Could your painkillers be giving you a heart attack? It's not certain, but it's possible.
The dispersible and effervescent formulations of the common over-the-counter analgesic paracetamol 500mg, for example, can contain a significant amount of sodium - an excess of which has been linked with a greater risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Many studies have shown that excess salt is harmful to heart health
If you took the maximum daily dose of eight tablets of paracetemol a day, you'd exceed the recommended total daily allowance of sodium of 2.4 grams by as much as 40 per cent or more. And that's just from one drug, excluding the sodium you will consume through food.
In fact, researchers in Britain have found that patients who took sodium-containing drugs faced a 16 per cent higher risk of a heart problem or stroke, were seven times more likely to develop high blood pressure, and had a 28 per cent higher death rate.
"Curiously, unlike foods, pharmaceutical manufacturers are not placed under any restrictions or obligations with regards to sodium content or labelling of these sodium-containing formulations," wrote the researchers from the University of Dundee and University of College London in their study report published last week on the British Medical Journal website bmj.com
They said the public "should be warned about the potential dangers of high sodium intake from prescribed medicines", and that sodium-containing formulations "should be prescribed with caution only if the perceived benefits outweigh the risks".
They also called for the sodium content of medicines to be clearly labelled in same way foods are labelled.