We all take over the counter (OTC) anti-inflammatory medication from time to time right? They come in the form of aspirin, Tylenol, Motrin, Advil, Aleve, and several others. And then there are the prescription forms that sometimes are just stronger versions of the OTC meds. Sometimes they are chemical forms that may be more likely to cause “side-effects” so the FDA wants them supervised by your medical doctor. And sometimes they are a new drug that will earn the company more profit as a prescription medication. But for the sake of this discussion let’s just group them all under the title pain meds. The last number I heard is that 1 in 6 TV ads are for a drug, and most of them are for pain meds. Over time we have become immune to the side effects disclaimer that comes right after the ads, but we all know that for every “effect” of a drug, there are many, sometimes dozens, of “side effects.” But today we are going to discuss a side effect that you will never see listed on the literature or ad of any pain med, but it is a most insidious one and the one that is most dangerous to you. Kinda makes you sit on the edge of your seat doesn’t it?
Let’s pretend that you are a medical doctor and your patient in front of you right now has chronic pain somewhere in his back or neck. It’s 10:00 and when you came to the office you opened your little tool box on your desk and you extracted one of two tools that the box contains, your prescription pad. Since you are a general practice medical doctor you rarely use the second tool of medicine that resides in that box, surgery. Surgeons do surgery. You write prescriptions for drugs. And you write one for the back pain patient and send him on his way.
The drug works and the pain goes away, but in time it returns and so you prescribe more drugs, and over the years the drugs become stronger and stronger, as it takes more and more and stronger and stronger to cover the pain. And then one day you realize that your prescription pad will no longer do the trick so you refer him to your surgeon buddy so that he can remove and/or fuse parts of the patient as if that is really going to fix anything. You, the medical doctor, have participated in the tragedy of pain management.
As a patient in my office you know that the cause of the patient’s problem is subluxation. You know that if left untreated the subluxation will result in spinal joint and disc degeneration and/or herniation. And you know that the purpose of the chiropractic adjustment is to correct the subluxation as much as possible to help prevent the progressive degeneration that is subluxation.
But as a medical doctor you only know to treat the symptoms with your pen and pad until the symptoms are so bad that surgery can be done. What you don’t know or don’t care about is that with every pain med taken to cover or mask the pain, you are actually helping to accelerate the degeneration of the spine by letting your patient do things that he couldn’t do if he were in pain and shouldn’t do while he’s taking a drug that masks the pain. This allows the joints to wear out faster and faster. No one can stop the effects of aging, gravity, and life, but while chiropractic adjustments slow the process, pain meds actually accelerate it. This information could save you or someone you love lots of pain, money, suffering and time. I hope you share it.
Let’s pretend that you are a medical doctor and your patient in front of you right now has chronic pain somewhere in his back or neck. It’s 10:00 and when you came to the office you opened your little tool box on your desk and you extracted one of two tools that the box contains, your prescription pad. Since you are a general practice medical doctor you rarely use the second tool of medicine that resides in that box, surgery. Surgeons do surgery. You write prescriptions for drugs. And you write one for the back pain patient and send him on his way.
The drug works and the pain goes away, but in time it returns and so you prescribe more drugs, and over the years the drugs become stronger and stronger, as it takes more and more and stronger and stronger to cover the pain. And then one day you realize that your prescription pad will no longer do the trick so you refer him to your surgeon buddy so that he can remove and/or fuse parts of the patient as if that is really going to fix anything. You, the medical doctor, have participated in the tragedy of pain management.
As a patient in my office you know that the cause of the patient’s problem is subluxation. You know that if left untreated the subluxation will result in spinal joint and disc degeneration and/or herniation. And you know that the purpose of the chiropractic adjustment is to correct the subluxation as much as possible to help prevent the progressive degeneration that is subluxation.
But as a medical doctor you only know to treat the symptoms with your pen and pad until the symptoms are so bad that surgery can be done. What you don’t know or don’t care about is that with every pain med taken to cover or mask the pain, you are actually helping to accelerate the degeneration of the spine by letting your patient do things that he couldn’t do if he were in pain and shouldn’t do while he’s taking a drug that masks the pain. This allows the joints to wear out faster and faster. No one can stop the effects of aging, gravity, and life, but while chiropractic adjustments slow the process, pain meds actually accelerate it. This information could save you or someone you love lots of pain, money, suffering and time. I hope you share it.