensity of their responses. The researchers noted that their study has significant implications for the psychotropic properties of Tylenol.

The researchers discussed the implications of their findings:

“Across two studies, we demonstrated that acetaminophen blunts people's evaluative and emotional responses to both negative and positive stimuli. These results build on recent psychological research illustrating that acetaminophen can blunt the intensity with which people experience negative events stemming from physical, social, or cognitive sources (DeWall et al., 2015; DeWall et al., 2010; Randles et al., 2013). Moreover, these findings extend the research to date to show that acetaminophen blunts positive evaluations in a similar way.”

This research shows that commonly used painkillers act both physically and emotionally to blunt the intensity of both physical and psychological experiences. Perhaps this “side effect” could be considered tolerable. But they also have lethal side effects.

In 1977, 47 years ago... a panel of experts told the FDA that paracetamol products “must” carry a warning that the drug caused “severe liver damage.” The warning was never added. Now it is doubtful that this information will reach the public at all: it kills not only pain but also people, and their emotions along the way…

To complete health and to days of choosing to know the truth.

Ran