Opioids Kill 115 People Every Day

One in every three Americans consume opioid drugs and 1.9 million of those opioid users now find themselves addicted to dangerous pain-relieving medications. Approximately 115 people die every single day from opioid drugs. The medical community began releasing opioids into mainstream healthcare with good intentions but now the billion-dollar pharmaceutical venture potentially causes more harm than help. Medicare recipients spent over four billion dollars on opioid drugs in 2016, equivalent to nearly $3,000 per Medicare recipient. The result of this path of health care now produces addictions and death on a massive scale.

The Journal of Perinatology produced a report in 2015 stating that a baby is born addicted to opioid drugs every twenty-five minutes. Babies born addicted to opioids come from mothers who used the drugs during pregnancy. The same receptors in which create a chemical dependency in the blood transfer to the fetus. The drug addicted baby comes into the world facing a $50,000 rehabilitation rather than enjoying the simplicity of being held and nursed at the onset of a life full of health and potential.

The trickle-down effect of opioid dependency begins with adults and the choices made available in the health care community. YES. It's easier to pop a pain pill and go about your day… but if history can teach us anything, easy decisions made today often result in big problems we have to deal with tomorrow.

Chiropractic Patients Reduced Opioid Usage by 55%

Research conducted in 2018 focused on the benefits of Chiropractic care amidst the opioid epidemic.

How the study was carried out:

  • Chiropractic care was administered to individuals who used or had access to opioids for the treatment of pain.
  • Regular Chiropractic care served as a primary health solution in place of the dead-end cycle of dangerous drugs.

Results:

  • Patients who engaged with regular Chiropractic care began filling prescriptions at a rate 55% lower than those who did not receive care.

Safe and effective Chiropractic adjustments provided enough pain relief that patients began using lower doses of opioids and consumed them less frequently. Research continues to reinforce the evidence that long term health directly relates to the condition of the spine and body.

A healthy spine minimizes and reduces physical pain while providing a long-term drug free solution that no opioid will ever provide.

Chiropractic Care Goes Beyond Pain Management

Chiropractic care also costs significantly less than the medical cycle of treatment.

A patient succumbing to the cycle of pharmaceutical drugs, surgeries, and doctor visits faces medical bills far more substantial than someone recovering their health and freedom from opioids through Chiropractic care.

America deserves an alternative to the bindings of a health care system that suggests the use of addictive drugs as a means to long term health and freedom from pain. Chiropractic plays a distinct and unique role in helping men, women, children, and babies experience the recuperative capabilities of their own bodies by ensuring the most vital parts of the body communicate and heal naturally. Better healthcare on the national level begins with educating all people about the research-based options that exist outside of the medical model of drugs and surgery. Better healthcare in the local community and home begin with taking the family to the local Chiropractor.

Lawmakers Are Now Considering Chiropractic Usage Before Opioid Prescriptions

States like Ohio and West Virginia have been in the media lately revealing  plans to make chiropractic and other drugless care more highly-recommended.

In reaction to the opioid crisis, the Joint Commission on Health Care, the nation’s largest accreditation organization for hospitals, recommends a conservative approach in using medication for pain. And that may lead to chiropractic care being more involved in pain management in Ohio and West Virginia!

A growing number of medical facilities, including Cleveland Clinic’s Wellness Institute, offer chiropractic services, especially for patients with musculoskeletal pain. The Ohio Chiropractic Association’s Opioid Task Force is calling for more such relationships—based on the Joint Commission’s stance.

Multiple studies over the past two decades have suggested that spinal manipulation (Chiropractic Adjustments) can alter cortical sensorimotor integration (how your brain processes information), motor control and strength of voluntary human muscles [1,2,3,4,5,6]. In particular, increases in maximum voluntary force (overall strength) have been shown in lower limb muscles following spinal manipulation [4,6].

In short, these studies suggest that chiropractic offers so much more than pain management.

If you or someone you know is not under chiropractic care, please share this article and your own personal experience. There's no reason for someone to not be under chiropractic care.