Debunking Medical Myths: Trump, Tylenol, and Autism

Trump's recent claims linking acetaminophen to autism sparked a necessary conversation about medical misinformation. As your resident healthcare voice of reason, I'm setting the record straight with evidence-based facts. A gold-standard Swedish study examining over 250,000 individuals found absolutely no connection between Tylenol and autism when accounting for genetic and environmental factors. The rising autism diagnosis rates reflect our improved ability to recognize neurodivergence, not medication side effects.

The consequences of social media missteps in healthcare education came into sharp focus when a nursing student lost everything after recording clinical experiences. Despite attempting to modify patient information, her violation of privacy policies led to dismissal from her program. For those documenting your healthcare journey, proceed with extreme caution - never record at clinical sites, consider reenactments after graduation, and remember that your career aspirations outweigh any temporary social media engagement.

We're also seeing fascinating shifts in how healthcare professionals manage work-life balance. With 30% of Americans now using PTO for "staycations" rather than travel, many nurses are prioritizing simple rest over elaborate getaways. The joy of sleeping in when you'd normally be up at 5AM for a shift represents a powerful form of self-care. Yet troubling reports suggest some nurses work multiple jobs just to survive - raising critical questions about compensation adequacy across different nursing roles and specialties.

Where are you in your nursing journey? Whether you're struggling with burnout, celebrating achievements, or somewhere in between, I'd love to connect with you. Share your experiences in the comments, suggest topics for future episodes, or let me know if you need encouragement. Together, we're building a community that values evidence over politics, ethics over trends, and wellbeing alongside professional growth.

Chapters

• 0:00 Trump's Tylenol Claims and Autism Facts
• 7:48 Student Nurse Dropped for Social Media Violations
• 13:33 Americans Using PTO for Staycations
• 15:51 Nurses Working Multiple Jobs to Survive
• 20:09 Closing Thoughts and Listener Check-in

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Welcome in, welcome in, come till a friend. I got a lot on my mind, but I'm not here to waste your time. So let's get into it. So the word of the day is Ace in the minute. Said it. Word of the day. Ace. Now, some of you probably already aware of where I'm alluding to, where I'm going to, what this is about. Especially if you're listening to this in America. If you're listening to this outside of America, you may not have a clue. Maybe you do, because I think a lot of you probably follow politics pretty closely. So you guys already know. I come on this podcast. I don't say very much what's going on in politics for a variety of reasons. But I can't help it when it comes to obvious medical things that go on. I just I can't help it. You know what I'm saying? So President Trump talked about, he had a speech this past week where he made a bold claim where he talked about asynophon is linked to autism. And is he he said it's linked to autism. Which there's other sources that it's otherwise, which we can get into later. But, you know, when I saw, when I saw the initial video, and I was thinking, you know, he really didn't say this in in Trump fashion. I really thought he would kind of be freestyling it more, kind of be harping on it more. You know what I'm saying? I think some of you probably know what I'm talking about. I I I I anticipated him saying, you know, I took Tylenol. I took Tylenol a long, long time ago. Fabulous product, fabulous product. It works very well. It works very well. I've taken it for pain once. It did wonders on me. It did many, many wonders on me. It worked very well. But now the Tylenol has gone astray. But now the Tylenol is hurting the babies, it's hurting the children, it's hurting the mothers. It's hurting many, many mothers. And because now it's hurting many mothers, it's hurting the children. And now we can no longer use it because it's hurting so many. What a terrible, terrible thing. That's what I thought we was gonna get. That's what I thought we was gonna get. But we did not get that. We didn't get that one bit. We didn't get that at all. We just, I mean, he was kind of reading, you know, just trying to pretty much read. And I was like, nah. I mean, at least if you're gonna make a bold claim, I mean, at least make it somewhat entertaining. That's been the whole stick, the whole gimmick, that's been the whole thing. I mean, the man knows that he knows how to be entertaining, he knows how to captivate an audience. Like, he knows how to do that, no matter where you stand for or against. The man does know how to do that. So that was a bit of a letdown, if I'm gonna be honest. You know, we gotta have fun somewhat of this because there's been so many sources. I mean, there's been so many studies, there's been clinical research, there's been all kinds of things that have been came out, articles that have come out debunking this claim that Tylenol, asinaminophin, I know that's hard to say. I know my nursing students who listen to this podcast who just work on it, asinaminophen. Right? But it it's it's come on now. A lot of research has been done, it's just not happening. Okay, there's no link to asinaminophen and autism. I know people have been trying to crack down, people have been trying to figure it out, like what's caused autism. They want to pinpoint one single thing. And unfortunately, it's not linked to any drug or any shot or anything like that. It hasn't been linked to any of that. Okay. You know, there's just been, I think people are trying to find pinpoint because there's just been such a rise in you know, neurodivergence in terms of the diagnosis that's come out over the years, a lot of debate. But really, guys, it's really is just as simple as we have the clinical tools to catch it now. Before people were just either ignoring it or putting a label on it, or you know, saying that child needs to be whooped more, or that maybe that boy is just different, or you know, he that boy is just off, or whatever. But we we as we've advanced as a civilization, we've advanced in medicine. I mean, we're able to catch this quicker, diagnose it quicker, get the kids help that they need because it's a lifelong journey, it's a lifelong process. Autism is not just a thing, all right? It's not the thing that you can just cast off or cast away. It's not something that you can just pray away. You know, you can pray about, you can pray about and pray that you have the resources and tools available to you to take care of this child. You can pray about a community that will be there for you through the long run. Just that those are the proper things to pray about and pray for, but you're not gonna pray it away. You're not gonna cast it away. You know what I'm saying? We have to, we we have to do what we can to take care of the kids now. So let me just get that out the way. You know what I'm saying? And so I'm just gonna quote one resource, just one, just one resource. You guys, like I said, you guys can look up whatever you want to. I've got one resource, okay? This is from Dr. Linder Eckert. Okay. She said most of the research does not bear uh that there's a casual relationship. Um, and he said the research on Tylenol has been quite reassuring overall. There's been recently many studies and several great studies that looked at this. The most recent one was a very powerful study done in Sweden, where they looked at over a quarter million individuals, quarter million individuals. They were also able to look at siblings where people had environmental sibling relationships, genetics in common. When they accounted for these environmental and genetic risks, they did not see any association between Tylenol and autism. So that's thought to be a very gold standard study. So, I mean, can read this off. I can read other things as well. I just want to give one one quote. One. And if you're wondering, well, who is this person? I mean, she is um OB OBGYN, um, president for the University of Washington. That's who she is. So just getting that out of the way. So please let me know in your comments below. What do you think about the stuff that's come out recently? I mean, do you think there's one product that causes autism? Let me know in the comments. Do you think the president's comments about Tylenol, aka acinaminophen, the what do you think about those? Let me know in the comments below. Do you have a child that you're dealing with neurodivergence? What is that experience like for you? Do you have the resources available? Please let me know in the comments below because I like to hear your story. And my heart goes out to you because I know that is not an easy job whatsoever. So let me know. So we started off hot. We started off real hot, man. So our next topic is a student nurse was recently dropped from her program for social media, recording videos while she's at clinicals. Hmm, let's talk about it. So a particular student had a long TikTok post explaining her situation, how she got dropped recently from her nursing program. She talked about how she realized that right off the bat, that her school had a social media policy. She knew that in terms of student nurse content has been on the rise and very popular, and she wanted to hop on the trend. She recognized that. She talked about her experience, how she went to clinicals, recorded, was recording different things to try to leave out patient information, recorded a day of her life, and then the one thing that got her, she recorded an S-BAR. She recorded an S bar, situation background assessment recommendation. She recorded an S-BAR and it had personal information on there. According to her, she says there was a date of birth on there that was not that particular person's date of birth, but she changed it intentionally so it wouldn't violate HIPAA. So anyway, time goes by, and then she gets a notification from her school, officials from her school, that they need to talk to her. So they have a sit down with her. They sit down one-on-one, and they told her that they're going to reprimand her. They're still weighing out the options because they it came to their attention that her social media page was brought to their attention. They checked out the videos and they feel as though that she was in violation of school code. She was in violation also of HIPAA. And it would let her know what the consequences of her actions would be. So, long story short, she gets let go. She gets dropped from her program. And then in a video that I found, she was very upset. She wanted people to learn from her mistakes. So she wasn't upset at the school. She didn't, she didn't have anything nasty to say towards the school. She wanted people to simply learn from her mistakes. So here I am as your recondarin, giving you a little bit of advice. I know there's a lot of students. I know there's people that you know have recorded their student nurse journey up until the time they became nurses, and then they had they took that same following with them from their pre-nursing journey, nurse, nursing school journey, up until their current journey where they are today. It might have worked out for them, but it doesn't necessarily mean it'll work out for you. Different nursing schools, different states have different social media policies. And if you choose to do this, you're gambling. Even if they don't have a very clear social media policy, you're still gambling with your status within this particular school. Because it's going to be up to their discretion. And why would you want to give anybody any ammunition on you anyway? Right? Because just as this young lady talked about how somebody in her school turned her in that she believes, there's always somebody at your local nursing school that's ready to turn you in. So let's get that out the way. My advice would be if you're going to record or document your nursing school journey, that is fantastic. My recommendation is to not take your camera or phone with you to clinicals. Now, you may record yourself in a car of how you feel before and after. You may record your nursing school journey in terms of your testing. You may record, you know, maybe your classmates or your students with their consent. You know, maybe you can record SimLab with permission. Maybe you can record SimLab and everything that goes on with that. But my advice is to never take that to the actual clinical site and hit record. If you want to be the safest you can be, you can record everything, document everything. You can do some reenactment. Once you finally graduate and get your past nursing boards, you can go back through your notes, go back to your videos, touch them up, you can reenact them and then post them. Or if you just did everything in the here and now, just post them after you graduate and you're away from that school. Because anytime you choose to do a day in the life of a student nurse without consent from your facility, your teachers, your classmates, anytime you choose to do any of that, you are gambling with your status. I want you to pass. I want you to succeed. I am not mad that you want to make content. I'm doing it right now. Now, granted, I'm not a nursing student. I've already been there and done that. I've already graduated. I'm a whole registered nurse. That's what RN and Wakanda RN stands for. Or nurse Wakanda, or depending on where you see this. But that was that is my advice. So if you feel differently, please let me know in the comments below. Or are you recording right now throughout your nursing journey and posting content? Let me know how that's going for you. I would love to know because it's different for each individual. So that is my advice. Please learn from that young lady's mistake. Hopefully, this advice has helped you. On to our next topic. So 30% of Americans use PTO for staycations, according to a local report. 30%. So normally we think of vacations, right? You take PTO, you got a trip planned, whether you got a cruise planned, or maybe you're going out of town for a few days, you got your hotel booked, you got all your reservations, all this stuff. That's typically what people think of when it comes to PTO. But now it seems to be increasing Americans are just saying, you know what? I just need to get away from the job. I just need to get away from this building. I need to get away from this place because I can't take it no more. So according to this particular report, people were using it just to catch up on sleep, just to do a little self-care. They're gonna just go to go to bed, man. I'm not mad at it. I'm really not mad at it. Um I didn't really know this was a national thing. I mean, I've heard of people locally. I mean, I've I've taken PTO for staycations. I've taken PTO just to listen, man, I I need to get my mind right. I I need to recuperate. You know what I'm saying? You dang right I would use that for rest. If it, you know how good it is to sleep in, you know, depending on what shift you work, you know. But you know how good it is to sleep in on a day you're supposed to get up at five, six o'clock in the morning, depending on who you are, four, whatever, but it feels good to be able to sleep in until about seven, eight, nine o'clock, depending on certain situations. It feels good. So I can totally relate to uh, you know, what being one of one of those 37%, being part of that 37%, could I definitely done the same. I don't necessarily had to go anywhere. I just wanted to get myself right. You feel me? You know what I'm saying? I mean, let me know, man. Are you part of that 37%? I do you every time you take PTO, do you go somewhere? Do you go somewhere? I mean, I I don't care if it's five miles away, 30 minutes, four hours. I mean, I don't care. You know what I'm saying? Do you every time you have PTO, do you travel? Let me know in the comments below. And where do you go? Because I mean, I feel like things are getting more and more expensive, you know what I'm saying? So let me know in the comments below. Alright. And then another subject I want to talk about. So I saw a video recently where a guy claimed the nurses are working two to three jobs, two to three jobs just to make ends meet. Just to make ends meet. Now, I do understand this this can vary. There's a lot there's a lot of factors that can vary by this. You know what I'm saying? So, for example, if you are somebody that lives in a state with um, you know, saying a higher cost of living, so this definitely could be for you. Um, or just depending on your living situation, there's a lot of factors. We got to take it into account. Children, you know, do you have a partner or spouse? Do they work? Are they disabled? I mean, are they bums? I mean, we gotta really we gotta be honest here. You you you have a bum partner that that can factor into it as well. But, I mean, seriously though, like it there's a lot of factors. Now, should nurses have to work two to three, two to three jobs just to make ends meet? I absolutely not. I wouldn't say nurses make big money, but nurses should make a pretty good wages in order for them to make ends meet and do better. You know what I'm saying? Depending on who you are, whether you're a LPN, LVN, you went to school for a year, year and a half, whether you are a ADN, a registered nurse, you went to school for two years, not counting your basics. I mean, you should definitely be able to make ends meet. Um, and then you go higher up to BSN, the MSNs, you know, and then you got your your graduate programs and all that, depending on what you specialize in. So you definitely as a nurse should be able to. And we're talking CNA, CMA, tech. Oh yeah. There's a lot of CNAs, it's hard for them to make ends meet. We'll just keep it, keep it, let's be honest here. But my nurses, please let me know. Is this you? Are my nurses out there? Are you struggling to make ends meet? Do you have to work two to three jobs just to make ends meet? Because if you do, how are your finances? Do we have bad spending habits? Listen, a lot of my ladies out there, I I know some of y'all will do y'all will count, y'all will take uh extra shifts to pay for it for extra things. I I've been around some of y'all, you know what I'm saying? That's certain bag, you know what I'm saying? That certain bag, Birkin bag or whatever, you're like, I could pick up an extra shift. That'll cover that. You know what I'm saying? I I I've been around some of y'all. So them extra shoes you want or dress or whatever, I ladies, I I've been around y'all, I already know. But let me know in the comments below. If we're talking about you like you're not spending on any luxurious things, you just you struggling to make it make ends meet. Definitely let me know in the comments below because that that is crazy to me. So with this, man, I I would like to know people's where you at personally. Where were you at personally in your your journey? Typically, most of my audience are nurses, but I always like to know where where where people are in their nursing journey. Because right now, just briefly talking about myself. I'm in I'm continuing my education. I'm in the process of continuing my education and I'm working hard to reach certain goals. So I'm continuing my education. So that's where I'm at. I'm I'm currently working in my registered nurse role. Um, I do some adjunct stuff too, in terms of like, you know, schoolwork or teaching CNA class and things like that. But right now I primarily work bedside. So that's what I'm doing right now. But I like to know other people that are listening, what what is their current journey? What is it like? What are they doing? How are you doing as a person? That's another thing, too. I like to ask too. How are you doing individually? Are you okay? Are you struggling? Is it hard out there? Because as much as I enjoy my platform, I I want to use my platform to help uplift you, give you words of encouragement, and or pray for you if you need that too. So uh I'll be honored to do so. If you made it this far, um, definitely let me know where's your mind at. I'd be more than happy to give you words of encouragement and/or pray for you. So, with that being said, listen, man, we talked about asinaminophin. And does it have a link towards autism? The answer is astoundingly no. We talked about nursing students dropped from a program for breaking um the code of conduct. We talked about how 30% of Americans use PTO for staycations. And do nurses have to work two to three jobs just to meet ends meet? So if you enjoy these topics, please give a like, comment, subscribe, depending on where you see this. You know what I'm saying? If there's suggestive, excuse me, if there's topics that you want to suggest, please let me know. I'm always open to suggestions and or guests. Um like to close out this year pretty strong. I'm working on getting a couple of uh guests for you guys. So definitely let me know in the comments below. You know what I'm saying? So anyway, I appreciate you guys. I love you guys. I hope you guys have a blessed rest of the week. And thank you guys for tuning in, whichever kind are in, and I am