Effervescent medicines (painkillers, vitamins, etc.) are often enriched with sodium bicarbonate to help them dissolve more quickly in water and be more quickly absorbed by the body. Thus, in an effervescent tablet of 500 mg of paracetamol or acetaminophen, there are approximately 0.4 grams of sodium, one of the components of salt.
If the taking of painkiller is only punctual, that does not pose a problem. But for people who suffer from pain or chronic illnesses, daily intake can easily cause patients to exceed the recommended 2 g of salt each day, which can have harmful effects on the body, especially the heart, even when you don’t suffer fromhigh blood pressure.
The sodium content is not indicated on the medicine boxes
A study led by Professor Chao Zeng of Central South University, Changsha, China, involving more than 300,000 people over the age of 60 who were prescribed paracetamol in different forms, showed that patients who took daily paracetamol in effervescent form (therefore with sodium) were slightly but significantly more at risk of heart attack, stroke, heart failure and death one year later, compared to patients who took paracetamol sodium-free.
“The actual risk only increased by about 1% compared to those taking sodium-free medications, but at the population level it is still significant,” said Professor Zeng. “We also found that the risk of cardiovascular disease and death increased as the duration of sodium-containing paracetamol intake increased,” he adds.
For the researchers, to reduce cardiovascular risk, we should be more attentive to the consumption of hidden salt not only in food but also in medicines. This could involve mandatory labeling of the sodium content on the box of each drug.
Source :Sodium-containing acetaminophen and cardiovascular outcomes in individuals with and without hypertensionEuropean heart journal, February 2022
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