TREATING SYMPTOMS, NOT CAUSES A MEDICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE OPIOID EPIDEMIC
medical school. Yet, of the 132 medical schools in the U.S., only 12 teach specialized courses in heart disease — the No. 1 killer in the country — and worse, only six teach specialized classes on pain! This means that when you see your medical doctor, he is likely unaware of this information, and you are handed more pills, which is the third leading cause of death in the country, to suppress symptoms without addressing the cause. This allows the original problem to grow worse with time, only to then be given more pills. Ugh … enough! The Vinton Method™ combines the best of the best from various fields of healing under one umbrella. Our methods, training, and equipment are truly world-class, and you can feel confident referring your friends, family, and coworkers for a consultation. get it externally. When the patient stops taking the medication, they experience withdrawal symptoms. This is why we describe opioid addiction as “physical,” and it explains why it’s so hard for so many people to get off the medication. Our understanding and treatment of addiction has come a long way, but the medical establishment needs to bear responsibility for creating this problem. The drug companies were willing to mislead doctors regarding the addictive and dangerous nature of many opioids. The doctors, in turn, were happy to elect the easiest option for treatment, not thinking of the long-term consequences. We have always stood in opposition to this approach. It’s a shame it took a massive public health crisis for people to question the conventional wisdom surrounding the treatment of pain. But the tide is changing, and we’re happy to be at the front of it.
had the patient sit in a comfortable La-Z-Boy chair and asked them questions about their lives, hopes, wishes, and stressors. Here is what they found. 1) Asking a person if they felt stressed was useless. Many would say they were fine, except the doctors would see their blood pressure spiking when asked certain questions, but the patient was unaware of this happening. This is why seeing the responses on the computer monitor is so important to understanding what is vital but otherwise unknowable. 2) The mental stress the patient was unaware of is the No. 1 cause of heart disease, making other known factors like being overweight, smoking, having a Type A personality, and having high blood pressure pale in comparison. These are big words from a top Treating pain at its source is difficult. It requires dynamic diagnostics, personalized treatment, and a variety of different tactics. It’s often much easier to treat the symptoms of pain rather than their underlying causes. For far too long, that’s exactly what the traditional medical industry did. No matter why a patient experienced pain, doctors found it easier to hand out some pills that masked it. The massive drug companies were on board with this approach, encouraging medical professionals to hand out as many opioid-based painkillers as possible. Over time, we realized the pills were probably doing more harm than good, but it was too late. This led to the opioid epidemic we’re experiencing today. Opioids are extremely good at masking pain, which is how they grew to be so popular and overprescribed. When used for a brief period of time — after a surgery, say — they can help make recovery more tolerable. However, problems arise when a patient is on this type of medication for an extended period of time. Eventually, the brain stops producing dopamine on its own because it’s expecting to ... continued from Cover
Until next month,
-Dr. Vinton
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