Could Your RX Kill You?

I heard some disturbing news on my drive to work the other morning while listening to the radio.  Over 6,600 women are likely to die this year in the U.S. as a result of prescription painkiller medications.  This is more than 3X the number of woman that died from the use of heroine and cocaine combined, yet we have a "war on drugs"?

You can read more about it on the CDC's website, here.  

"Women between the age of 45-54 have the highest risk of dying from a prescription painkiller overdose.  If you know a woman between 25-54 years old, please share this information with them.  This death toll is on the rise and has grown 5X since 1999.  Between 99-2010 nearly 48,000 women died of prescription drug use.  If you think it couldn't happen to someone you know and love, please reconsider.

The CDC's recommendations revolve around being smarter about using and prescribing prescription pain medications and while this is an important aspect, there is no discussion of alternative pain management options.  Chiropractic, acupuncture, herbs and natural pain relievers, biofeedback, meditation all receive zero attention but have been proven time and time again to help people manage their pain with little to no side effects, let alone DEATH.  

How about instead of treating symptoms of the problem (sickness and death as a result of Rx pain killers), let's look at the cause of the problem, pain.  Why are so many women (and men, 10,000+ deaths in 2010 for men) in pain and seeking pain medications?  This to me is the critical flaw in medicine.  It is not HEALTH care, it is SICK care or SYMPTOM/DISEASE care.  It treats symptoms and diseases not people.  Which is fine, often a disease needs a good kick in the pants, or symptoms need to be managed, pain is not something I take lightly.  But if you are suffering or know someone else who is suffering, know that managing things with medications should be a temporary crutch while you work on getting to the underlying cause of the problem.  Keep searching for the answer, don't give up, there are thousands and thousands of people who dedicate their lives to helping you find an answer, your answer.