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Acetaminophen (Tylenol). Most people reach for it for every day headaches like it's no big deal. Yet acetaminophen is one of the major contributors to liver disease in the US each year. Acetaminophen has also long been considered generally safe for use during all stages of pregnancy, making it the first-choice pain and fever medica on for pregnant women. Given the large number of pregnant women using the drug (>50% in the United States; 50%-60% western European), even a small increase in risk of adverse outcomes in the offspring can have important implica ons for public health. Tylenol has more recently come under new and serious scru ny. Animal studies suggest that its use in pregnancy can have important implica ons for neurodevelopment and endocrine func on, which is also important for neurodevelopment as well as normal sexual differen a on. It has been associated with as much as a 37% increase in hyperkine c disorder, a severe form of ADHD, and a 30% increase in ADHD in a study of over 64,000 Danish Headaches in Pregnancy: Natural Alternatives to Tylenol mothers who took the drug during pregnancy. Risks of ADHD in children went up to 50% in women who took Tylenol for 20 weeks or more during pregnancy. Stronger associa ons were observed with use in more than one trimester during pregnancy, and the higher the frequency of use, the higher the risk of ADHD and hyperkine c disorder. A second more recent large study, of 7796 pregnant women who used acetaminophen at 18 and 32 weeks of pregnancy, again published in JAMA Pediatrics has confirmed the findings of this study, found that children exposed to acetaminophen prenatally are at increased risk of mul ple behavioral difficul es, and the associa ons do not appear to be explained by unmeasured behavioral or social factors. It is no surprise that Tylenol could be at the root of problems in developing babies – it depletes a chemical called glutathione that we rely on in our bodies for detoxifica on, and it also acts as a hormone disruptor. This study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, suggests that acetaminophen may influence fetal brain development. This is also not the first- me lack of acetaminophen safety in pregnancy has been raised – it has been linked to undescended tes cles in males, an increased risk factor for infer lity and later development of tes cular cancer. While it is unlikely that using acetaminophen a few mes over the course of a pregnancy is likely to cause a problem, and the benefits way outweigh risk for fever reduc on in pregnancy, these studies are a reminder that medica ons should not be used unques oningly during pregnancy. "We should con nually remain vigilant to the need to reappraise the evidence concerning the risk-benefit balances of medica ons in light of new research findings." Headaches are a common prenatal problem, and acetaminophen has been considered safe to use, whereas other commonly used headache medica ons including ibuprofen and aspirin, are not safe for use in pregnancy. So, what's a mom to do? Here are 5, safe, natural ps to help reduce headaches in pregnancy: Page 56 | Abby's Magazine - www.AbbysMag.com