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both acetaminophen and codeine (the most widely used narcotic in medical treatment in the world).
Codeine is metabolized to morphine in the body.
Mothers cannot expect doctors to protect them and their babies from the dangers of prescription and
over-the-counter drugs. The doctors didn’t make these drugs and often have no clue about what’s in them.
Most doctors never even look at the list of side effects. Patients need to inform themselves about the side
effects of the drugs they take. It makes little sense to replace one relatively minor symptom of discomfort
with some or all of the following potential consequences of taking Tylenol: nausea, vomiting,
constipation, lightheadedness, dizziness, drowsiness, flushing, vision changes, mental/mood changes,
slow/irregular breathing, slow/irregular heartbeat, change in the amount of urine, dark urine, yellowing
eyes or skin, stomach pain, extreme fatigue, possibly fatal liver disease and allergic reactions.
To stress the seriousness of the situation, a survey conducted by the National Consumers League found
that 44 percent of adults knowingly exceeded the recommended dose of OTC pain relievers—while only
16 percent had even read the warning label! Federal officials estimate that over 150,000 Americans each
year end up in the emergency department of hospitals because of complications from OTC pain-relievers.
These “harmless” medicines, as most doctors and patients consider them, kill 16,000 Americans outright
every year.
Furthermore, while you may believe that aspirin is good for getting rid of a headache,
a new study reveals that certain heart patients may actually be at greater risk for heart attacks if they use
aspirin, as reported in the July 2004 issue of the American Heart Journal. The lead researcher of the
study, Dr. John G. F. Cleland, University of Hull, England, stated that any theoretical benefit of using
aspirin after a heart attack “is outweighed by real evidence of harm.” Discontinuing the treatment once it
has been started is also problematic. A French study showed how severe angina and fatal heart attacks
might be prompted by the sudden halt of regular aspirin intake. The researchers even stated that aspirin
therapy “cannot be safely stopped in any case.”
In stark contrast to drug therapy, a 15-month study of almost 2,000 subjects showed how those whose
diets included the highest fruit intake had more than a 70 percent reduced risk of heart attack and other
cardiac problems compared with those who ate the least amount of fruit. Vegetable intake produced a
similar effect. Subjects who consumed vegetables three or more times each week had an approximately 70
percent lower heart attack risk than those who ate no vegetables at all.
Antibiotics may have their place if someone is dying and could be saved by the drugs. But it is very
risky, for instance, to give children who are infected with the flu virus H, the antibiotic chloramphenicol.
The drug is known to destroy bone marrow, which requires subsequent blood transfusions and many other
therapies that cannot guarantee a recovery at all. Chloramphenicol preparations are still prescribed even
for such minor problems as a sore throat.
According to studies cited by the American magazine Newsweek, seven out of ten Americans who seek
treatment for the common cold receive antibiotics – even though it is a fact that antibiotics are useless
against viral infections such as colds or the flu. When these powerful yet ineffective drugs are
administered to patients with such relatively mild illnesses, neither patient nor doctor seems to be aware
of the chaos the drugs can create in the body of an infected person. After killing most of the invading
germs and substantial numbers of friendly bacteria in the host’s intestines, the body’s immune system is
left with the nearly impossible task of removing their rotting carcasses. Since the good bacteria have been
destroyed, too, there is “nobody” left to clear up this toxic mess, which consists mostly of putrefying
protein. Some of the protein, though, does end up in the connective tissues and is packed into the basal
membranes of the capillaries and arteries. In time, the increased congestion in the circulatory system may
lead to heart attacks, stroke, or congestive heart failure.