It’s a royal pain, figuratively, to be in any pain, literally.
I mean, millions and millions of people are in pain — of varying degrees and varying frequencies — and they are paying out millions and millions of dollars (billions maybe?) every year in search of relief, a relief that for most never really comes, or at least never lasts.
Store shelves and pharmacies are crammed with a myriad of tempting solutions. All manner of media — television, radio, the internet, newspapers, magazines, etc. — carry regular items (ads, features, news) promising to stop, impede or limit pain.
People eat it right up and get hooked.
It’s legalized dealing in addictive drugs.
And, of course, such shameful conduct also can be found elsewhere. Pushers of “natural” remedies also play on the desperation of the pained, marketing dietary supplements, specialized foods and drinks, physical exercises and mental manipulations.
The former type of addiction (from medications) is physical. The latter type of addiction (from non-meds) is insidious, a mind game: Your pain may or may not be lessening as a result of these (pills, yoga sessions, glutton-free foods, fitness machines, fitness devices). Studies of their use are either inconclusive or contradictory.
But imagine life what your life would be without them! Can you really risk stopping? Can anyone really say with confidence that this is all simply a “placebo effect,” that you feel better just because you believed the pill/food/exercise was effective?
Regardless of whether we do get mentally hooked, it appears to me that just getting people to try these things — the stuff that dreams are made of, as Sam Spade might say — probably is the goal of their sales force. They can rake in a pretty nice sum if thousands of people only enroll in one class or buy one supply of pills or instructional video.
But — and it’s a big but —if this stuff is all for a good cause — easing suffering, even for a limited time — who can argue? It may actually work for some people, so isn’t that justification enough?
I wonder. I have no firm conclusions, just a lot of questions.
To start with, why all the pain?
For many, of course, it’s a certifiable diagnosis of a physical problem. For those, it’s beyond me to list all the medical reasons requiring legitimate use of prescription painkillers.
But how their used is instructive in trying to understand the netherworld outside of them, a life with daily discomfort, stiffness, aches or pains in joints, muscles or other bodily parts.
From a recent report on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website:
“Forty-six individuals die every day in the United States from an overdose of prescription painkillers, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Healthcare providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for opioid painkillers in 2012.
"That's enough for every American adult to have their own bottle of pills," CDC director Tom Frieden, MD, said during a media briefing.
“Prescriptions for opioid painkillers were distributed unevenly throughout the United States. Healthcare providers in the highest prescribing state wrote almost 3 times as many opioid painkiller prescriptions per person as those in the lowest prescribing state.”
Obviously, getting relief from pain is addicting. The CDC has found that persons prescribed serious painkillers continue taking them long after their use is deemed no longer medically necessary.
Looked at another way, the painkillers alone have been deemed a narcotic.
Again, from the CDC:
“Although many types of prescription drugs are abused, there is currently a growing, deadly epidemic of prescription painkiller abuse. Nearly three out of four prescription drug overdoses are caused by prescription painkillers—also called opioid pain relievers.
“The unprecedented rise in overdose deaths in the US parallels a 300 percent increase since 1999 in the sale of these strong painkillers. These drugs were involved in 14,800 overdose deaths in 2008, more than cocaine and heroin combined.
“The misuse and abuse of prescription painkillers was responsible for more than 475,000 emergency department visits in 2009, a number that nearly doubled in just five years.
“More than 12 million people reported using prescription painkillers non-medically in 2010, that is, using them without a prescription or for the feeling they cause.”
How many drug abusers actually need painkillers and how many use them for recreational purposes (and then get hooked)? That’s anyone guess.
But I’m thinking the need to alleviate pain drives the majority of abusers.
Likewise, I believe those who have even a lesser level of pain can be easily lured into an addictive relationship with any manner of attractive relievers.
And that group really needs more reliable information on just what works, lest they be taking or doing a ton of stuff that is just plain worthless. Even if there are a few who win the pain relief lottery, so many others pour their hard-earned money into things, regardless of unproven effectiveness.
One example is glucosamine–chondroitin-MSM. These are pills promising to bolster bone cartilage so that people are less likely to suffer aching, deteriorating joints as they age.
My mother and brother suggested it to me. But medical websites, news articles and my doctors all say that study after study has not found any actual medical benefit to the supplement.
Still, the theory behind the stuff apparently is correct and some studies hedge that the long-term benefits may not always be easy to measure. So, my urologist says he takes it. So does the nurse practitioner who oversees my wife’s health. So do countless others, judging from the steady supply maintained any place where drugs are sold.
I tried it for years and did not see any change in my aches and pains. But the thought is always in my mind: Maybe, just maybe, this stuff is building up my bones so that I won’t suffer in my old age. Can I afford to stop?
Speaking of afford: These pills are very expensive, like $35 for few month’s supply, unless you don’t shop wisely and take advantage of drug store specials.
I’ve come across several other examples of promising but unproven supplements: multi-vitamins, which some nutritionists claim are worthless; fish oil pills, widely recommended but without any tangible benefit; hyaluronic acid, suggested by my mom’s chiropractor and also very expensive; curcumin (high-powered tumerac spice), recommended by several articles and, again , pretty expensive.
And there are many other similar products advertised that I just ignore. I could be taking a dozen pills a day, if I wanted to follow the recommendations of physicians, nutritionists and pharmaceutical companies.
Yet, we’ve all known or heard about people who’ve lived long lives without taking any supplements and even tempted fate by smoking cigarettes or regularly drinking alcoholic beverages.
It’s all guesswork — “try this and see what happens. Doesn’t work? Then try this other thing.” And so it goes.
I have seen at first hand how speculative the health field is (trust me; it’s a long story involving a visit to a local dietary specialist) and how our lifestyles all are open to any number of interpretations.
And, of course, we’re constantly seeing new medical studies that contradict old ones. A prime example is coffee. Some nutritionists believe caffeine is the devil’s brew while several independent studies have shown actual benefits from limted caffeine intake.
All of this does not even touch the topic of actual pain relievers, your Advil, Motrin, Bufferin – the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drugs like ibuprofen, aspirin and naprozen. They are non-narcotic but, man, there’s a lot of effort expended by doctors and others to get you to use them and keep using them.
One could easily get addicted to popping them whenever pain even hints at arriving, like a headache, muscle ache, joint pain, etc. In fact, one frequently aired TV commercial appears to promote daily usage (“Try our drug for all-day relief as opposed to their drug, which has to be taken every 4-6 hours”).
How about trying to figure out what’s causing the damn pain, rather than resorting to pills?
You may ask, “So what?” When you’re in pain, it’s “damn the side effects, give me the pills.”
Well, for starters, there are side effects, like stomach problems, and side issues, like cost and dependency on a foreign substance. Logic suggests that it cannot be a good thing to put those substances into the blood stream or digestive tract on a regular basis — right?
I mean, my main point is we don’t really know for sure how any of these things help or hurt us, and there are a lot of people and companies who probably are taking advantage of this uncertainty and basic human frailty (mental and physical).
Obviously, we can control some of this with good ole common sense and clear headedness.
Pain prevention begins with smart lifestyle choices. Eat healthy (something daily from the five food groups), drink healthy (stay hydrated with a copious amount of water), stay fit, stay sharp, pay attention to health basics like cleanliness.
A lot of pain comes from sloppy decisions or practices, especially early in life. For me, it was poor posture while typing. That’s 30 years of poor posture, writing a few thousand articles as a newsman. The result was arthritis in my upper spine, causing shoulder and leg pain by the time I reached my 50s.
That was lack of foresight on my part. Likewise, many other poor lifestyle decisions that end up causing pain are preventable, like overeating, sedentary daily lives or reckless participation in athletic activities.
So, obviously, it would be nice if we were all mindful of the value of healthy early choices that can prevent pain later in life.
But this also is a fertile place for the medical/pharmaceutical/fitness boogiemen, who market products or practices that promise to keep you on the right track.
How do we separate the well-meaning advisors from the charlatans — the knowledgeable people with good, sound advice from those with half-baked ideas or purely monetary motives?
That’s my question. As I said, I have no answers.
Step one, I guess, is being aware and being skeptical and asking others to be the same, with pieces like this.
I mean, millions and millions of people are in pain — of varying degrees and varying frequencies — and they are paying out millions and millions of dollars (billions maybe?) every year in search of relief, a relief that for most never really comes, or at least never lasts.
Store shelves and pharmacies are crammed with a myriad of tempting solutions. All manner of media — television, radio, the internet, newspapers, magazines, etc. — carry regular items (ads, features, news) promising to stop, impede or limit pain.
People eat it right up and get hooked.
It’s legalized dealing in addictive drugs.
And, of course, such shameful conduct also can be found elsewhere. Pushers of “natural” remedies also play on the desperation of the pained, marketing dietary supplements, specialized foods and drinks, physical exercises and mental manipulations.
The former type of addiction (from medications) is physical. The latter type of addiction (from non-meds) is insidious, a mind game: Your pain may or may not be lessening as a result of these (pills, yoga sessions, glutton-free foods, fitness machines, fitness devices). Studies of their use are either inconclusive or contradictory.
But imagine life what your life would be without them! Can you really risk stopping? Can anyone really say with confidence that this is all simply a “placebo effect,” that you feel better just because you believed the pill/food/exercise was effective?
Regardless of whether we do get mentally hooked, it appears to me that just getting people to try these things — the stuff that dreams are made of, as Sam Spade might say — probably is the goal of their sales force. They can rake in a pretty nice sum if thousands of people only enroll in one class or buy one supply of pills or instructional video.
But — and it’s a big but —if this stuff is all for a good cause — easing suffering, even for a limited time — who can argue? It may actually work for some people, so isn’t that justification enough?
I wonder. I have no firm conclusions, just a lot of questions.
To start with, why all the pain?
For many, of course, it’s a certifiable diagnosis of a physical problem. For those, it’s beyond me to list all the medical reasons requiring legitimate use of prescription painkillers.
But how their used is instructive in trying to understand the netherworld outside of them, a life with daily discomfort, stiffness, aches or pains in joints, muscles or other bodily parts.
From a recent report on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website:
“Forty-six individuals die every day in the United States from an overdose of prescription painkillers, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Healthcare providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for opioid painkillers in 2012.
"That's enough for every American adult to have their own bottle of pills," CDC director Tom Frieden, MD, said during a media briefing.
“Prescriptions for opioid painkillers were distributed unevenly throughout the United States. Healthcare providers in the highest prescribing state wrote almost 3 times as many opioid painkiller prescriptions per person as those in the lowest prescribing state.”
Obviously, getting relief from pain is addicting. The CDC has found that persons prescribed serious painkillers continue taking them long after their use is deemed no longer medically necessary.
Looked at another way, the painkillers alone have been deemed a narcotic.
Again, from the CDC:
“Although many types of prescription drugs are abused, there is currently a growing, deadly epidemic of prescription painkiller abuse. Nearly three out of four prescription drug overdoses are caused by prescription painkillers—also called opioid pain relievers.
“The unprecedented rise in overdose deaths in the US parallels a 300 percent increase since 1999 in the sale of these strong painkillers. These drugs were involved in 14,800 overdose deaths in 2008, more than cocaine and heroin combined.
“The misuse and abuse of prescription painkillers was responsible for more than 475,000 emergency department visits in 2009, a number that nearly doubled in just five years.
“More than 12 million people reported using prescription painkillers non-medically in 2010, that is, using them without a prescription or for the feeling they cause.”
How many drug abusers actually need painkillers and how many use them for recreational purposes (and then get hooked)? That’s anyone guess.
But I’m thinking the need to alleviate pain drives the majority of abusers.
Likewise, I believe those who have even a lesser level of pain can be easily lured into an addictive relationship with any manner of attractive relievers.
And that group really needs more reliable information on just what works, lest they be taking or doing a ton of stuff that is just plain worthless. Even if there are a few who win the pain relief lottery, so many others pour their hard-earned money into things, regardless of unproven effectiveness.
One example is glucosamine–chondroitin-MSM. These are pills promising to bolster bone cartilage so that people are less likely to suffer aching, deteriorating joints as they age.
My mother and brother suggested it to me. But medical websites, news articles and my doctors all say that study after study has not found any actual medical benefit to the supplement.
Still, the theory behind the stuff apparently is correct and some studies hedge that the long-term benefits may not always be easy to measure. So, my urologist says he takes it. So does the nurse practitioner who oversees my wife’s health. So do countless others, judging from the steady supply maintained any place where drugs are sold.
I tried it for years and did not see any change in my aches and pains. But the thought is always in my mind: Maybe, just maybe, this stuff is building up my bones so that I won’t suffer in my old age. Can I afford to stop?
Speaking of afford: These pills are very expensive, like $35 for few month’s supply, unless you don’t shop wisely and take advantage of drug store specials.
I’ve come across several other examples of promising but unproven supplements: multi-vitamins, which some nutritionists claim are worthless; fish oil pills, widely recommended but without any tangible benefit; hyaluronic acid, suggested by my mom’s chiropractor and also very expensive; curcumin (high-powered tumerac spice), recommended by several articles and, again , pretty expensive.
And there are many other similar products advertised that I just ignore. I could be taking a dozen pills a day, if I wanted to follow the recommendations of physicians, nutritionists and pharmaceutical companies.
Yet, we’ve all known or heard about people who’ve lived long lives without taking any supplements and even tempted fate by smoking cigarettes or regularly drinking alcoholic beverages.
It’s all guesswork — “try this and see what happens. Doesn’t work? Then try this other thing.” And so it goes.
I have seen at first hand how speculative the health field is (trust me; it’s a long story involving a visit to a local dietary specialist) and how our lifestyles all are open to any number of interpretations.
And, of course, we’re constantly seeing new medical studies that contradict old ones. A prime example is coffee. Some nutritionists believe caffeine is the devil’s brew while several independent studies have shown actual benefits from limted caffeine intake.
All of this does not even touch the topic of actual pain relievers, your Advil, Motrin, Bufferin – the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drugs like ibuprofen, aspirin and naprozen. They are non-narcotic but, man, there’s a lot of effort expended by doctors and others to get you to use them and keep using them.
One could easily get addicted to popping them whenever pain even hints at arriving, like a headache, muscle ache, joint pain, etc. In fact, one frequently aired TV commercial appears to promote daily usage (“Try our drug for all-day relief as opposed to their drug, which has to be taken every 4-6 hours”).
How about trying to figure out what’s causing the damn pain, rather than resorting to pills?
You may ask, “So what?” When you’re in pain, it’s “damn the side effects, give me the pills.”
Well, for starters, there are side effects, like stomach problems, and side issues, like cost and dependency on a foreign substance. Logic suggests that it cannot be a good thing to put those substances into the blood stream or digestive tract on a regular basis — right?
I mean, my main point is we don’t really know for sure how any of these things help or hurt us, and there are a lot of people and companies who probably are taking advantage of this uncertainty and basic human frailty (mental and physical).
Obviously, we can control some of this with good ole common sense and clear headedness.
Pain prevention begins with smart lifestyle choices. Eat healthy (something daily from the five food groups), drink healthy (stay hydrated with a copious amount of water), stay fit, stay sharp, pay attention to health basics like cleanliness.
A lot of pain comes from sloppy decisions or practices, especially early in life. For me, it was poor posture while typing. That’s 30 years of poor posture, writing a few thousand articles as a newsman. The result was arthritis in my upper spine, causing shoulder and leg pain by the time I reached my 50s.
That was lack of foresight on my part. Likewise, many other poor lifestyle decisions that end up causing pain are preventable, like overeating, sedentary daily lives or reckless participation in athletic activities.
So, obviously, it would be nice if we were all mindful of the value of healthy early choices that can prevent pain later in life.
But this also is a fertile place for the medical/pharmaceutical/fitness boogiemen, who market products or practices that promise to keep you on the right track.
How do we separate the well-meaning advisors from the charlatans — the knowledgeable people with good, sound advice from those with half-baked ideas or purely monetary motives?
That’s my question. As I said, I have no answers.
Step one, I guess, is being aware and being skeptical and asking others to be the same, with pieces like this.