With the Opioid Crisis Raging, Researchers Say it’s Time to Look for Painkilling Alternatives
By Space Coast Daily // August 17, 2019
federal lawmakers and FDA agents may eventually ban these compounds entirely
While specific statistics continue to elude national medical authorities, the opioid epidemic continues to reach alarming levels. Scientists have actually proposed that the number of individuals influenced by the crisis have remained steady.
However, the general public was simply unaware that for years countless people were beholden by addictions to prescriptions designed to mimic the overall behavior of certain other drugs.
Still, many of these medications are required for use in public health systems as a method of pain management.
The fact that they’re easily abused is quickly calling into question whether or not federal lawmakers and FDA agents will eventually ban these compounds entirely.
Similar bans for certain select prescriptions have come into play in multiple European Union countries as well as in Japan.
Health industry analysts have pointed to off-label usage as one of the leading causes of the current situation. Modern society is stressful and, at the same time, people have fortunately grown unaccustomed to suffering through certain types of pain.
Considering that the law doesn’t forbade anyone appropriately licensed from using any prescription as they see fit, many patients have been dispensed opioid pain relievers for a myriad of conditions.
The feelings of euphoria associated with the use of these drugs in any form have proved to be at least a masking agent for almost any kind of malady.
At the same time, society has moved away from many complementary treatments that were once held in high regard even among those in the allopathic medical community.
Applying a certain specified level of stress to well-documented foot pressure points, for instance, had at one point been recommended even by those in the standard medical community. However, these recommendations were eventually removed for a variety of reasons.
Perhaps the most notable have to do with societal movements as a whole. Various branches of medicine have debated the root causes of certain diseases. Few studies published in the last decade have reached consensus on many of these issues.
In spite of this, certain substances are known to alleviate suffering. As these became promoted, research into reflexology and other pressure point-based practices began to wane.
Unfortunately, this in turn lead to a period of time in which non-medical personnel considered such practices to be founded in superstition. This is particularly troubling according to certain authorities as they make the claim that such a position is unscientific in itself.
Local representatives of the Florida Pain Institute elected to host a free Pain Awareness Lecture that included top physicians including medical doctor Ashish Udeshi and osteopath Thaiduc Nguyen.
While the techniques covered were largely those that one might find in any advice manual, pundits were quick to point out that the sheer fact otherwise mainstream researchers were turning to them were proof positive of the paradigm shift that the medical profession has been seeing for some time.
Most alternative methods, however, rely less on psychology as previously thought and more on genuine physiological reactions that were simply ignored among medics for some time. In fact, some techniques owe more to modern science than ancient wisdom.
For instance, Lake Nona Medical Arts researchers have relied heavily on a system called biofeedback when examining the issue of phantom limb syndrome.
This process relies on monitoring certain metrics to check the response of a patient against certain specific stimuli.
Nevertheless, traditional and complementary methodologies continue to receive the greatest amount of attention. In an effort to remain objective, federal authorities have remained somewhat silent on natural pain-relieving methodologies.
However, mounting research indicates that any process that increases blood flow to the affected area would, in turn, help to aid the underlying issue that causes these problems.
Board-certified chiropractors throughout Florida have long lobbied for increased access to care based on this manner of thinking. As of 2019, a majority of local chiropractors view their practice as specializing in in neuroleptic malignant syndrome. However, this view has begun to change as more individuals demand access to care.
Chiropractic and osteopathic medicine, in particular, have long been associated with conditions caused by aging.
Considering the current focus on many younger county residents dealing with problems related to pain-relieving substances, the next major battle for access to care could be fought by those in a new generation.
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