Paracetamol is a medicine that many people take for pain relief.
It’s often thought to be safer than other painkillers like ibuprofen, especially for people who have problems with their heart or stomach.
But new research from the University of Edinburgh suggests that long-term use of paracetamol may raise the risk of heart disease and stroke, especially in people who already have high blood pressure.
In this study, scientists looked at 110 people who had high blood pressure. Half of them were given one gram of paracetamol four times a day, which is a common dose for treating long-term pain. The other half took a fake pill (placebo) for two weeks.
When the researchers checked the participants’ blood pressure, they found that the people who took paracetamol had a noticeable increase in their blood pressure compared to those taking the placebo.
This is important because high blood pressure is a major cause of heart attacks and strokes. In fact, the rise in blood pressure caused by paracetamol was similar to what doctors see with another type of painkiller called NSAIDs (like ibuprofen), which are already known to raise blood pressure.
Previous studies have shown that this kind of increase in blood pressure could raise the risk of heart disease or stroke by about 20%.
The researchers say that this doesn’t mean people should stop taking paracetamol altogether. It can still be useful, especially when used for a short time or at the lowest dose needed.
But people who already have high blood pressure or heart problems should talk to their doctor about how often they take paracetamol and whether it’s the best choice for them.
Professor James Dear, one of the lead researchers, pointed out that paracetamol is the most widely used drug in the world. But now we know it can also affect blood pressure, so doctors need to be more careful about prescribing it long term, especially to people at risk for heart problems.
This study was led by Dr. Iain MacIntyre and his team and published in the medical journal Circulation. The findings suggest that both doctors and patients should think twice before using paracetamol every day for long periods, particularly if they already have high blood pressure.
If you care about blood pressure, please read studies about the ideal blood pressure for older people and common high blood pressure drugs may cause memory problems.
For more health information, please read studies about A common blood pressure medication that could help you live longer and 1 in 5 people with high blood pressure takes a medication that harms blood pressure.
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