The Epidemic of Chronic Pain, Drug Addiction and Death

We are at a crisis point today; more people are suffering with chronic pain than ever before, over 116 million individuals. Possibly you are one of them? This crisis is leading to an epidemic of addiction to prescription painkillers. Nearly 2 million Americans now abuse or are dependent upon legal opioid prescriptions! This is tragically leading to a record number of fatal overdoses.

A record number of 47,000 Americans fatally overdosed in 2014, which was an increase by 7% over 2013. As a society we need to wake up to the fact more people now die from their prescription pain medications then die in car crashes or in gun violence! Prince very recently and tragically joined the ranks of these statistics of the nearly 77 individuals dying each and every day from prescription painkillers. Could you or loved one be next? Why not take action now before it’s too late, continue reading to find out how?

Addiction experts now admit the doctors have fueled this crisis by prescribing highly addictive opioids like Vicodin, Percocet, and OxyContin, even for minor aches and ailments. Physicians wrote more than 259 million opioid prescriptions in 2012, a tripling of the number from two decades ago. That is enough opiate drugs to provide every adult in the country with a bottle of these dangerous pills. We all understand the horrors and dangers of heroin addiction; today 4 out of 5 heroin addicts were first hooked on prescription opioid painkillers.

Why is this happening? First there is a tremendous profit being gained by drug companies through the sale of prescription painkillers. Second, the vast majority of doctors and even specialists do not know how to properly find the underlying neurometabolic causes of chronic pain disorders nor how to treat them without using drugs. Let’s be clear here we are not talking about chronic pain caused by cancer and other pathological conditions. We’re talking about pain generated from musculoskeletal origins-muscle and joint pain.

I’ve written about this in numerous articles in Tidbits and have lectured to the community on multiple occasions. There are no simple, quick answers for chronic pain, no pills or physical techniques to take it all away. You must change your life, how you eat, how you move and how you think. In my book Why We Hurt that my clinic I try to get my patients to realize that they need to take a 4 R Approach: REMOVE, REPLENISH, RESTORE AND REPAIR.

First we have to REMOVE any issues identified on in-depth laboratory and physical examination that are causing your body harm. For example, issues such as dietary imbalances, specific vitamin/mineral deficiencies, gastrointestinal microbe imbalances, toxic metals or chemicals, hormonal imbalances, myofascial trigger points and muscular imbalances.

Then with the second R we need to RESTORE any imbalances and REPLENISH any deficiencies in the body. This second and third R involves dietary changes and nutritional support based on your laboratory tests. With the final R corrective care must be given on an ongoing basis to help stimulate the body to move towards REPAIR. This third R for example involves myofascial therapies, acupuncture, and biofeedback for stress reduction.

I’ve written about this process many times in Tidbits, however it may be more beneficial to hear it from an individual who utilized this process to heal his chronic pain and fatigue: My name is Jay White and I spent the last 25 years trying to solve a terrible chronic pain problem. It was labeled many different things including fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and forget-about-it-you'll-have-it-forever. I saw over 50 doctors, both conventional and alternative. Nothing helped. Then, something wonderful happened. I got a FREE consultation from Dr. Fors and my long, mind-numbing pilgrimage of pain and staggering expense started to come to an end.