May 13 2016
Prince’s OD death highlights the need for chiropractic care over prescription painkillers
Music fans got some crushing news last week that iconic performer Prince had passed away suddenly at his home from a drug-overdose related incident. Early reports are that it wasn’t heroin, cocaine, or alcohol that killed Prince, but prescription painkillers.
In fact, it seems Prince OD’d on Percocet only days before his death, ingesting so much of the painkiller that EMTs had to revive him with a “save shot” at an airport after his plane made an emergency landing.
Percocet, which contains a combination of acetaminophen and the opioid oxycodone, is highly addictive, and Prince wasn’t immune despite all of his wealth, fame, and access to elite medical care. In fact, Prince was a vegan who worked out and took care of his health religiously. But after a hip injury and corrective surgery in 2010, he started taking the prescription painkiller – and got hooked.
Prince’s half-brother-half-sister, and family attorney, among others, have confirmed his Percocet addiction, but stressed that by no means he was a recreational drug user. He became dependent on the highly addictive opioid painkiller to deal with the intense pain in his hips after performing, and then to come down after shows and try to sleep as the medication started to take over his life.
His fall was as devastating and tragic as any addict, as he reportedly was visiting his neighborhood Walgreens up to 4 times a week and visible agitated and unhealthy before his death. The day before he died, his people called a one of the top opioid addiction specialists in the country, seeking emergency help for Prince. But the next day, Prince was found unresponsive on an elevator in his house, and couldn’t be revived after 911 were called.
After working with the local Carver County Sheriff’s Office in Minnesota, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Drug Enforcement Administration have opened a formal investigation into his death, in part to determine how Prince got his prescription or non-prescription Percocet, and from whom.
Perhaps they are asking the wrong question, for if they really want to do some good and prevent this from happening again and again, they should be investigating “Why?” instead.
Why are Americans are now filling approximately 260 million prescriptions for opiate painkillers every year?
Why have deaths from prescription opioids more than doubled – to 16,000 every year – in the last decade?
Why have overdose deaths from legal prescription opioids gone up 400 hundred percent since 1999?
Why are deaths from prescription painkillers 250% higher than deaths from illegal drugs like heroin?
Why do more people ages 25 to 64 die from prescription drug overdoses than car accidents?
This is devastating and sad news, not just because it’s Prince that succumbed to a painkiller overdose, but also because it happens so often in our society unnecessarily that it’s not even newsworthy – unless a celebrity is involved.
The most tragic part of this is that chiropractic care could significantly reduce the number of painkiller prescriptions we need, and therefore the prevalence of addiction and overdoses, like in the case of Prince.
Of course there are times when prescription drugs and painkillers are needed, warranted, and the most responsible treatment option, but far too often, they become the first point of treatment – an automatic or default option for doctors and the traditional medical establishment – instead of safer, more natural, and frankly, more lasting and effective care. Unfortunately, doctors are highly incentivized by the pharmaceutical companies and medical establishment to acutely over-prescribe these drugs, abandoning other healthier, more holistic, and natural treatments that better serve patients over the long term.
Treating pain with chiropractic care, whether from migraine headaches, lower back pain, injuries – or in Prince’s case, hip injuries – is particularly effective. Chiropractic realigns your body’s natural balance, allowing it to heal the source of the pain, not just masking the symptoms. Therefore it’s also much safer and than taking prescription painkillers and risking addiction, abuse, and overdose.
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Come talk to us if you are experiencing any pain or want to understand the benefits of chiropractic care over prescription painkillers for treatment.
Sep 23 2016
Why don’t many Indigenous cultures suffer back pain?
But back pain is just a part of life and getting older, right? Believe it or not, back pain isn’t necessarily an inherent condition for all human beings. Incredibly, research now reveals that plenty of indigenous cultures throughout the world suffer little or no back pain!
Not only do people of these cultures experience almost no troublesome or chronic back pain, but research shows that the discs in their spines display very little signs of degeneration as they age, as well.
This epiphany started when a woman named Esther Gokhale from Palo Alto, California was stricken with her own debilitating back pain. For two decades, she consulted doctors, was on prescriptions and had surgeries, but none of it seemed to help. So when doctors urged her to have yet another risk or even dangerous spinal procedure, she look abroad for answers.
What she found was that many people from Indigenous cultures around the world suffered little or no back pain. She traveled all over the globe for the next ten years studying how these people stood, walked, worked and rested, as well as other diet, fitness and lifestyle factors. What she found was remarkable:
“I have a picture in my book of these two women who spend seven to nine hours everyday, bent over, gathering water chestnuts,” Gokhale says. “They’re quite old. But the truth is they don’t have a back pain.”
From Ubong tribesmen in Borneo to indigenous tribes in India; from the mountain tribes of Ecuador to villagers in West Africa and natives to tiny fishing towns in Portugal, she found that these people’s spines were essentially a different shape than most people in the west and America.
People in these indigenous cultures had spines that were shaped more like the letter “J” with a straight drop from neck to base and then a natural curve at the buttocks. Conversely, if you look at the typical American spine, they are usually shaped more like the letter “S” with a hump or curvature at the top of the back, too.
“They have this regal posture, and it’s very compelling” Gokhale said.
After taking note and comparing many other factors, Gokhale found that people with this J-Shaped spine rarely suffered back pain. But it’s not that these indigenous cultures had something different – it was the typical American spine that had changed over the decades. When she looked at anatomical drawings from Leonardo da Vinci or a Gray’s Anatomy book from 1901, she found that spines didn’t have that S-shape then, either, but were closer to the J-shape indigenous cultures now display.
It seems that a J-shaped spine is the natural and healthier human form.
“The J-shaped spine is what you see in Greek statues. It’s what you see in young children. It’s good design,” Gokhale says.
So what has changed with our western or American spines that is causing so much back pain and discomfort?
Further research concluded that a sedentary lifestyle, as we sit at desks and in car seats and office chairs and the like far more, could be a major reason why our spines are more S-shaped now. The lack of physical labor, mobility, and even recent phenomenon like “Text Neck” from people looking down at their smart phones so much are also contributors to reshaping our spines – for the worse.
While Gokhale’s research was comprehensive, it was mostly anecdotal, and there hasn’t been a real scientific or medical study into this theory of natural J-shaped spines among indigenous. But that doesn’t mean that scientists aren’t interested.
“I’d like to go and take X-rays of indigenous populations and compare it to people in the Western world,” says Dr. Praveen Mummaneni, a neurosurgeon at the University of California, San Francisco’s Spine Center. “I think that would be helpful.”
Mummaneni believes that it’s actually stronger abdominal muscles in indigenous and more active natural cultures that grant them perfect posture and protect their spines from back pain and acute degeneration.
But for most Americans, that strong physical culture has been replaced by sedentary one and overeating – and that means a lot of extra weight and belly fat, resulting in an S-shaped spine.
“If you have a lot of fat built up in the belly, that could pull your weight forward. That could curve the spine,” notes Mummaneni. “I think the sedentary lifestyle promotes a lack of muscle tone and a lack of postural stability because the muscles get weak. And people who are thinner probably have less curvature.”
It looks like getting back to basics with correct posture, a healthy diet, active lifestyle with lots of exercise, and regular chiropractic care can replicate the conditions of these indigenous cultures and result in a straighter, healthier spine without regular back pain.
If you’re suffering from back pain or any other discomfort in your back, neck or limbs, contact us to find out more!
By Norm Schriever • Chiropractic Treatments, General Health News, Health and Wellness, Pain Management, Uncategorized • Tags: Back pain, back pain relief, chiropractic Sacramento, chiropractor Sacramento, indigenous cultures and back pain, neck pain