Acetoaminophene in Short Supply



Do you know Aspirin intolerance?
It is a malady caused from aspirin intake.
Symptoms include asthma, which we call Aspirin intolerant asthma.
Lots of other medicines induce similar symptoms, so we call them NSAIDs intolerance, too.

Aspirin may be the most popular antipyretic analgesics in many countries.
But in Japan, other ones are prevalent like acetoaminophene or loxoprophen.
Everybody know their product name, caronal or loxonin.

NSAIDs is an acronym of Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
When inflammations ceased, pains are also gone.
So we often rely on these medicines while we are hard to bear present pains.

Intolerance means a body cannot accept a thing safely when he/she took it.
If he/she take it, several unpleasant symptoms appear such as nasal congestions, asthma and wheals.

When we become intolerant to aspirin/NSAIDs, what should we do?
The only solution is to avoid the items.


Oral analgesics cut off some steps in progressing inflammations and/or transmitting pain signals in the body.
They stop pains and inflammations due to diseases or injuries.

With the unquestionable reduce of all the redness, fever, swelling and pain, we can enjoy the instant relief.
However, the situation might be somewhat unnatural, because NSAIDs sometimes do not cure but just temporally mask the symptoms.
Maybe, symptoms flare up after several hours.
And the patient can't help retake the medicine again and again.
If only the temporary measure was repeated with no curative plan, the result will be...
The control system of the body would disrupt and start to react abnormally.
I think it is the NSAIDs intolerance.
So symptoms are inflammatory ones, which have lost control.


Japanese are medicine holics,
although very narrow-minded about adverse effects.
Any tiny ones such as temporary fever, or local pain after a vaccine injection are not permissible.
And take some medicine at once to press the symptoms down immediately.

Japanese may be timid.
They cannot hold certain pains and search for informations to avoid pains every day.
Nowadays, mass media advertise loudly how to minimize adverse reaction against COVID-19 vaccine.
Then as COVID-19 vaccination penetrate, acetoaminophenes are all sold out in lots of pharmacy, and finally in this summer in 2020, even hospitals and clinics could not prescribe various net of acetoaminophenes to any feverish and/or painful disease patients due to short supply.

This is the first incident in my career as a dermatological doctor.
A lot of my patients of shingles are impacted by the problem.
Other NSAIDs, loxoprofen or even ibuprofen lacked at one time.
That was really an irregular situation.

Critical conditions by COVID-19 pandemic forced many infected patients still stay home taking caronal independently.
Additional vaccination arose nationwide demand of aftercare medications.
That was a quite rare situation.
But I think we should not just wander to look for today's medicines.
This must be a good chance for thinking again about the necessity of those medicines.

Am I really in an urgent need of the medicine now?
Is it so hard to endure the reactive pain or fever after a vaccination as you are sure to need a medication?
TV commercials say to stop your period pains or headaches immediately and smile with a full performance. But should you do so?
Isn't it correct to continue painkillers months and years to treat back pains, knee pains or other repeated chronic pains?

You can always find a caution in any NSAIDs manual against a lengthy overuse.
because they are not curative agents.
Their antipyretic and analgesic effects are designed for symptom-oriented usage.
Just masking symptoms all the time should be definitely wrong.

Nevertheless, in reality, many patients as well as their doctors are addicted to those symptomatic therapies.
They won't resign taking until their NSAIDs break your gastric wall, or erupt whole body allergic exanthema.
Even then, instead of changing their mind, they still seek another painkiller to take.


We should always know a striking ace card of a medicine have certain peculiar adverse effects behind it.
According to the probability theory, we may actually receive it, or luckily could be safe.
As a matter of course, the more we take, the more we receive.
A medicine is not a magic wand. It is only a tool to use just when needed to cure the body.

Inflammations are danger signals.
Excessive inflammations might destroy human bodies, but I think we should listen attentively to the message first.

We can hear the warnings as suggestive advices.
It would not in the vain to think about other methods to correct our bodies.

2022.09.(translated in 2022.11.)@@
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