We have a dark love affair with drugs that I didn’t know about.  It is very subtle but very sinister.  So, beware before they get you.

Years ago, I was reading an article about an NFL player who was addicted to the pain killer VICODIN because he could eat Tylenol with codeine like candy, and it didn’t touch his pain.  But the VIKES took care of his pain.

My concern for you is the growing trend of Vicodin prescriptions handed out  like Tylenol.   To me this is a very devious trend by the pharmaceutical companies.  Vicodin works great, so people love it, but it also happens to be very addictive, because it is a narcotic and a few chemical steps away from being street heroin.  This NFL player was addicted in more ways than one.

This current wave of legal, prescribed drug use is, to be honest, scary for two reasons.

• #1 It is very addicting.  It is one more way for drug companies to get you hooked.  I’d love to see CSI Miami  work on this case.

• #2 People are so unhealthy and so fatigued they can’t count on their bodies to make natural pain killers.  Yes, your own body is the best pharmacy. Your body can make natural pain killers that are 200 times more powerful than morphine.

Let me illustrate the reckless use of this addictive drug.  One of our patients who is a minor, recently had knee surgery for a sports injury.  His mom is a very good patient and is not in favor of any drug use, thank goodness for her son.  After the surgery her son was practically force-fed Vicodin.  They really, really, wanted him to take it.  His mother didn’t fill the presciption.  She took the common sense approach, and waited to see if he actually needed any pain killers at all.

Guess what?

He only needed plain-Jane Tylenol for one day.  He hardly needed any pain meds at all.  Yet, instead of using a fly swatter to kill the fly , he was given  10 lbs. sledge hammer.

P.S. under 18 and over 60 years of age, are more likely to experience side-effects.  I have seen a dramatic increase of new patients coming in on Vicodin.  It seems like the new Tylenol.

How would you like to avoid being put into this situation of taking highly addictive pain-killers for a pain-free life?

How would you like to grow old gracefully and walk by your friends at the pharmacy counter?  Or better yet, dance by them filling their prescriptions?

Your BODY is your best Pharmacy and  “Let food be your medicine.”-Hippocrates

4 simple things you can do to make your life more pain-free.

• #1  Drink enough water.  Pop, juice, coffee, tea, doesn’t count.  If you are properly hydrated, guess what?

You have less pain.  Unless you are a mutant and have a reservoir in your leg filled with water you can tap into you can only get water by mainly, drinking it.  If you are low on water your body has to ration what it has and prioritize it.  One of the chemicals used to prioritize how water is used happens to be prostaglandins, which happen to be pain-producing chemicals.  Bottom line:  Drink enough.  You don’t want to float away, though.  If your urine is light yellow or clear, you’re drinking enough.

P.S. Caffeine and alcohol dehydrate you.

• #2 Exercise.   When you exercise, your body produces natural pain-killers called endorphins.  They are 200 times more powerful than morphine.  They are often referred to as the runner’s high.

• #3 Food.     Take fish oil, eat a Mediterranean type diet,   spike your food with ginger, turmeric, garlic, or take the Boswelia complex herbal supplement.

• #4 Chiropractic adjustments.

This is my favorite thing to do, because for many pains, it works faster than the others.

But why?

This is one secret to growing old gracefully.

When your body is hurt, you feel pain,  it’s no big secret.  But what happens after that is the secret.

Your body starts to heal the injury with scar tissue.  And those injured joints become stiffer, and they function less and less.  Normal joint motion triggers pain blocking.  When joints function less, they hurt more.  Now enter the chiropractic adjustment that improves the joint function, and viola, the pain starts to go away simply because the body works better.

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.