Boardman pediatric doctor: Don’t give Tylenol drug to children with asthma

Boardman pediatric doctor: Don’t give Tylenol drug to children with asthma

By WILLIAM K. ALCORN

alcorn@vindy.com

BOARDMAN

An Akron Children’s Hospital pediatric physician’s stance that children with asthma should not use medicines containing acetaminophen has drawn national attention.

Common over-the-counter medicines containing acetaminophen include Tylenol, widely used for pain and fever, and other medications used for allergies, colds and congestion.

Dr. John T. McBride, director of the Robert T. Stone MD Respiratory Center at Akron Children’s, does not contend that Tylenol causes asthma. However, he says there is sufficient evidence to say that it exacerbates the condition, particularly in children, by further irritating their lungs.

Dr. McBride expressed his opinion in a paper, “The Association of Acetaminophen and Asthma Prevalence and Severity,” which was published recently in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The World Health Organization’s website describes asthma as a disease characterized by recurrent attacks of breathlessness and wheezing, a condition caused by inflammation of the air passages in the lungs and affecting the sensitivity of the nerve endings in the airways so they become easily irritated. In an attack, the lining of the passages swell causing the airways to narrow and reducing the flow of air in and out of the lungs.

Dr. McBride describes the disease more simply. “Asthma means you have sensitive lungs.”

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and at Vindy.com.