Pain reflects the existence of a problem. Pharmaceutical companies and doctors tend to advertise treatments for pain when the true root issue does not involve pain at all. Pain serves as an indication of an underlying issue or part of a healing process that provides protection to prevent further damage to an area. Medicine and drug companies instruct people to cover up their pain with strong pain-relieving drugs called opioids. Opioids reduce the intensity of pain signals reaching the brain and affect those areas of the brain that control emotion and diminish the effects of a painful stimulus. Opioids neither address the cause of problems nor improve function, but they do come with significant negative side effects. Medications that fall within this class include hydrocodone (Vicodin), oxycodone (OxyContin, Percocet), morphine, and codeine. Hydrocodone products are the most commonly prescribed pain drugs for a variety of conditions ranging from dental issues to injury-related pain. These highly addictive opioid drugs enslave millions of people every year.
Most of the 35 million people addicted to opioid drugs live in America. Two groups of people comprise the largest quantity of addicts: infants and those in military service. One of the saddest statistics plaguing society lurks in the number of infants born with an addiction to opioids due to their mother’s drug use. Every 25 minutes a new infant comes into this world with an opioid drug withdrawal. The cost to care for the 20,000 opioid addicted infants amounts to fifty-thousand dollars per child. Opioid drug addiction remains one of the largest healthcare issues plaguing almost every industrialized society.
Over 16,000 people die annually from opioid use and millions suffer significant side effects from this class of drugs. No scientific evidence from clinical trials proves that opioids safely or effectively treat pain in patients without cancer. This means that that majority of prescribed opioids offer neither safe nor effective outcomes to those whom they prescribed. People end up addicted to opioids long before achieving any sort of health improvement.
Chiropractic care offers pain-relieving solutions without the use of dangerous drugs or surgery. Though a Chiropractic adjustment is not intended to treat or cure conditions (including pain), a valuable side effect to removing interference in the nervous system with an adjustment often manifests in the form of pain relief. A study published in 2003 showed that Chiropractic was three times more effective at reducing pain than acupuncture and five times more effective than non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Researchers followed up with patients a year later and determined that the only patients reporting effective long term results were the subjects receiving Chiropractic care. Chiropractic care safely provides non-invasive care with highly effective long term results that trump both drugs and acupuncture.
Millions of men, women, and infants suffer from the worldwide epidemic of opioid use and addiction. Pain sufferers deserve an alternative option to pharmaceutical drugs that mask pain without ever addressing the cause. Chiropractic provides access to a non-opioid solution that lasts. Chiropractors commit to not only investing in the science and research that prove the benefits of nervous system care but also providing lifesaving resources and care to every man, woman, and child.
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