No link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes • Hacker News Board

Re: No link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes

#11

Post by ctoa » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 6:25 PM UTC

eth0up wrote: post #3

Just for the sake of honest balance, with minimal commentary and no opinions: Acetaminophen and dementia correlation: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2877629/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01638... Note that it's also hard on the liver. A lot fatalities due to taking after hangovers, etc: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322813 So if you insist, maybe take some NAC. But appa…

"A lot fatalities due to taking after hangovers" no, that's not how acetaminophen fatalities happen. In fact, the article you cited specifically mentions "there is no scientific evidence that people with AUD (alcohol use disorder) who take the recommended dose of acetaminophen increase their risk of liver damage."

Fatalities happen basically from: product stacking combination medicines people don't realize contain acetaminophen and/or multi-day accumulation exceeding max daily limit over multiple days.

Chronic drinkers have impaired acetaminophen processing so they can't handle otherwise safe doses, but fatalities still typically occur in multi-day accumulation scenarios. Their safe daily max is ~half that of a non drinker.

The effects of one round of acute drinking don't impair the liver in the same way. People are not dropping dead because they took a normal dose of acetaminophen for a hangover. Not that I'm recommending you start doing it, but it is a myth.

Re: No link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes

#12

Post by DANmode » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 6:34 PM UTC

estearum wrote: post #8

DANmode wrote: post #4

Now do the study in mutated (MTHR, MTHFR, COMT, others, some combination of them) sample populations.

Why?

Because those mutations change detox efficiencies.

Not sure I understand the question!

Re: No link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes

#13

Post by mmooss » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 6:35 PM UTC

greggsy wrote: post #9

eth0up wrote: post #3

Just for the sake of honest balance, with minimal commentary and no opinions: Acetaminophen and dementia correlation: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2877629/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01638... Note that it's also hard on the liver. A lot fatalities due to taking after hangovers, etc: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322813 So if you insist, maybe take some NAC. But appa…

The liver toxicity is well known, and overdose is not uncommon.

> overdose is not uncommon

Anecdotally, I hear about it far more in Internet comments like the parent than elsewhere. How common is it?

Re: No link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes

#14

Post by phendrenad2 » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 6:36 PM UTC

eth0up wrote: post #3

Just for the sake of honest balance, with minimal commentary and no opinions: Acetaminophen and dementia correlation: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2877629/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01638... Note that it's also hard on the liver. A lot fatalities due to taking after hangovers, etc: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322813 So if you insist, maybe take some NAC. But appa…

This article is about "how early a child is born or a child’s weight at birth". I don't know why we're talking about other possible negatives of Acetaminophen. Seems off-topic to me.

Re: No link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes

#15

Post by mapontosevenths » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 6:38 PM UTC

chappy789 wrote: post #6

[flagged]

All smart people are curious about things outside their realms of expertise. Curiosity is one of the defining attributes of intelligence.

The desire to discuss those things is also reasonable. Though I would agree that those without credentials should probably abstain from expressing any potentially harmful opinions when healthcare is involved, the freedom to ask questions or bring up interesting digressions is fundamental.

Re: No link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes

#16

Post by tootie » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 6:38 PM UTC

And yet I still see MAHA defenders even on HN.

Re: No link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes

#17

Post by anonymousiam » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 6:39 PM UTC

This paper says there are no adverse effects to the mother, but it does not mention possible adverse effects to the child beyond "birth health" and does not address the recent controversy about a possible link to autism.

Re: No link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes

#18

Post by eth0up » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 6:41 PM UTC

estearum wrote: post #7

eth0up wrote: post #3

Just for the sake of honest balance, with minimal commentary and no opinions: Acetaminophen and dementia correlation: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2877629/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01638... Note that it's also hard on the liver. A lot fatalities due to taking after hangovers, etc: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322813 So if you insist, maybe take some NAC. But appa…

The first paper shows no evidence of any effect from Tylenol...? But yeah seems like lots of support for the ibuprofen protective effect, interestingly.

If you do start munching on advil; note there are rumors, by medical researchers, case reports, and more, that if you dig beneath the shiny surface to find, do show a lot of compelling data for GI damage, heart risk and other serious side-effects. And depending on how fair one wants to be with 'evidence' -- almost all wording describing NSAIDs as "protective", uses easy-to-miss but distinct qualifiers such as "potential" and other such vague 'maybe'-equivalents that alone have been used to suppress and dismiss many other...potential medicines. Sometimes, conclusive just means inspired. And sometimes ambiguity means certainty, depending on levels of inspiration involved.

Of course, one might pause for a moment to consider just how potential the alluded benefits really are with ibuprofen, and ask why doctors aren't recommending it for mental health, or as a general health product. But that might point to the peculiar fact that there is substantially more evidence suggesting risk over health benefits, and the benefits really depend on what one wants to see. There is a reason it's not marketed as a health product, but with the way it's framed, it should be, nu? I mean, potential benefits sells a lot of snake oil and lowfat yogurt. Why not advil and acetaminophen?

And by similar logic used to dismiss acetaminophen here as a health risk, eg because there's no link with autism/ADHD it's safe; why not apply the same logic to opiates? We could just say opiates do not directly cause, eg , parkinsons, or AIDS, therefore it's safe for babies. Myself, I never correlated acetaminophen with autism/ADHD, but I know it has more side-effects than listen on the bottle.

Re: No link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes

#19

Post by redwall_hp » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 6:44 PM UTC

ctoa wrote: post #11

eth0up wrote: post #3

Just for the sake of honest balance, with minimal commentary and no opinions: Acetaminophen and dementia correlation: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2877629/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S01638... Note that it's also hard on the liver. A lot fatalities due to taking after hangovers, etc: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322813 So if you insist, maybe take some NAC. But appa…

"A lot fatalities due to taking after hangovers" no, that's not how acetaminophen fatalities happen. In fact, the article you cited specifically mentions "there is no scientific evidence that people with AUD (alcohol use disorder) who take the recommended dose of acetaminophen increase their risk of liver damage." Fatalities happen basically from: product stacking combination medicines people don't realize contain ac…

> Fatalities happen basically from: product stacking combination medicines people don't realize contain acetaminophen and/or multi-day accumulation exceeding max daily limit over multiple days.

I find it obnoxious that NyQuil has taken over as the default brand people grab for cough syrup, for that reason. It has acetaminophen, while Robitussin or such have the other active ingredients without that risk.

The typical person doesn't read and understand active ingredients, and it's lucky if they even check dosage instructions.

Re: No link between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes

#20

Post by estearum » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 6:48 PM UTC

eth0up wrote: post #18

estearum wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The first paper shows no evidence of any effect from Tylenol...? But yeah seems like lots of support for the ibuprofen protective effect, interestingly.

If you do start munching on advil; note there are rumors, by medical researchers, case reports, and more, that if you dig beneath the shiny surface to find, do show a lot of compelling data for GI damage, heart risk and other serious side-effects. And depending on how fair one wants to be with 'evidence' -- almost all wording describing NSAIDs as "protective", uses easy-to-miss but distinct qualifiers such as "potent…

Yeah I work in clinical trials so I'm very comfortable with all the caveats the need to be applied to correlative studies like these.

Which also answers your other question of why doctors don't recommend it: we don't actually know that it does this.

As for the rest of the ramble, you (or I) definitely don't know hardly anything that hasn't been established in clinical trials. Certainly can't just vibes-based assess a label and its completeness. It's really, really hard to know things.

The precise wording as far as safety is: "we have no substantive or high-quality evidence that the drug is unsafe."