Cochrane says -for acute back pain, 4g of paracetamol a day is no better than a placebo although NICE recommends paracetamol as the first-line painkiller for low back pain. The conflicting reports makes for more confusion even as GPs are issuing a staggering 22.9m prescriptions to paracetamol every year.

Read the Guardian article by clicking here and for a full review of the Cochrane study visit their 6th June published study ‘Paracetamol for low back pain’.