Tylenol Debacle

Oh Mr. President.I don’t like it when the President becomes the frontman for disseminating medical information. The Dr. Trump schtick didn’t play well during the COVID pandemic and is certainly not well received with the latest Tylenol-autism controversy. Cue the hysteria from the left. One would have thought he had learned his lesson the first time when he chose to be the authority on a medical issue. Not a good look for the administration. And remember how that worked out last time: people double-masked and wearing oven mitts when driving in cars. Alone. And the response has been predictable in this age of TDS, where anything Trump says is met with vehement opposition. Liberal pregnant persons, as a nod to their chosen vernacular, may now choose to gobble down Acetaminophen tablets like M&Ms just out of spite.  But there has to be a committee with expertise that engaged in some degree of medical research and a review of the literature that came to these conclusions associating the use of acetaminophen with autism when taken during pregnancy. Assign one of those medical nerds to take the heat and present the data logically, concisely, and coherently. And please, not Bobby. He is far too controversial.  And listening to him speak makes my throat sore.  It should have gone something like this:  “After an extensive review of the literature, our panel of experts concluded that acetaminophen should be used with caution during pregnancy, and at the minimal effective dose, due to a possible association with the development of autism in children exposed in utero. Research is ongoing.” Period. But no. In typical Trump grandiose fashion, we received the message that Tylenol is bad. It’s bad. Don’t take it! But a review of the most common literature citations reveals studies that show an association between higher concentrations of acetaminophen in umbilical cord samples and the development of autism. Some studies conclude that there is no association between Acetominohen and autism. However, as in all retrospective studies, there are too many variables. For example, do you recall how much Acetaminophen you took during pregnancy?  And how much did you take?  And what else were you taking? And why were you taking it?  Do you have any additional pre-existing conditions? Did you drink alcohol during your pregnancy? How much? Did you take any other drugs? Smoke? Smoke weed?  Were you exposed to environmental or chemical contaminants?  Are you obese? Did you have complications during pregnancy? How long were you in labor? Was there fetal distress? Was the delivery by C-section? We could go on, but we’d be here all day. But the point is that the issue is complex with an infinite number of variables. Even the defense of acetaminophen from the medical community has been weak, suggesting that fever and illness best treated with acetaminophen may actually be the causative factor in developing autism, not the medication. But that fails to explain the increasing occurrence of autism in first-world nations with easy access to acetaminophen, when it appears that it occurs to a lesser extent in cultures with lower exposure. Historically, one would suspect that those same illnesses and fevers would have occurred with similar frequency, if not in greater numbers, hundreds of years ago, before the advent of acetaminophen as a therapeutic treatment. And yet autism was not as prevalent. However, perhaps the diagnostic criteria have changed such that the spectrum has widened, capturing a greater number of mild cases in the net, thus giving the appearance of increasing prevalence. Again, it is a complex topic that warrants further research. But for the time being, you and your physician have to weigh the risk versus benefit ratio of using acetaminophen during pregnancy. At the very least, add it to the list of things you should try to avoid unless absolutely necessary. Why take the chance, regardless of which political party issues the warning