Sunset Chiropractic Clinic

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PAIN DRUGS MAY DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD

A pain management expert says taking medication for life's common aches and pains may not be a good idea. According to Dr. James Freis, a professor of medicine at Stanford University, "You do not want to risk your life treating minor symptoms." He says that the "excessive concern with pain relief" produces 10,000 to 20,000 deaths from bleeding ulcers each year in the United States. "Pain is a warning signal that should be heeded, not covered up," he says, and notes that medications like muscle relaxers undermine the body's muscle splinting mechanisms that help prevent further injury.

And people who choose coated and buffered brands of aspirin to protect their intestinal tracts may only be fooling themselves, according to a new study from Boston University. The study concluded that normal doses of aspirin, no matter what the form, increase gastrointestinal bleeding by 300%. Aspirin produces serious bleeding in about 19 of every 100,000 people who take it each year.

Even though you may feel better taking these drugs, you may be healing more slowly. Another side effect of pain-killers such as advil and tylenol is that they slow down the body's way of repairing injured muscles, ligaments, and joints.