Read on for information from our clinic in Ashland OH about the ongoing opioid epidemic.

America has a very serious drug problem.  Americans take more prescribed medications per person than any other country and yet we ranked almost last in terms of overall health when compared to 35+ other countries.

More Americans now use prescription opioids than smoke cigarettes. Substance abuse has also eclipsed cancer in terms of prevalence and costs the U.S. more than the treatment of diabetes.

Opiates such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, fentanyl, and morphine are killing more Americans than car crashes, claiming the lives of more than 49,700 Americans in 2014.

In 2015, 27 million Americans used illegal drugs and/or misused prescription drugs, and nearly one-quarter of all adolescents and adults reported binge drinking in the previous month.

Many Drug Addicts in ASHLAND OH Got Their Start After a Minor Injury

As described in the BBC News video at the top of this article, many of today's addicts became hooked after receiving a prescription for an opioid following a relatively minor injury. Their injury healed, but the subsequent addiction is now ruining their lives, and the lives of their families.

Many, including young people, have also died as a result. As noted by Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): "We know of no other medication routinely used for a nonfatal condition that kills patients so frequently." According to Frieden, studies show that addiction affects about 26 percent of those using opioids for chronic non-cancer pain. Worse, 1 in 550 patients on opioid therapy die from opioid-related causes within 2.5 years of their first prescription!

In addition to that, most studies investigating long-term use of opioids have lasted a mere six weeks or less, and those that lasted longer have, by and large, found "consistently poor results." Several of them found that opioid use worsened pain over time and led to decreased functioning - an effect thought to be related to increased pain perception.

The source of many pains and disease can often be inflammation. There are many ways to address pain and inflammation.  Below are just a few suggestions:

• Eliminate grains and sugars from your diet. These are "pro-inflammatory" foods that fuel a viscous cascade of events in the body leading to many problems.   Many people avoid sugar, but fail to realize that grains (ie bread, pasta, chips, etc) are processed in a very similar way.
• Drink 64 ounces of pure, clean, water. Although tea and coffee are liquids, they have dehydrating properties.  Dehydration is also a source of inflammation.
• Take high quality, animal based Omega 3 fat. Omega-3 fats are precursors to mediators of inflammation called prostaglandins. (In fact, that is how anti-inflammatory painkillers work, by manipulating prostaglandins.)
• Have your spine examined for misalignments by a Chiropractor. Misalignments in your spine can result in chronic inflammation and more health problems. Many studies have confirmed that chiropractic management is much safer and less expensive than allopathic medical treatments.