Over the Counter pain medicine kills thousands of people each year, is there an alternative?

An article recently published in the prestigious journal Lancet showed that heavy ibuprofen use caused complications and side effects that were previously not fully understood. The same article was reported by Reuters

Long-term high-dose use of painkillers such as ibuprofen or diclofenac is “equally hazardous” in terms of heart attack risk as use of the drug Vioxx, which was withdrawn due to its potential dangers, researchers said on Thursday.

This paper highlighted the risks that accompany these often utilized medication. The researches showed that high doses of these medicines increased the risks of a stroke and fatal heart attack by about 1/3. This means that for every 1000 people taking the medicine there would be three avoidable heart attacks, with one of them being fatal. Not only was there increased cardiovascular complications there was increased risk of upper GI bleeds. Meaning that the digestive system was more likely to spontaneously bleed.

This data is not surprising, any synthetic drug that blocks our body’s natural way of working will have side effects. In this case some side effects are fatal and some are life compromising, none of them are ideal.

This brings up the important point, WHY DO PEOPLE HAVE ENOUGH CHRONIC PAIN TO NEED DAILY ANTI-INFLAMMATORIES? Where is all of this inflammation coming from? First of all our diets need to have less processed foods and fewer grains in them. A diet based heavily on vegetables, meats and fruit has been shown over and over again to help a body work like it is supposed to.

Secondly and perhaps more importantly is the role of alignment in producing pain in the body. The more out of alignment our body is the more likely we are to experience pain on a regular basis. If the alignment is off in one of your joints, or you have muscles that are too tight, it is your body’s job to give you a pain signal. If we take a medicine to stop that pain signal we are completely overriding the way our body is designed to work.

If you or someone you know is constantly popping pain medication, getting the cause of the problem addressed and fixed is a top priority. Care in a chiropractic office is a much safer and carries FAR fewer side effects. For more information about chiropractic care and pain management visit an Overland Park chiropractor.