Wonder Drugs

Thirty-four million people suffer from chronic pain caused by injuries, low back problems, headaches or arthritis.

Television ads for pain meds are quite alluring and persuasive. We’ve seen grandparents playing with children, headache sufferers and weekend warriors melting pain away with an assortment of pills; but are these promises of instant pain relief too good to be true?

The influence by “Big Pharma” is being bought to the tune of $30 billion a year and growing. According to a study published recently in The New England Journal of Medicine, the total amount spent on pharmaceutical promotions was $29.9 billion in 2005, up from a mere $11.4 billion in 1996.

In 2004 the CDC released statistics that half of Americans use at least one prescription drug.

We have become a ‘pill popping’ society. Take a pill for every ill. The question is, “At what cost?”. Well the cost is our health.

Cause of Bleeding Ulcers

Examples of OTC (over the counter) NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) include Aleve, Motrin, or Tylenol.

Drugs such as Aleve block the production of very important chemicals called prostaglandins which protect our stomach and GI lining. As a result, OTC NSAIDS are a major cause of bleeding ulcers and digestive disorders.

In 2005, a research study performed by the University of Utah and the Pfizer group of over 50,000 subjects revealed that eople taking NSAIDS were 2.5 times more likely to suffer from not only ulcers but perforations in the GI tract as well.

Increase Risk of Stroke & Heart Attack

Any prescription cox-2 inhibitors, such as CELEBREX, or VIOXX may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death.

Cleveland Clinic researcher, Eric J. Topol, said a conservative estimate on the number of patients who have had heart attacks or strokes as a result of taking Vioxx could range from 30,000 to 100,000.

Questions You Should Ask

Medications can save lives and are critical to emergency care, but just how safe are they for treating chronic conditions?

The following are some questions you should ask yourself and your doctor before taking a medication:
1. Is there a safer alternative than medication?
2. What is the game plan for getting off the medication and restoring your health?
3. What is the risk associated with prolonged use of the medication?
4. Are the short term benefits worth the risk?

We live in a day and age where medications are prescribed like candy without careful consideration of the harmful side effects. Let us consider for a moment the risk associated with the most common pain medications: over the counter NSAIDs and prescription cox-2 inhibitors.

A Better Choice!

For those of you suffering from chronic pain there are natural pain relieving alternatives with no side effects. For years, I have used many herbal and homeopathic remedies to control pain, while treating the underlying cause of the pain, with great success. There are actually a large variety of remedies that you can use for pain. Your holistic health care provider will determine which one is best for your needs.

Most importantly in calming and eliminating pain is your diet. Avoid pro-inflammatory foods. These foods will increase your level of inflammation, thus increasing your pain levels and can also increase your risk for chronic illness.

Pro-inflammatory foods are foods such as sandwich meats, hot dogs, sausages and other processed meats, as well as foods containing trans fats and saturated fats found in meats. Diets high in sugar are pro-inflammatory as well as diets high in processed foods.

Lastly, although this is a great start to helping you achieve freedom for your pain meds, find a natural health care practitioner can get to the root cause of your pain. You want to correct the source of the pain and not just cover it up.