'Long-term paracetamol use fit cause blood pressure'

Pipo wey get high blood pressure wey come dey take paracetamol on prescription fit dey increase dia risk of heart attacks and strokes, na one study suggest am.

Doctors suppose think about di risks and benefits to patients wey dey take it over plenti months, di University of Edinburgh researchers tok.

Taking di painkiller for headaches and fevers dey safe, dey stress.

Other experts tok say research in more pipo over longer timeframe dey needed to confirm di findings.

Paracetamol dey widely used around di world as short-term remedy for aches and pains but also dey prescribed to manage chronic pain, despite little evidence of im benefit for long-term use.

Half a million pipo - one out of evri 10 pesin - for Scotland bin get prescribed painkiller for 2018.

High blood pressure affect one out of every three pipo for di UK.

Di study track 110 volunteers, two-thirds of whom bin dey take drugs for high blood pressure, or hypertension.

For one randomised trial, dem ask dem to take 1g of paracetamol four times a day for two weeks - a common dose for patients wey get chronic pain - and den dummy pills, or placebo, for another two weeks.

Di trial show say paracetamol increase blood pressure, "one of di most important risk factors for heart attacks and strokes" much more than placebo, Edinburgh clinical pharmacologist Prof James Dear tok.

Di researchers advise make doctors dey start patients with chronic pain on as low a dose of paracetamol as possible and keep a close eye on dos wey get high blood pressure and dey risk of heart disease.

Lead investigator Dr Iain MacIntyre, clinical pharmacology consultant, for NHS Lothian, tok say : ''Dis no be about short-term use of paracetamol for headaches or fever, wey, of course, dey fine."

'Plenti unknowns'

Dr Dipender Gill, clinical pharmacology and therapeutics lecturer, at St George's, University of London, tok say di study, wey dey published for di journal Circulation, bin don found "small but meaningful increase for blood pressure in white Scottish population" but "plenti unknowns remain".

"Firstly, e no dey clear whether di observed increase for blood pressure go dey sustained with longer term use of paracetamol," e tok.

"Secondly, e no dey known for certain whether any increase for blood pressure attributable to paracetamol use go lead to increased risk of cardiovascular disease."

One large US study bin don previously find a link between long-term paracetamol use and increased risk of heart attacks - but e no fit prove say one cause di oda.

And other smaller studies bin don dey unable to confirm di link.

Di Edinburgh team tok say dem no fit explain how paracetamol go raise blood pressure but their findings suppose lead to review of long-term paracetamol prescriptions.

Dis bin don dey previously considered safer dan non-steroidal anti-inflammatory painkillers, such as ibuprofen, wey dey thought to raise blood pressure for some pipo.

Di British Heart Foundation, wey fund di study, tok say doctors and patients suppose dey regularly rethink whether any medication, even something "relatively harmless like paracetamol", deyneeded.

Dr Richard Francis, from the Stroke Association, tok further say research for pipo with normal, healthy blood pressure, over longer timeframe, dey needed "to confirm di risks and benefits of using paracetamol more widely".