IT鈥橲 confusing news both for parents and would-be mothers. Paracetamol (tylenol), considered one of the safest painkillers for children, seems to up their risk of developing asthma, while some nutritional supplements taken by pregnant women to reduce birth defects could predispose their offspring to the condition.
Asthma is caused by a range of environmental and genetic factors, but the exact mix remains a mystery. Paracetamol had already been linked to asthma, but the studies were too small to be sure.
Now a team led by Richard Beasley of the in Wellington and colleagues have questioned the parents of 200,000 children in 31 countries. Children aged 6 and 7 whose parents had normally given them paracetamol for fever in the first year of life were about 50 per cent more likely to get asthma than if they hadn鈥檛 (, vol 372, p 1039).
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Because alternative painkillers naproxen and ibuprofen are also linked to asthma, and aspirin to Reye鈥檚 syndrome, which can be fatal, the results are not a reason to stop giving children paracetamol, Beasley says. Rather, he suggests it should only be used when a child has a fever above 38.5 掳C.
鈥淭he findings do not constitute a reason to stop using paracetamol in children, but a balance should be struck鈥�
Meanwhile, if a second finding holds in humans as well as in mice, expectant mothers may also have to strike a balance 鈥� in this case in the amount of nutritional supplements they consume. of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, fed pregnant mice folic acid, vitamin B12 and zinc 鈥� all taken by pregnant women to reduce the risk of birth defects such as cleft palate 鈥� in doses equivalent to those taken by humans.
Pups had a raised risk of asthma, as did subsequent generations, suggesting both a direct effect on offspring and a heritable change to maternal DNA (The Journal of Clinical Investigation, ).
