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#134 Addiction

6/25/2014

2 Comments

 
Consider these statistics quoted in USA Today on 5/21/14.

1)      55 million prescriptions for opioid pain killers were written for people 65 and over in 2013.  This is a 20% increase over the previous 5 years.

2)      In 2012, 336,000 seniors were misusing or dependent upon prescription pain relievers.  This is up from 132,000 10 years earlier.

3)      The rate of overdose deaths among people 55 and older tripled between 1999 and 2010. 

Here’s how it happens.  You are in your 40’s or 50’s, and sometimes earlier, and you begin to have some back pain.  Your insurance dictates that you must see your primary care physician (PCP) so you dutifully make an appointment.  He prescribes Ibuprofen of Naprosyn or some other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug.  One of two things happens.  Either it helps the pain or it doesn’t.  Both are bad:

            …if it helps reduce your pain this means that you are chemically blocking the pain from travelling from the damaged joint in your spine to your brain.  You do not feel the damage.  This allows you to go out and cause more damage.  In the end the cause of the pain, mechanical joint damage, gets worse.     

            …if it doesn’t help the pain you go back to the same doctor that gave you your first drug and he prescribes a stronger one.  Again, either it helps the pain or it doesn’t, and the above cycle continues. 

            Eventually, assuming you believe USA Today, your chances of being addicted to pain killers when you get to your senior years is very real.  And your chances of dying from that addiction has tripled since the last 90’s. 

            “Come on doc, it’s just a little bit of pain.  It’s just an Advil.  It’s not that serious.  You’re so dramatic.”  Perhaps you might be right.  But then again, you might not be.  I for one will not take that chance. As I like to say the amount of joint cartilage you have right now is the most you ever will.  It’s not going to get better on its own.  I write and talk about my own health issues quite a bit because I know me better than I know any of the thousands of patients I have treated.  I have been disabled three times from my lower back, once at the age of 10 (that is not a typo), in 2000, and in 2009.  I know back pain from all sides.  I know disability.  And if I didn’t have my education and experience I could have easily been sucked into the medication vortex that spirals down, down, down…

            Instead I use my weekly adjustments and more when necessary, my daily disc-pump exercises, my intermittent deep tissue therapy, and my hiking program to manage the damage.

           55 million prescriptions is a big number, and that’s just to the 65 and older crowd.  The problem with prevention is you never know when you have prevented something, because it never happened.  But each person you and I save from that addiction nightmare, or each person you and I try to save from that addiction nightmare, is something that we can be immensely proud of.   

2 Comments
Butch Wolfinbarger WEEA #26 link
3/2/2015 01:53:36 am

Great talk Dr. Rick Please sign me in #26
Thanks (BUTCH)

Reply
PATRICIA A. BATTLE
3/2/2015 09:58:08 am

Hi Dr. Rick, Please sign the WEEA book for me
Grand Jewelers #121, Thanks & See you on Wednesday!

Reply



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    Dr. Rick

    After writing an article per week for a year, I just kept going.  These are most of my collection.  They are written with my existing patients in mind, so some stuff may seem odd or unusual, but would make perfect sense to those who know chiropractic and who know me.  Enjoy and share!  For my personal blog visit: 

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What Our Patients Have To Say

Yolanda wrote:
     
     I used to suffer severe headaches and migraines on a daily basis, usually all day.  I managed to work in an office because I had to.  When I went home at the end of the day I would often close the shades and go to bed.  I could not plan weekend events because I simply never knew how I was going to feel tomorrow.  If there were a special event such as a birthday or wedding, I would begin to medicate myself two weeks in advance to give myself the best chance of making the event.
     Friends and fellow church-goers had been trying to get me to see Dr. Rick for some time before I finally gave in.  Looking back, I don’t know why I waited.  Within a month, I was headache free.  I couldn’t remember what it was like to not feel pain.  I could do whatever I wanted and not live in fear of the headache.  This was a miracle for me, but the story does not end here.
     An opportunity came up for us to adopt a newborn baby girl not long after I began chiropractic care.  This baby was particularly important to me and my husband because her mother is a relative.  Tragically, her mother was also a drug user and did drugs during her pregnancy.  If we could not adopt the baby she would have been put into the foster system since the biological mother was incapable of raising her.
     To keep a long story short, we did adopt her and she is doing fantastically.  There is no sign of any effect of the drugs on her as of yet, and with God’s help, there never will be.  We think that is because of the vast amounts of love and attention she gets from us, her real mommy and daddy.
     What does this have to do with chiropractic?  The reality is that without chiropractic, I would still be nearly an invalid with headaches.  I COULD NOT HAVE TAKEN CARE OF AN INFANT OR RAISED A YOUNG CHILD.  THEREFORE, SHE WOULD NOT HAVE ANY OF THE OPPORTUNITIES IN LIFE THAT MY HUSBAND AND I WILL BE ABLE TO PROVIDE FOR HER.  MY DAUGHTER’S LIFE IS POSSIBLE BECAUSE SOMEBODY MADE ME GO TO A CHIROPRACTOR. 
     You need to tell everyone you know what you know about chiropractic.  Who knows who’s life you will change too.
Andrew's mother, Barbara, wrote:

     Hello, My name is Andrew and I am a happy, healthy one year old.  But I wasn’t so happy or healthy when I first met Dr. Rick a few months ago.  I had been having problems with my ears for four months, I couldn’t sleep at night and I was miserable.  We’d been to the doctor lots of times but nothing was helping.  In fact, all the medicines the doctor had tried seemed to make me worse instead of better!  Both the regular doctor and the Ear-Nose and Throat doctor said that if the antibiotics didn’t work, then they’d just have to put tubes in.  Now my Mom and dad weren’t about to let them do surgery on me, especially since they had been reading and learned that tubes can cause more problems than they solve.  My mom and dad did a lot of praying.  Then my mom heard that sometimes babies who have a traumatic birth like mine have ear trouble.  You see when I was born they used a vacuum extractor and forceps to pull me out.  I guess all that yanking on my head, hurt my neck.  She also heard that chiropractic care can be the answer.  Now she was skeptical because she couldn’t imagine a chiropractor helping ear infections!?!  But at that point she was willing to try anything!!  Happily, a few weeks of adjustments and my ears were all cleared up.  In addition, I no longer had a stiff neck or shoulders and my whole personality was happier.  I have to tell all babies who have ear troubles, don’t let them give you tubes until you at least try chiropractic care first.  After all, it can’t hurt and if you’re like me, you could be perfectly well with no drugs and no surgery.  In my family, we thank God for Dr. Rick, because I feel better, my mom and dad are happier and sometimes, I even sleep through the night.