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New study says a box of paracetamol contains the same amount of salt as fast-food chips

Politiko 2023-01-26 17:48:03

New study says a box of paracetamol contains the same amount of salt as

You are probably well aware of the salt hidden in your chips or a packet of chips. But did you know that over-the-counter drugs can be even worse? For example, getting the recommended daily intake of the saltiest would cause you to eat as much sodium as you would find in 21 small servings of potato chips. Experts are warning the millions of people who buy soluble versions of painkillers to be careful as their salt levels can be 'dangerously high'. Sodium - one of the main components of salt and is commonly used in soluble medicines. It is added to allow the tablets to dissolve in water.

New study says a box of paracetamol contains the same amount of salt as

The National Health Service recommends that adults consume no more than 2.4 g of sodium per day, equivalent to 6 g of salt or about a teaspoon. Experts say that salt is about two and a half times the amount of sodium. Similarly, guidelines in the United States state that adults should limit sodium intake to 2.3 g. In the UK, all medicines containing at least 1 mmol (or 23 mg) of sodium in each dose must be declared on their labelling.

The accompanying patient information leaflet provides information on the amount of sodium and includes a warning for patients on a low sodium diet to consider how much is hidden in their medicines. Some brand-name drugs, such as Panadol, Solpadeine, and Alka-Seltzer, may exceed your recommended daily salt limit.

A person taking the maximum recommended daily dose of two tablets four times a day would consume 3.8 g (3816 mg) of sodium from the tablets. That's over one and a half times the recommended sodium intake for an adult. It's also equivalent to 21 small portions of McDonald's chips (approx. 176mg per portion), nearly four Big Macs (1056mg) or 28 packets of Walkers ready chips (136mg).

Similar high levels were seen in paracetamol Panadol, ActiFast Soluble 24s Pain Relief Tablets 500mg (427mg) and Solpadeine Max, Soluble Tablets (427mg). Besides being overweight, excessive salt consumption is one of the biggest causes of high blood pressure, which can lead to heart disease. Heart disease is one of Britain's biggest killers, causing 160,000 heart attack deaths each year - around one every three minutes.

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