Paracetamol and allergies study

Just if you're interested - more study needed but there seems to be a link between use of paracetamol under the age of 15months and allergies later in life.

Reuters report

Geez, as if there isn't enough to be careful of. Off to find the actual study now.

Ah - I heard about this a wee while ago - Otago research I think - maybe it was on the news or something as I remember discussing it with people in the room at the time.

Two thoughts (that made me feel better about ever needing paracetamol, so I thought I'd share):

- It could be that those children who are prone to getting allergies/asthma were just the ones who were unwell more often in their first 15 months, so were given paracetamol more as a consequence of that. (Ie - the tendency to allergy/asthma may have been present prior to the use of paracetamol, not as a result of it)

- It's a correlational finding - so, that doesn't necessarily mean that paracetamol causes allergies/asthma. (just like what they say at the end of the article that "We need clinical trials to see whether these associations are causal or not, and to clarify the use of this common medication")