This snippet is from the British Medical Journal 3/3/15:

 “…The true risks of taking the drug [paracetamol in England,  acetaminophen in the US, brand name Tylenol] may have been underestimated, a UK team of researchers writes in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

“Philip Conaghan, professor at the Leeds Institute of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Medicine, and colleagues carried out a systematic literature review to assess the adverse event profile of paracetamol… The researchers found a dose related link between paracetamol and increasing incidence of mortality and cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and renal adverse events…”

This would have been a huge story if the drug involved had been a cannabinoid. And the same holds true for this item from the same publication:

“Taking a statin is associated with a 46% increase in the risk of type 2 diabetes, a large follow-up study of men in Finland has found. The paper suggested that the effect was due to decreased insulin sensitivity and secretion…

“The study followed up 8749 men aged 45 to 73 years for an average of 5.9 years. They were randomly selected from the population of Kuopio, eastern Finland, and none had diabetes at baseline. The results, reported in Diabetologia, showed that men taking statins (n=2142) had a 46% increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes (adjusted hazard ratio 1.46 (95% confidence interval 1.22 to 1.74)) over the follow-up period…”

 

We’ll have to leave it at that because O’Shaughnessy’s can’t afford a sub to the BMJ. If you find our material useful, the Donate Button is our business plan.