Forget McDonald’s! Paracetamol can contain as much salt as 21 PORTIONS of chips…so how much is hidden in the medication you take?

You are probably only too aware of the salt in McDonald’s chips or a packet of potato chips.

But did you know that over-the-counter medicines can be even worse?

For example, if you eat the recommended daily serving of the saltiest, you will get as much sodium as in 21 small servings of potato chips.

Experts are warning the millions who buy soluble versions of painkillers, which are the worst offenders, to be careful as their salt levels can be “dangerously high”.

Sodium – one of the main components of salt – is often used in soluble medicines. It is added to dissolve the tablets in water.

The NHS recommends that adults consume no more than 2.4g of sodium a day, which is equivalent to 6g of salt, or about a teaspoon. Experts say that salt contains about two and a half times the amount of sodium.

Similarly, the guidelines in the US state that adults should also limit their sodium intake to 2.3 g.

In the UK, all medicines containing at least 1mmol (or 23mg) of sodium in each dose must state this on their label.

The included leaflet provides information on the amount of sodium and warns patients on a low-sodium diet to think about the amount of sodium hidden in their medication.

Several brand name medications such as Panadol, Solpadeine and Alka-Seltzer can exceed your recommended daily salt limit.

Alka-Seltzer Original 20 effervescent tablets contain 477 mg of sodium per tablet.

If the maximum recommended daily dose of two tablets is taken four times a day, a person will receive 3.8 g (3816 mg) of sodium from the tablets alone.

This is more than one and a half times the recommended sodium intake for an adult.

It’s also the equivalent of 21 servings of McDonald’s Small French Fries (about 176 mg per serving), nearly four Big Macs (1056 mg), or 28 packets of Walkers Ready-To-Eat Salted Potato Chips (136 mg).

Similar high concentrations were observed in Panadol Paracetamol Pain Relief Tablets 500 mg ActiFast Soluble 24s (427 mg) and Solpadeine Max Soluble Tablets (427 mg).

An audit by MailOnline found that Solpadeine Max soluble tablets contain 427mg of sodium per tablet, 18 per cent of your recommended daily allowance. The main culprit, Alka-Seltzer Original 20 Effervescent Tablets, on the other hand, claims a total sodium content of 477 mg

Along with obesity, too much salt is one of the main causes of high blood pressure, which can lead to heart disease.

Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the UK, causing 160,000 deaths each year from stroke, heart attack and heart failure – around one every three minutes.

In the US alone, 660,000 Americans die each year from heart disease, which accounts for a quarter of all deaths.

Paracetamol 500mg tablets each day contain less than 1mmol of sodium – or 23mg – per tablet, making them effectively ‘sodium-free’.

But among the brands of effervescent tablets available, Cipla Paracetamol 500 mg effervescent tablets, pack of 24,463.01 mg of sodium per tablet, were found.

Max Remedies 24 paracetamol effervescent tablets 500 mg followed closely by 438 mg.

But it’s not just paracetamol.

Lemsip Max All in One Lemon was also found to contain 129mg of sodium per sachet.

By taking the maximum recommended daily allowance of one sachet four times a day, a person would consume 0.52g of sodium – or 22 percent of the recommended daily allowance.

Beechams Flu Plus Lemon 10s claim a total sodium content of 120mg per sachet.

Among the retail own brand medications, Boots Maximum Strength Cold and Flu Aid also contains 118 mg of sodium per tablet.

Experts recommend aspirin tablets or soluble aspirin as a good alternative to high sodium drugs because neither aspirin tablets nor soluble aspirin contain salt.

But health advisers say no one should panic and throw away prescription drugs, but instead talk to a GP or pharmacist.

Effervescent tablets have a higher sodium content because they act faster in liquid form and are absorbed more quickly by the digestive system than a standard tablet. Lemsip Max All in One Lemon was found to contain 129mg of sodium per sachet, while Panadol Paracetamol Pain Relief Tablets 500mg ActiFast Soluble 24s has a total of 427mg per tablet

Sonia Pombo, nutritionist and campaign manager at Action on Salt, told MailOnline today: ‘It is ironic to think that despite using soluble medicines to help ourselves, we are unknowingly doing unnecessary damage to our health.

“These drugs are dangerously high in sodium and will give us more than the equivalent of 9g of salt in a day – more than 60 per cent above our maximum daily limit.”

She added: “Eating too much sodium – in whatever form – raises our blood pressure and puts us at greater risk of stroke and heart attack.

“Pharmaceutical companies need to do more to make this clearer, because without clear labeling on these products it is impossible to know how much extra sodium we may be consuming.

“If possible, avoid effervescent or soluble medications that contain sodium so they dissolve in water, and opt for non-soluble versions.”

“But if you’re not sure what’s in your medication, read the label for more information and talk to your pharmacist or GP.”

Sindy Jodar, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, told MailOnline: “Effervescent and soluble formulations of paracetamol can contain significant amounts of sodium in each tablet and the maximum daily dose of these species will exceed the daily intake of 2g of sodium recommended by the World Health Organization recommended.

If you occasionally use acetaminophen with sodium to treat single headaches or very short pains, you don’t need to worry.

A 2022 study published in the European Heart Journal found that patients who took the high-sodium versions of acetaminophen soluble tablets were up to 45 percent more likely to have a heart attack, stroke or heart failure within a year. gain.

It also recommended that health chiefs consider adding health warnings to sodium-containing paracetamol to warn patients of the dangers.

A landmark study from 2013 was also found that patients using sodium-containing effervescent, dispersible, and soluble drugs were also seven times more likely to develop hypertension and 22 percent more likely to have a stroke.

Professor Jacob George, Chair of Cardiovascular Medicine and Therapies at the University of Dundee, who co-authored the study, told MailOnline today: ‘Add to that our Western diet and salt in processed foods and you can easily see how many people those who take medication consume too much salt over a long period of time.’