Teenage asthma findings

A team from the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand have found that teenagers who regularly took paracetamol were more than twice as likely to have asthma. A study of more than 3, teenagers, aged 13 and 14, found those who took paracetamol once a month were 2.5 times as likely to have asthma than those who never took it. Those who used it once a year were 5 per cent more likely to have asthma, it was found. Lead author Dr Richard Beasley, professor of medicine, said because paracetamol is so widely used almost half of severe asthma cases might be prevented if paracetamol were avoided. Dr Beasley said: “Randomised controlled trials are now urgently required to investigate this relationship further and to guide the use of antipyretics, not only in children but in pregnancy and adult life.” The findings are published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.