Doctor Renne here, Jacksonville. Today’s topic: painkillers.
Let’s say you’ve been in an accident of some kind and sustained a
lower back injury, as many of my patients have. You’re in pain. You come to see
me or one of my colleagues, and we start talking about adjustments, stretching,
massages, and physical therapy, and all this other stuff. To you, it sounds like a long road ahead.
Why not just cut to the chase? After all, your problem is that
you’re in pain. Why don’t we just prescribe some painkillers? That’s what
they’re for, right?
Well, as it turns out, this can be a dangerous road to go down.
Virtually all of the really
effective pain medications are strictly controlled narcotic-type drugs. And
they’re strictly controlled for good reasons: they can be both dangerous and
addictive! Every year, thousands of people die from ‘opioid overdoses,’ a
category that includes prescription painkillers. And taking virtually any of
these medications for more than a few weeks almost always results in
dependencies and withdrawal symptoms when you stop taking them.
But there’s actually a
sneakier danger lurking in pain pills. Painkillers change your brain.
Without getting too technical, your brain has receptors in it that
certain molecules bind with on contact, and when that happens, you feel good.
Your body manufactures many of these molecules naturally, and they are known as
endorphins. If you’ve ever gotten a “runner’s
high” you know what I’m talking about.
Painkillers are designed to slide in and bind to those receptors themselves as if they were natural endorphins. Your brain gets the message, and you start feeling better. But if
this goes on too long or happens too often, your brain will get ‘habituated’ to
the effect. It starts creating more receptor sites for the drugs to bind to. Your body may also start to generate fewer
natural endorphins on its own.
What this means in layman’s terms is that you need more and more
of the medication to be effective and
that you feel worse without it. In fact, in the long term, the medication may
stop working entirely, even though you still feel a powerful need to take it.
And that’s a road you really don’t want
to go down, especially given the danger of overdoses!
I’m not trying to scare anybody. Some people can benefit from
prescription pain medication under the oversight of a qualified physician. But
it’s important to remember that these are powerful drugs that have real risks.
That’s why when you come in with lower back pain, I typically turn to more natural healing methods rather than recommending prescription
painkillers.
If you are experiencing back pain, you don’t
have to suffer in silence. My phone number is (904)398-4860. Call today. We’ll
figure out a plan to get you on the road to healing quickly.
Yours in health,
Christopher B. Renne, D.C.
Chiropractic Physician
www.activechirocenter.com
No comments:
Post a Comment