Acetaminophen is Not for Back Pain

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

More breaking news has been released on the use of drugs to cover up back pain, specifically acetaminophen or brand names Tylenol and Vicodin.

Researchers from the University of Sydney in Australia have published a study in The Lancet showing acetaminophen to be no better than placebo when it comes to relieving back pain.

They studied over 1,650 patients averaging 45 years of age. All had low back pain and were randomly treated with three doses of acetaminophen daily (totaling 3990 mg’s), or given placebo pills. All patients had follow-ups with their doctors for three months. What did they find?

According to the study, there were no differences in the amount of time it took any of the patients involved to feel better. Actually, the placebo group average 16 days to feel better, and the drug group averaged 17 days.

Cholesterol is Not the Culprit!

Articles by Dr. Erdman are for informational purposes, and are not to be taken as specific medical advice.

Over the last several years of writing these columns I’ve hit the cholesterol topic a few times. It bears repeating until you finally give up your statin drugs forever. They are not just dangerous but treat a non- existent, made up health crisis. Cholesterol is a necessary, vital piece of your health picture.

The medical community has for 30 years fed us a line of complete and utter hysteria about cholesterol levels in our blood. First they randomly selected 180 mg/dl as the “normal” level of cholesterol. A reading of 200 mg/dl required their drugs to keep you safely under 180. The diet they prescribed was to eat no cholesterol, not much red meat, and lots of grains. When that was proven wrong, they said some eggs and red meat are ok, but not too much.

We now see a complete scientifically based free fall of this cholesterol whopper! As Dr. Mercola puts it, “The cholesterol myth has suffered a bit of a triple whammy of late, making it harder and harder for heart specialists to uphold the company line.” There are three studies since 2012 that Dr. Mercola shows have obliterated the saturated fat phobia.