Are you taking too many pain pills?

When you're in pain, especially when suffering from back pain or a pounding migraine, you'll pretty much do whatever is necessary to get some relief! And this might mean reaching for some pain pills.

All over the counter drugs are pretty harmless, right? Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't.

All drugs, even the "safe" ones like tylenol or alleve have some sort of side effect on your body. So the safety comes down to how often you use them, and in what dosages.

If you only use these drugs very occasionally, then you are causing no more damage on your liver and other organs than say drinking alcohol, or any of the other myriad of chemicals that we are increasingly exposed to on a daily basis. While not ideal, it's probably worth the risk if you are in immense pain.

But here is where the real problems kick in. These drugs are simply a bandaid to get you through the episode. You really need to get to the real problem of why you are suffering. Do you need to see a Chiropractor or PT to address your pain? Are you having migraines due to some kind of food or chemical intolerance?

Pain never just happens by coincidence! There are so many underlying causes that can and should be addressed. But these things usually take time to fix, and so the allure of reaching for the pills just seems so much easier, especially when you are told they are perfectly safe.

Narcotic drugs used for pain are the number 1 drug addiction in the world. They completely disrupt the chemicals in your brain (on purpose because this is how they work) and before you know it you can be hooked.

An article in the Huffington Post from back in 2013 discussed how common overdose is from Acetaminophen (the main ingredient in Tylenol). Tylenol is deemed so safe that even pregnant women can use it (although testing has NEVER been done to prove this safety). 78,000 Americans a year are hospitalized due to overdose on this drug. So even though you might think that you aren't taking enough dosage to overdose, remember that these side effects and overdoses can occur more easily than you would think.

And this is just Tylenol. When we go up in strength, drugs like Vioxx had to be removed from the market because so many thousands of people died!

Start trying more natural remedies, get assessed by a Chiropractor and see if your pains and ailments can actually be corrected instead of relying on medications to get you through your day. Change your diet, exercise more. These simple things will improve your quality of life far more than any magic pain pill!

A few days ago a news station in New Hampshire ran a piece where research is showing that seeing a Chiropractor reduces opioid drug use by greater than 50%. Chiropractic, and other alternatives work so well to correct the underlying cause of your pain. And, you can still use the pain pills if you need to, but isn't it worth it for your own health to try and cut back, or no longer need them at all?

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