When All-American defensive back Kenny Easley left the University of California in 1981, he was embarking on an athlete’s dream future. In 1984-85 he led the National Football League in pass interceptions for the Seattle Seahawks and was a unanimous Pro Bowl pick.

Then he hurt his ankle. But it wasn’t this injury that permanently sidelined Easley, who has been regarded as one of the best football players of his generation. It was his kidneys, destroyed, he says, by the same over-the-counter medication on which Americans spend $500 million every year. The drug was ibuprofen (sold under brand names as Advil, Nuprin and Motrin).

Dr. William Bennett, head of nephrology* at Oregon Health Sciences University estimates that over-the-counter painkillers are responsible for as many as 20% of the 125,000 cases of end-stage kidney disease in the United States.

*Nephrologyis the branch of medical science that deals with the kidneys. (Dorland’s Medical Dictionary)

SOURCE: Excerpt from the TVHerald, August 26, 1989