Tylenol - Not Effective?

Tylenol is usually recommended as a first line treatment for back or joint pain, but authors of a recent study noticed that there have been no studies comparing it with placebo.

That said they looked at over 3000 patients with knee and back pain. Although there was a minimal trend for pain relief this was not statistically significant. And there were more cases of liver problems in the tylenol group (tylenol is high doses is toxic to the liver).

That's all well and good in younger patients who can try aleve or advil; but as we age drugs like these can cause kidney damage and are second line. And I would not use a narcotic first line.

So continue exercise and stretching, and I would still use tylenol, or perhaps low dose aleve for back pain. But this certainly is thought provoking!