Hot MedFax

Who knew?  When you take Tylenol, you stop caring about other people. Well, not exactly.  But close.  But a new study has found that when you take acetaminophen, you don’t feel others’ pain as much. Turns out when we're seeking relief from pain, we may also be decreasing our empathy for both the physical and social aches that other people experience, according to newswise.com.  Researchers at The Ohio State University found, for example, that when participants who took acetaminophen learned about the misfortunes of others, they thought these individuals experienced less pain and suffering,when compared to those who took no painkiller. “These findings suggest other people’s pain doesn’t seem as big of a deal to you when you’ve taken acetaminophen,” says Dominik Mischkowski, co-author of the study and a former Ph.D. student at Ohio State, now at the National Institutes of Health.  “Acetaminophen can reduce empathy as well as serve as a paink...

Great. Just what we needed to know.   Fever-reducing meds for the flu may actually spread it.  "New research from McMaster University has discovered that the widespread use of medications that contain fever-reducing drugs may lead to tens of thousands more influenza cases, and more than a thousand deaths attributable to influenza, each year across North America," according to newswise.com.  And guess what?  The drugs they're talking about include ibuprofen, acetaminophen and acetylsalicylic acid. “When they have flu, people often take medication that reduces their fever. No one likes to feel miserable, but it turns out that our comfort might be at the cost of infecting others,” the Web site quotes lead author David Earn, an investigator. He explains that,b ecause fever can actually help lower the amount of virus in a sick person's body and reduce the chance of transmitting disease to others, "taking drugs that reduce fever can increase transmission. We’ve ...