The Pittman CONNECTION The Newsletter About Your Health And Caring For Your Body
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Afraid of Taking Pain Medication? PHYSICAL THERAPY IS THE NATURAL PAIN RELIEF SOLUTION Asimplequestion, should you takeapill tomask your pain, or should you try to fix the underlying cause? It seems like almost every news broadcast these days features a story about a disturbing cluster of drug overdoses, with theword “opioid” prominently featured. So why are these prescription drugs -- which after all, are legal if they were prescribed to the user -- so much in the news these days? And what can you do if you’re torn between not filling your own prescription, versus seeking relief for your very real pain? Why Opioid Overuse Matters Both opioid prescription rates and deaths from opioid overdoses have quadrupled in the last two decades. Given these identical statistics, one can’t escape the obvious conclusion: Reliance on painkillers has gotten out of hand, and the consequences can be literally fatal. According to theCenters for DiseaseControl andPrevention (CDC), doctors now write so many opioid prescriptions each year that it translates to one bottle per adult living in the U.S.Of the 330,000 peoplewho died fromdrug overdoses in 2015, 50 percent involved prescriptionpainkillers. Just asominous is thediscovery that people who become addicted to prescription opioids are 40 times more likely to become addicted to heroin. Beyondextremephysical risk, over-relianceonprescriptionpainkillers can have other detrimental effects on your health. Withdrawal
symptoms can be harrowing. And while you’re still using them, opioids can lead todepression, which sets upa vicious cycle of self- medicating in order to feel better emotionally aswell as physically. How Physical Therapy Counters the Problem It’s important to get real about the reason people seek prescription painkillers in the first place -- the pain. These patients are not to be condemned for seeking relief for injuries, arthritis and other degenerativeconditions, or for post-surgical discomfort. At thesame time, however, it’s becoming increasingly obvious thatmedications likePercocet, Vicodin, Opana, andOxyContinareextremelyaddictive. Physical therapy, on the other hand, is so effective because it provides amulti-pronged attack to pain relief. First, therapists can help lessen the immediate pain through heat or ice therapy, lasers, aswell as low-pulse electronic equipment. Targetedmassage and gentle stretching also eases extreme discomfort when tension or stiffness is part of the problem. In addition, physical therapy works to eradicate the actual source of your pain. So, if weakmuscles aren’t supporting an aching body part, for example, your therapywill address this underlying cause. Flexibilitymovescanalsocontribute topain relief becausestiffening joints often exacerbate discomfort, or lead to over-reliance on nearby, overstressed muscles.
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