Acetaminophen linked to stroke risk for people with diabetes

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April 3 (UPI) -- A widely used pain relief drug may raise the risk for stroke in people with diabetes, a new study says.

About 5 percent of people who took acetaminophen suffered strokes compared to 4 percent who didn't take acetaminophen but had a strokes. But the number of people who have diabetes and took the drug had even more strokes.

"My personal message to the people in my everyday practice is that any drug they take may have some form of harmful side effect unknown to them, even those they can buy over the counter," study author Philippe Gerard, a researcher at Gérontopôle, Centre Hospitalo-Universitaire de Toulouse, said in a news release.

The study was conducted to examine the connection between acetaminophen and cardiac events such as stroke and heart attack among older people living in nursing homes in France.