My few thoughts:
Totally believe that Autism is likely multi-factorial and a combination of genetics and environmental factorsand unfortunately we don't have great causal data or information on what a lot of those environmental factors could be. There is a poor association with Tylenol but the same totally could be said for maternal age, alcohol, dietary and other factors as well.
I tell people all the time that natural health is probably best. Diet, exercise, eating well are all better for your health than pills. The problem? Most people don't do the above. You tell 100 people to eat well and lose weight and less than 2 do. Pills serve a role. I wish less people needed them.
In the ER, we use a ton of Tylenol and Zofran in pregnant women. Both have proven safety, BUT both have shown a minuscule level of risk as well. Zofran is pregnancy safety risk B, not A and has been shown to have an association with a TINY risk in heart birth defects.
Why do we still use it? Because it's better than women dying from dehydration and electrolyte imbalance from "toughing it out" at home. If you can handle your headache and fever and nausea at home, that's fantastic. People generally don't come to the ER because they're doing great though. At that point in time the microscopic risk of the medicine is not nearly as high as the risk of not treating the disease process. Especially if you consider the risk of miscarriage or fetal harm that the disease could then possibly cause.
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