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Post by gerald on Jun 8, 2016 23:14:47 GMT -5
Interesting result in the studies. It does raise a caution flag over the use of narcotics, one more thing to weigh when making a decision --------------------------------------------------------- Narcotics Cause Chronic Pain: No Surprises Here… Regenexx Blog Dr. Chris Centeno We are in the middle of an epidemic of deaths due to narcotics fueled by pharma. It’s become vogue again for the media to discuss this issue, since the death of Prince, but the problem has always been there. Now a new study out of my neck of the woods (University of Colorado) shows why narcotics, once taken by a patient for pain, are a self-fulfilling prophecy. Basically, the narcotics prolong the pain! How We Got Here—The Pharma Wizard Behind the Curtain I’ve blogged many times before about how pharma took cheap and old narcotic drugs and got fast FDA approvals by placing these powerful medications into new slow-release forms. They then hired university professors on the pharma dole to educate an entire generation of physicians that there was no reason to fear placing patients on narcotics. This then caused the proverbial narcotic-prescribing floodgates to open, with pharma raking in billions in easy profits. These new drugs were so powerful (just one dose can contain as much narcotic as 20 Percocet pills) that they invited addicts to crush and snort or inject them, as they were cheaper than heroin and provided just as good a high. As a result, we now have an epidemic of overdose deaths of epic proportions on our hands. As an example, approximately 20,000 Americans died in 2015 from overdoses of prescription narcotics (source:the National Institute on Drug Abuse). The Concept That Narcotics Are a Reasonable Way to Treat Chronic Pain Is Falling Apart… It’s amazing how much we know about how narcotics can cause central sensitization. What’s that? Patients who have been in pain a long time can develop amplified pain signals. Basically, the same amount of injury that would cause a small amount of pain in a normal person will cause much more pain in a patient who has “central sensitization.” Basically, the wiring that transmits pain signals gets screwed up, amplifying those signals. Narcotics can cause these amplified pain signals in patients in pain and in normal healthy people. In fact, babies born to mothers on narcotics also have this central sensitization problem. Even scarier is that past morphine administration cranks up later inflammation in animal models—meaning having had several doses of narcotics in the past causes more swelling when the animal is injured than it does when the animal has never before had morphine. The New Study—Narcotics Cause More Pain So we know that narcotics can amplify pain signals in patients with and without chronic pain. However, the new study added an even more disturbing dimension to the story behind how narcotics screw up pain signals. The researchers found that giving mice just five days of narcotics, which is common, markedly increased the duration of pain signals. Basically, mice who had their nerves injured who had narcotics took twice as long to recover as those who didn’t have narcotics. The mechanism behind this was that the narcotics put the cells in the spinal cord into overdrive, causing them to create inflammation. The upshot? Pharma and the physicians who bought the university-manufactured story that narcotics should be routinely prescribed have likely created more than just an epidemic in overdoses. They’ve likely created an entire generation of patients whose pain is increased by the very medications that are supposed to be helping it! Only in “Pharmerica”! www.regenexx.com/narcotics-cause-chronic-pain-no-surprises/ |
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Post by mary57 on Jun 11, 2016 9:50:03 GMT -5
Interesting article Gerald, I do believe there is a lot of truth in it. When Liz finally got into a pain clinic program at a major hospital the first thing they did was take her off all the narcotics. Then they really looked into what was the root cause, and started to treat that. It is an ongoing process, but I do see the difference in her.
I do believe that the drug company's have a major role in both the way Drs see medication use and overuse. Example pain meds, antibiotics, mental health meds,... JMHO
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Post by gerald on Jun 11, 2016 15:54:08 GMT -5
Mary57, there seems to be an ongoing discovery with a lot of the medications.
They work at first, then they have a boomerang affect and make the condition worse.
I have seen similar articles about eye drops, nasil sprays, pain killers, supplements to enhance the immune system etc.
As you said, they really need to look at the root cause rather than treating a symptom!
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Post by David on Jun 11, 2016 22:25:13 GMT -5
Here is another interesting article.
Unsealed Docs Show Big Pharma Colluded With “Pain Clinics” — Causing an Opioid Epidemic
Over the past year we have heard much about the opioid epidemic gripping the U.S., as Big Pharma rakes in billions from people getting hooked on prescription painkillers such as OxyContin and Vicodin.
Nowhere is the problem more pervasive than in West Virginia, which has the highest drug overdose rate in the nation and one of the highest prescription rates of opioids. A disproportionate number of manual labor jobs like coal mining, combined with a high rate of unemployment, has made the state ripe for the picking by Big Pharma.
Newly unsealed court documents reveal the extent to which prescription drug wholesalers have knowingly contributed to the opioid addiction problem, by colluding with sham “pain clinics” to push their products on the small towns of West Virginia.
The Charleston-Gazette Mail filed a motion to unseal court documents in a lawsuit against AmerisourceBergen, the nation’s third-largest prescription drug wholesaler. For over a year the company fought to keep “18 words” secret, but Judge William Thompson finally ordered their release.
“The unredacted court records show AmerisourceBergen distributed more than 140 million doses of controlled substances to West Virginia pharmacies between 2007 and 2012. About 90 million of those pills were prescription opioids, like Lortab, Vicodin and Oxycontin. The company shipped another 27.3 million tablets of Xanax, an anti-anxiety medication that addicts often take with painkillers…
In Boone County, AmerisourceBergen shipped 8,000 hydrocodone painkiller tablets to a drive-thru pharmacy over two days in July 2012, according to the unsealed court records. On those same two days, a competing drug wholesaler shipped 8,600 hydrocodone tablets to the same “pill mill” pharmacy. AmerisourceBergen sold another 3,800 oxycodone pills to the Boone County pharmacy that month.”
Some of the sales went to pharmacies that filled prescriptions for doctors who were later indicted on federal charges for running sham “pain clinics.” One of those doctors fled to the Bahamas before facing criminal charges.
“AmerisourceBergen and other wholesalers were being disingenuous,” said Delegate Don Perdue, D-Wayne, a retired pharmacist. “They knew what they were doing, they knew they were making a lot of money, and they just don’t want anybody to know the extent of the issue.”
The revelations demonstrate how Big Pharma is part of a literal drug running scheme, acting as supplier to push highly addictive pills onto a vulnerable populace. But these drugs are “legal,” so the companies insist that they are operating within the scope of the law.
AmerisourceBergen appears shocked that their deal with government to keep quiet about the numbers behind their drug-running operation has been upset. They gave the sales figures “with the expectation and understanding that this information would be maintained as confidential.”
However, the scrutiny of local news outlets such as the Charleston-Gazette Mail and the dissemination through alternative media is piercing this shroud of secrecy.
The lawsuit alleges that “AmerisourceBergen and other out-of-state drug wholesalers shipped an excessive number of pain pills to West Virginia, failed to report suspicious orders from “pill mill” pharmacies and contributed to the state’s ongoing prescription opioid problem.”
Lying and cheating is a common theme for Big Pharma. Merck and Co., one of the largest pharmaceutical corporations, was just found guilty of lying under oath in a patent infringement case. Johnson & Johnson and Bayer were caught hiding critical laboratory data from a top medical journal, leading to hundreds of deaths.
How long will these unscrupulous pill pushers be granted special privilege by the government and allowed to prey upon people, sucking up wealth by destroying lives?
Read more at thefreethoughtproject.com/unsealed-docs-show-pharma-companies-fueling-opioid-epidemic-illegal-pill-mills/#FOGjI4IjshCSLLjw.99
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