Common cold remedy ingredient raises stroke risk

Taking small doses of cold remedies containing phenylpropanolamine (PPA) appears to increase the risk of haemorrhagic stroke in women. There have been previous reports that appetite suppressants containing PPA increase the risk of haemorrhagic stroke in young and middle-age women. The association between diet pills containing large doses of PPA and brain haemorrhage has already proven and the current study reveals that even smaller doses of PPA in cold remedies can increase the risk of haemorrhagic stroke. Researchers from the Seoul National University Hospital studied 940 patients with haemorrhagic stroke and matched each with two controls. Overall, 2 percent of the women were exposed to PPA within 14 days of the stroke, compared with 1 percent of controls, in the 14 days prior to the index date. All of these exposures were due to cold remedies containing PPA. None of the subjects were using appetite suppressants. The risk of stroke associated with PPA exposure was more than double the normal risk. In addition, more recent and larger and longer PPA exposures were also found to be related to increased stroke risk. Among the women, the stroke was increased by 4-fold, but the risk among the men did not reach statistical significance. This was also the case for an earlier study in which PPA was used in an appetite suppressant. In that study, relatively few men were included. In the above study, exposure to PPA was similar for men and women. The researchers therefore concluded that the more evident risk in women couldn't be attributed to the difference in exposure between the sexes.