When Pain Medications HURT You Rather than HELP You

There are some instances when pain medications can hurt your rather than help you. If you’re a baseball fan, you may have heard about Terry Francona and the buzz about his use of pain medications. If you haven’t heard – This is the story:

Red Sox manager, Terry Francona, was part of what would become the worst September collapse in baseball history. Team sources had concerns that Francona’s performance may have been affected by his use of pain medication.

Francona, who has had nearly 20 surgeries on his knees, has used pain medication for many years. He told the newspaper he used painkillers after knee surgery in October 2010 and used them during the season to relieve the discomfort after doctors drained blood from his knee at least five times.
That’s A LOT of surgeries and A LOT of painkillers to go along with it!

We can’t say whether or not painkillers did in fact lead to Francona’s collapse; however, it is safe to say that pain medications CAN be a big problem if they aren’t used correctly, especially with those who use pills for chronic pain.  In fact, between TEN to FIFTEEN percent of people on medication for chronic pain management will experience problems. WOW!

It starts off by the patient gaining a tolerance for whatever pain medication they’ve been taking. Once their body reaches that point, the patient (or sometimes the doctor) will ‘up’ the prescription to either a harsher drug or just have the patient take MORE of the medication. As the prescription increases, so does the probability that the patient will become addicted and abuse the drug.

This is also true if the patient decides to use alcohol while taking the painkiller. When someone is taking 15-20 pills DAILY, it becomes alarmingly dangerous to mix pills or to drink while taking medication. You shouldn’t mix medications without your doctors knowledge but please make sure that you’re not drinking while taking these pills either. The outcome could be irreversible and/or lethal!

A lot of Fibromyalgia patients come to me and say, “My last doctor prescribed Cymbalta” or  “My last doctor prescribed me Lyrica”. Be careful with these medications! Some could help you MASK and HIDE the pain but they also have SERIOUS HARMFUL side effects! You’re numbing your pain but by using them long term, you’re really harming your body. They’re just tricking your body into thinking it’s getting better when it’s not. You need to make CHANGES and rely on something other than pills to relieve your pain in a HEALTHY way.

Responsible use of painkillers can be okay for SHORT TERM pain relief but please, for your health and for your wallet, don’t JUST rely on them! Work with your doctor to come up with an appropriate exercise plan for YOU and change your diet so that you’re putting GOOD food into your body and removing the POISON from it. You can experience LONG TERM pain relief by making a few EASY changes to your life…Don’t rely on pills that will just drain your wallet and your body of its health!

Tagged as: Boston Red Sox, Chiropractic Care, Chronic Pain, Cymbalta, Diet, Dr. Steven Yen, Drug Addiction, Exercise, Fibromyalgia, Healthy Lifestyle, Lyrica, Pain Killer Addiction, Pain Killer Side Effects, Pain Killer Tolerance, Pain Killers, Pain Medication, Surgery, Terry Francona, Yen Total Health Institute