Taking Tylenol While Pregnant May Increase Chance Child has ADHD
It seems like every week we read something new on the cause of ADHD: Pesticides. Herbicides. Cell phones. Environmental toxins. Maternal nutritional deficiencies, infection, and/or influenza. Chemical food additives. Exposure to smoke. Genetic variations.
The list keeps growing, and that’s a good thing. Since ADHD affects so many, we need answers!
Now we learn that an expectant mother could have been doing everything her own instincts and her doctor told her to do—eating right, avoiding toxins in food and the environment, limiting electromagnetic radiation, and taking helpful nutrients. But unfortunately, one piece of advice from her physician—using Tylenol (acetaminophen) for her headaches—increased the risk that her baby would have ADHD.
An article in the Washington Post points out that although the study did not establish the mechanism by which acetaminophen might lead to ADHD, the authors theorized that the drug could disrupt hormones needed for normal brain development in a fetus.
See study abstract here.
Our advisory board member, Dr. William Shaw, reported on a connection between Tylenol use and ADHD, but he also included autism and asthma in the list of conditions that can be affected by prenatal Tylenol use. He also warns about its use by children. See his article “Tylenol: A Major Culprit in the Autism, ADHD, and Asthma Epidemic” here.
