Journal of the AMA Report on Chronic Back Pain, Hip, and Knee Arthritis Recommends Avoiding Opiates, Instead Try Physical Treatments

Patients with chronic back pain, hip pain, and knee arthritis pain should first seek relief through non-opioid medications as well as exercise, rehabilitation, and other non-medication treatments, according to researchers of a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The article referenced below did not make specific recommendations about the care.

It simply is recommending non-drug treatments that are predominately movement based treatments for these painful conditions.

The Journal of the AMA article is saying try something other than opiates. Here’s part of the reason why…

Quoted from the CDC website about opiates,

“The United States is in the midst of an opioid overdose epidemic.”

“Opioids (including prescription opioids, heroin, and fentanyl) killed more than 42,000 people in 2016, more than any year on record.”

“40% of all opioid overdose deaths involve a prescription opioid.”

The US has a massive problem with opiates that ranges from side effects to tolerance, addiction, and far too often death.

Many people suffering with pain don’t take opiates.

They end up taking other over the counter pain relievers and prescription medicines that are often not very effective.

This approach of treating the symptom of pain also leads to other potential serious problems, including that their problem continues to worsen over time.

Far too many people continue suffering with pain when many could get better by changing their approach to treatment.

We see people in our Texarkana office every day that have suffered in pain for years because they simply followed the standard care for their problems and it didn’t work for them.

The vast majority of people take medications, many get steroid injections, and tries to do what their doctor asks of them.

These innocent people continue having problems, suffering often for years or even decades.

They lose some ability to play with their kids or grand kids, can’t do their favorite hobbies, can’t do things around the house, have trouble at work, lose sleep, and continue to worsen… these problems compromise their very health, happiness, and ability to just enjoy life.

Until they have finally had enough and decide to try seeing a Chiropractor and finally get better after often wasting years of their life.

Often these people are upset that they suffered for so long without ever being told by their doctor that they should try Chiropractic.

Following the principle of Occam’s Razor, when facing a problem the simplest solution is often the best solution.

We are constantly being told by the media that we have a huge drug crisis in the US with opiates.

It’s rightfully being called the biggest drug crisis to have ever existed.

The average person starts taking an opiate does so because of a pain or an injury that often could be helped without the medication.

How Does Chiropractic Effect The Need For Opiate Pain Relievers?

Researchers studied the association between chiropractic treatment and prescription opioid usage for patients with low back pain evaluating records from the New Hampshire All-payer Claims Database.

The researchers found two very important things:

1. Patients who received chiropractic care were 55% less likely to fill a prescription for opioids when compared to their peers who did not receive chiropractic care.
2.  The “average per person charges for clinical services” was “significantly lower” for the patients who received chiropractic care compared to those that did not.

Chiropractic is the largest primary healthcare profession promoting a drug free alternative to people suffering with pain and other problems… not just spinal pain, but headaches, TMJ pain, shoulder, hip, knee, ankle, foot, elbows, hands and much more.

Of course, Chiropractors do much more than help people with pain.

Pain relief is just what Chiropractors are best know for and why most people first see a Chiropractor.

If you have experienced some of the things mentioned in this blog post, then it’s very likely we can help you.

If you want to see what Chiropractic can do for you, contact us at our Texarkana office.

We’re here to help!

 

More info from the study mentioned above here… https://www.minnpost.com/second-opinion/2018/03/what-does-groundbreaking-minnesota-study-opioids-mean-patients-qa-its-lead-au

CDC page on opiates… https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/index.html

Chiropractic and Opiod Use Study… “Association between Utilization of Chiropractic Services and Use of Prescription Opioids among Patients with Low Back Pain”. James Whedon DC, MS