What would you do if you couldn’t get Tylenol at the store? What if you had to see a medical doctor for all of your pain killers, just for arthritis, headaches, back pain, or your husband. The idea is being floated by the FDA. This is serious enough that the pharmaceuticals pet monkey (the FDA) is actually, maybe, growing a backbone. They put together a 35 person panel to investigate new restrictions to the sale of acetaminophen over the counter or even removing it all together.
Why?
Acetaminophen is the leading cause of liver failure.
What happens is people are combining multiple drugs and not realizing they are getting an unsafe and potentially toxic dose of acetaminophen.
Such as:
Tylenol - pain
Percocet - pain
NyQuil - colds
Theraflu - colds
10% of the deaths involved cold medications. Since 2 billion dollars is at stake. Plus, Johnson and Johnson, the makers of Tylenol, are suggesting that if people don’t have Tylenol they will use more non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs which can cause intestinal bleeding and fatal kidney injury.
-(6-30-09 AP)
So what to do? Tough conundrum.
I recognize that there is a time and place for pain killers. They are most often needed for short term duration. Where I see the problem is on the long term use of these drugs. The everyday use is going to catch up with you. They all have side effect. Most people think of Tylenol as harmless, right. Hospitals brag that they use it because it is so mild. Now we have the FDA talking about yanking it from the counters because it is hurting too many people. OK.
What to do?
For those short term uses most people are going to probably turn to some kind of pain reliever. I recognize that. I order two bottles of our most potent pain killer last week for patients and often don’t think to tell people that it exists. So here goes. Mediherb makes “Saligesic” which is white willow bark, basically Indian aspirin. The original aspirin that the modern drug was derived from. As usual “people” screw stuff up. Turns out that the natural aspirin doesn’t cause stomach bleeding like the drug version. We use it primarily for low back patients who just can’t wait for some relief. I don’t advertise or generally start off recommending it because I would prefer the body to heal naturally. But sometimes the pain is to great.
To give you an example, the last time I had to use it was a few years ago. Our patient had never had back pain before and wham, out of the blue she was practically incapacitated with pain. As fate would have it, one of her good friends was hit with back pain during the same week. Now, I realize people are different and you can’t compare them, but I will anyway. Within a week of chiropractic adjustments and “Salegesic” as needed she was about 90% better. Her friend who didn’t seek any natural help, was still in alot of pain and using MORPHINE. We still laugh at that. Her morphine friend could comprehend that she was just getting adjusted and using white willow bark.
Back on topic. Even with white willow bark it is a short term thing. What about chronic pain? This is a problem indeed. Based on patients in the office here are my top choices.
#1 Chiropractic.
For a lot of people with pain that has been going on a long time it often goes away with 2-6 weeks of adjustments. Mine did. A couple things are happening here. If there is joint damage, a stuck joint hurts, pure and simple. Joint damage can occur with a big hit in football, a car accident, falling or any kind of sudden impact. It can also occur with slow repetitive things like carrying kids on the same hip, talking on the phone with your head holding the phone, repetitive jobs, Looking off-center for long periods of time, etc… A stuck joint sends pain signals to the brain telling your brain there is a problem here. A healthy joint that has been recently damaged will instantly feel better after an adjustment. If it has been going on for years, then it can take a few weeks to get enough motion back into the joints. This is one of the secrets to growing old gracefully and pain-free.
#2 Food allergies or intolerances. Bruce West first wrote about this last year in a newsletter and the patients who have done it have had excellent success getting rid of pain. If chiropractic doesn’t give you pain relief you need to look at your diet. There are actually three parts to this.
Part 1: Omega-3 fatty acids. Most people don’t get enough, especially if you eat lots of grain products, which the dieticians tell you to eat with the moronic food pyramid. Grains have lots of omega-6 fatty acids. These little gems cause pain and inflammation. So if you eat lots of grains and don’t eat ocean fish or take some kind of fish oil supplement, you need to start here. Eat more proteins, good fats, and veggies. Now add some fish oil supplements or my favorite, cod liver oil.
Part 2: Certain foods themselves can trigger pain. You can do an expensive allergy panel, or take some time and see how food effects you. Spen 4 days only eating watermelon and zuccini. They are the least allergenic foods. After that, evaluate your pain. If it is better but not gone, keep doing the diet until your pain is gone. It could be 10 days. If you are pain-free start adding one new food a day. If your pain starts to come back you know right there that it isn’t a good food for you. This is not easy.
Part 3: Drink water: lack of water alone can cause pain. Lots of pain, drink 10 glasses a day (~80oz.)
These three tips can keep you pain-free for the rest of your life. You may need the odd painkiller after being out all night, but that isn’t the problem here. We don’t want long-term pain killer use.
Doing things the natural way may take longer, but it is much healthier for you, and worth the time. I am a living example. I used to be miserable until I fell into chiropractic and a good diet, and I was only 21 y.o. and miserable. The longer you wait the harder it is.
Get adjusted, eat some good food…til next time.
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