The United States has one of the highest rates in the world of prescription drug use, especially for the psychiatric and anti-anxiety drug classes:
1 in 6 Americans takes a psychiatric drug
Over a 130,000 U.S. toddlers, children between zero and five years of age, are prescribed addictive anti-anxiety drugs including the wildly-addictive and difficult to stop using benzodiazepines
A very high proportion of the school shootings in the U.S. were committed by young adults on such drugs.
The benefits of these drugs are marketed to us daily, but what about the downsides? What about the side effects? More importantly, do they even work? What does the data tell us?
To answer these questions, we talk this week with Robert Whitaker, an American Journalist and author who has won numerous awards as a journalist covering medicine and science. In 1998 he co-wrote a series on psychiatric research for the Boston Globe that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for public service. His first book, Mad in America, was named by Discover Magazine as one of the best science books of 2002 and his book Anatomy of an Epidemic won the 2010 investigative reporters and editor’s book award for best investigative journalism. He’s also the publisher of MadinAmerica.com.
The irony is this. Before you go on an antidepressant, you have no known serotonergic deficiency with that system. But, once you go on and you have this drug that perturbs normal activity, it actually drives the brain into the very sub-serotonergic state hypothesized to cause depression in the first place.
This problem is called ‘oppositional tolerance’ within research circles. It means that basically what every psychiatric drug ultimately does is drive your brain in the opposite direction of what the drug is trying to do.
For example, anti-psychotics block dopamine function, but they do that by blocking the receptors in the post-synaptic neurons. Which made researchers hypothesize that maybe schizophrenia and psychosis is due to too much dopamine. While they didn’t find that in a matter of course in those disorders, once you’re on this drug, it will actually increase the density of your dopamine receptors.
So, conceptually, here’s the thing. We’re told these drugs fix known chemical imbalances in the brain. What science tells us is that we don’t know the biology of these disorders, the drugs perturb normal activity, and at the end of the compensatory process the drugs have induced the very abnormalities hypothesized to cause these disorders in the first place. That’s the scientific story(…)
The drugs may have efficacy in clinical trials over the short term (meaning they beat placebo in those studies ), but the evidence is overwhelming that over the long term the medications of *whatever* class of drugs does is increase the risk that a person will become chronically ill, functionally impaired, and end up on disability (…)
When we talk about drugs that worsen outcomes over the long term we are saying in the aggregate. In other words, you look at the spectrum of outcomes in the medicated group and you compare that the spectrum of outcomes in the unmedicated group in every study you can find the spectrum of outcomes are better in the unmedicated group.
Humans have a resilience within them and psychiatric disorders so often can be episodic in nature. I mean, that’s the natural course for most depressive episodes and including the majority of the first psychotic episodes and obviously with anxiety and these sort of things. So, one of the reasons you see that drugs have worsening outcomes in the aggregate because actually there’s such good natural recovery rates. That’s what lost from this conversation is what the capacity is to recovery from a depressive episode and anxiety episode and even psychotic episodes without drugs and with other support
Click the play button below to listen to Chris’ interview with Robert Whitaker (45m:06s).
How Poisoning Has Become The New Standard of Care.
What does the 4 billion dollar a year blockbuster Alzheimer’s drug donepezil (trade name Aricept) have in common with insecticides, chemical weapons and venom? Quite a lot more than consumers taking them have been lead to believe.
As a member of the chemical class known as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors donepezil interferes with the cholinesterase enzyme, preventing the neurotransmitter acetylcholine from breaking down, resulting in an increase in both its levels and duration of action.
While this can result in a temporary increase in memory, there is currently no definitive proof that use of donepezil or other similar agents slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Moreover, 21% of patients on this medication discontinue within 12 months due to serious adverse side effects
Donepezil is considered a reversible or non-competitive cholinesterase inhibitor, and therefore will not be as toxic as the reversible competitive or noncompetitive inhibitors of cholinesterase which kill insects and humans through their neurotoxic effects. The problem, however, is that – as is the case with virtually all FDA-approved, novel and patented chemical drugs – it is evolutionarily and biologically unprecedented, representing a classical case of repackaging one of a drug’s many “side effects” as a “therapeutic action.” After all, Alzheimer’s disease, or any neurodegenerative condition, is not caused by a lack of any drug. In other words, the very premise upon which Alzheimer’s is treated with donepezil is bankrupt at the outset.
In 2010 the World Health Organization published a report which looked at over 71,000 documented cases of drug-induced seizures between 1998 and 2006 and found that donepezil was a major contributing factor in 8.4% of them.
Seizures represent the tip of a massive iceberg of adverse effects. Another classical side effect of organophosphate insecticide poisoning is bradycardia (arrhythmia), a well documented side effect of donepezil.
What is so outrageous about the present situation is that non-patentable, inexpensive and relatively safe alternatives to intrinsically neurotoxic drugs like donepezil not only exist, but have been confirmed through clinical research.
Take gingko biloba as an example. In 2006 the European Journal of Neurology published the results of a 24-week randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study showing an extract of this plant was as effective as donepezil for mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease:
Our study suggests that there is no evidence of relevant differences in the efficacy of EGb 761 [gingko biloba] and donepezil in the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer’s dementia, so the use of both substances can be justified. In addition, this study contributes to establish the efficacy and tolerability of the Ginkgo biloba special extract E.S. in the dementia of the Alzheimer type with special respect to moderately severe stages. Source
Gingko biloba also has over 100 other potential medicinal applications.
The reality is that there is a vast array of natural approaches available in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, some of which have been demonstrated to regress the disease process by enhancing the clearance of pathological beta-amyloid brain plaque (Abeta).
A 2006 study in the journal of Alzheimer’s Disease reported on this phenomena with the use of curcuminoids (an extract of Turmeric):
The natural product curcuminoids enhanced brain clearance of Abeta in animal models. We, therefore, treated macrophages of six AD patients and 3 controls by curcuminoids in vitro and measured Abeta uptake using fluorescence and confocal microscopy. At baseline, the intensity of Abeta uptake by AD macrophages was significantly lower in comparison to control macrophages and involved surface binding but no intracellular uptake. After treatment of macrophages with curcuminoids, Abeta uptake by macrophages of three of the six AD patients was significantly (P<0.001 to 0.081) increased. Source
Unfortunately, natural substances will never receive FDA drug approval because no one will invest the billion dollars or more in capital (or risk the opportunity costs should it fail) necessary to pay for drug development and clinical trial phases 1, 2 and 3 on a substance that can be grown in your backyard for free. It therefore becomes necessary to alter the structure/function of natural compounds ostensibly to “improve upon nature,” while actually doing nothing more than granting the manufacturer patent exclusivity and a potentially astronomical return on its investment. Of course, the unintended, adverse effects of such a manipulation are devastating which cause the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives from drug-induced toxicity every year.
We should remember that while Nature’s formulas are proprietary – i.e. refractory to the pharmacological gaze – she does not grant patents. In other words, they are gifts – as health too is our birthright.
In an earlier article, I explained the following about Big Pharma:
The industry is one of the most profitable in the country, making about 18 cents profit on every dollar of sales.
It’s aided by government using our tax dollars to fund research on new drugs – the industry gets to sell at exorbitant prices.
It spends about twice as much on advertising, promotion and administrative costs as on R & D to develop new drugs.
Prices charged for prescription drugs in America are inordinately high compared to virtually all other countries – around double the cost of other developed nations.
They’re rising at around four times the rate of inflation. So are prohibitive costs for insurance and hospital care.
Companies increasingly are forcing employees to share a greater cost burden, along with reducing overall healthcare benefits.
A virtual regulation-free healthcare industry when it comes to pricing facilitates gouging consumers – making proper healthcare, or enough of it, increasingly unaffordable for millions of low and medium-income households.
Perhaps more than any other industry, Big Pharma bandits exploit US consumers for huge profits, rising exponentially for some drugs (new and old), an untenable situation without constraining them legislatively.
When undemocratic Dems controlled Congress under Obama and the Clinton co-presidency, they enacted no laws constraining unacceptably large drug price increases.
With Republicans controlling the administration, House and Senate, they disingenuously support what they rejected when it mattered – doing nothing about it, servile to industry interests.
Obamacare omitted the right to import cheaper drugs from abroad, notably Canada. It failed to mandate lower prices for Medicare-eligible households, a no-brainer it rejected.
NBC News earlier reported that “(p)aying for medicine can be the most expensive out-of-pocket health cost for Americans.”
The sky’s the limit when it comes to pricing, nothing constraining drug industry bandits charging whatever they want, no ceiling imposed on them.
An army of industry lawyers and lobbyists pressures Congress against regulating prices. Large campaign contributions to key House and Senate members buy Big Pharma what it wants.
The 2016 undemocratic Dem platform excluded a mandate for lower drug prices.
It included weasel words about “advancing our party’s progressive ideals…addressing the needs of all Americans” – meaningless rhetorical promises abandoned when controlling the White House and Congress.
Last March, disingenuous Senate Dems introduced the “Improving Access to Affordable Prescription Drugs Act.” The measure went nowhere with Republicans controlling Congress.
Why didn’t they introduce this measure when Dems controlled both houses with Obama in the White House? Why now and not then?
Simple, because they’re beholden to industry bandits like Republicans, gorging at the trough of industry campaign contributions – introducing consumer-friendly legislation only when passage won’t happen, not when it’s assured.
I snapped this picture on the way to the grocery store the other day, and was struck by how perfectly the ‘thousand words’ it spoke matched up with my opinion on what people should do if ever they are tempted to visit a pharmacy for anything other than necessary items, such as a nail file or diapers, namely: STOP!
Why am I so repugnant to the concept of frequenting these dispensary institutions? The fact that they not only sell cigarettes, but feature them at the front counter, forcing those who may actually need a pill or two to hobble all the way to the back to fetch them, figures somewhere into my sentiment. The fact that they are proliferating like metastatic nodules in any area with a population sufficiently sick and/or over-medicated enough to support one (and sometimes two!) on each and every block, has something to do with the way I feel as well.
But are the pharmacies really to blame? They largely fill orders placed by…
The Modern Day Physician: A Glorified, Applied Pharmacologist
Ok, so we have billions of pounds of synthetic chemicals consumed every year as patented drugs, with an army of degreed, licensed and doctored foot soldiers prescribing them recklessly under the once great banner of “medicine,” in an ongoing war against the body’s virtually infinite capability to generate symptoms, most of which are – ironically – attempts to heal from acute or chronic exposure to synthetic chemicals.
This situation didn’t happen overnight, mind you. Over 250 years ago, Voltaire penned these words, which still ring so true today:
Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of whom they know nothing. — Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire (1760)
Really, the modern day physician has transmogrified into a technician of the body-as-machine (a 500 year old, dead “Cartesian” concept, mind you), and is practicing what can best be described as a glorified form of applied pharmacology.
While administering xenobiotic chemicals to people is a valid discipline, with life-saving potential in extreme cases where a poison is needed to whack an over-stimulated system back away from the edge of self-destruction (which is why mercury and lead were used as medicines in ancient times, as well), applied pharmacology is not medicine, which is to say a discipline concerned with the healing of the body, or better yet, facilitating bodily self-healing; nor is the doctor any longer an educator, rather, more a well-paid appendage of the global fine chemicals, biologics and pharmaceuticals industries, directing the secretion of their product in such a way as to maximize profit, limit liability, and suppress the patient symptoms without (hopefully) killing them in the process.
So, where does that leave us? The amorphous, unlicensed, non-expert, mass of lay-persons, who by virtue of bodily incarnation will at some point or another need to address and/or resolve a symptom of disease, but who do not have the wherewithal, or even a legal right to make treatment decisions for themselves, (e.g. medical marijuana) or their loved ones (e.g. mandatory vaccines & chemotherapy).
The Physician As The Priest of the Body
Most of us, either from the moment of birth (usually in a hospital, and not the ideal way: at home with a midwife), or from infanthood onward, are enculturated to perceive the medical doctor as the “priest of the body,” solely capable and legally empowered to determine the course of life and death, both in times of health and mortal illness. Indeed, the original meaning of the word doctor comes from “Church father” (medieval French) or “religious teacher” (Latin), and still today, they elicit an unquestioning faith in their authority that defies reason, especially considering how many patients they kill from correctly prescribed medicine each year — 106,000 a year, according to a 1998 meta-analysis published in JAMA.
The modern-day drug-based medical dictatorship and its overarching power structure has a cult-like hold on those who take its two most lauded sacraments: the pharmakeia (Greek word behind pharmaceutical meaning “pill, potion, charm, sorcery, sacrifice, poison”), and ritual vaccinations.
I believe the best way to break the spell is by using the holy grail of the conventional medical model itself, namely: the peer-reviewed, published “scientific evidence,” and particularly those studies which support natural approaches to disease prevention and treatment; and by using that information, both to inform our choices, as well as defend them when they are under intellectual or regulatory assault., we can continue to choose foods, spices, herbs, fresh air, exercise, good company, laughter, etc. as our health care without the specter of scientism or medical monotheism forcing us into its drug- and injection-based model of compulsory treatment.
Utilize The Research You’ve Already Paid For
GreenMedInfo.com exists primarily in order to index, aggregate and disseminate the positive findings on natural – farm-acological – substances that can be found within the ocean of research produced by the biomedical research and publishing industries, whose primary funding sources are Big Pharma, and its handmaiden, world governments, who are increasingly co-opted by billions of dollars of lobbying money, and who are now populated by an army of their former executives, business employees and partners.
World governments, in fact, have even underwritten the risks associated with the countless vaccine-associated injuries that occur every year by virtually eliminating the liabilities of the manufacturers, and those public and private organizations that aggressively promote their use; this, despite the glaring lack of evidence for their purported effectiveness. Private insurers know the epidemic of vaccine-associated injuries is so extensive (e.g. autism) that they stand to lose everything for betting on that horse.
So, considering that YOU have paid for the research, both through government taxation, and the exorbitantly high drug mark-ups (cancer drugs may be as high as 500,000% from cost) that increasingly defraud the public both of their health and their wealth, it is only fitting that you take ownership of it. In the mad rush to find “lead compounds” from natural sources in order to develop patented, synthetic analogues, Big Pharma has generated – inadvertently – a mountain of evidence supporting the value, if not also the superiority of natural substances vis-à-vis their would-be drug equivalents.
Take our cancer research page, as an example. We have indexed 2600 studies straight from the public domain (NLM’s Medline) on the anti-cancer activity of over 600 natural substances. Remarkably, some of these have potent activity against drug and multi-drug resistant cancers and cancer stem-cells, which are at the root of why modern chemotherapy and radiation treatments not only fail but cause greater malignancy post-treatment.
Were any of these compounds patentable, they would likely have received attention, and some the requisite 800+ million dollars of funding needed to produce the multi-phased human clinical trials the FDA requires before considering drug approval. The fact that the MONEY, and not the intrinsic potential of a substance to heal, determines whether it will be brought to market, that is, be used to alleviate the suffering of the sick, is a disturbing fact.
Ultimately, it is to our gardens, our spice racks and local markets that we must go to obtain, maintain and sustain our health. We hope that the 19,000 study abstracts on our site, which are available for everyone to view in their entirety, will encourage people to see that farmaceuticals and not (p)harmaceuticals are the future of medicine, if there is to be a future to medicine. Please share the research housed on GreenMedInfo.com with others in need, so our work will not have been performed in vain. Also, if you have not already, please take a look at our turmeric research below for a better understanding of what our project is all about…
True healing occurs at deep levels. It integrates and makes whole. It is beyond just “managing”, “treating” or “curing” disease, and unless they change their perspective, it will continue to be beyond Big Pharma and Western medicine too.
True healing and true health are deep concepts which by their very definition imply oneness and unity (the word heal is etymologically derived from various words such as the Old English hælan meaning “to make whole”). True healing includes the many levels within you beyond just the physical – the integration of the emotional, sexual, mental, spiritual and other selves or layers. True healing is far beyond just “managing”, “treating” and “curing” disease, which Big Pharma and its lapdog the FDA like to focus so exclusively upon. Western medicine has its place in society as an excellent tool for specialized surgical or other emergency interventions – however it came into being from the Rockefeller-Big Pharma cartel, whose business model thrives on repeat customers who can’t get off the hamster wheel of drug after drug after drug. On a deeper level, is it really any wonder that Western medicine can’t deliver true healing, when its approach is narrow and materialistic, rather than broad and holistic – when it’s fixated on managing, treating and curing, rather than healing?
Big Pharma and Western Medicine: Hooked on “Treating” Disease
Hooked on “treating” disease, but not going any further.
If you’re wondering where the notion of “treating” come from, look no further than the FDA-mandated disclaimer that many natural health and holistic practitioners and companies are forced to use on their products. It states that “this product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease” because only a drug can legally make such a claim. And, in a great example of FDA circular logic, if a substance does have an effect on the human body such as preventing or curing a disease – then it must be drug and not a food!
Guess what? The moment something becomes a drug and not a food, it’s regulated differently. If you’re a producer of a food that wants to state its natural effects on the body, now you have to jump through all sorts of expensive hoops just to state the truth. This is despite the fact that scientific studies have shown, for instance, that cherries have a positive effect on gout and arthritis, coconut oil on Alzheimer’s, and turmeric, spirulina, graviola/soursop on cancer. It is an upside-down, outrageous situation where people are being silent about the clear and scientifically provable effects of foods and other natural medicines out of fear of being sued into poverty, taken down or taken out. Ignorant people defend the Big Pharma system by claiming it’s backed by “science”; meanwhile, insiders and experts state categorically that most scientific research is fraudulent, and most science is actually corporate junk science that is paid to produce the results its funders want.
Managing Disease: A Big Pharma Specialty
True healing has nothing to do with disease management, Big Pharma style.
The truth is that managing disease is a Big Pharma specialty. The most profitable customers are those patients who are going to be reliant on prescription drugs – just to exist – for the rest of their lives. In those cases it’s all about managing disease. How interesting that the word itself management is a very corporate word. Another aspect of the managing of disease is all the unnecessary (but very fancy and impressive sounding) testing that is done to people, under the guise of “early detection”. In his revealing book Confessions of a Medical Heretic, Dr. Robert Mendolsohn quotes an article entitled “Cleveland’s Marvelous Medical Factory” which boasted of the Cleveland Clinic’s “accomplishments last year: 2,980 open-heart operations, 1.3 million laboratory tests, 73,320 electrocardiograms, 7,770 full-body x-ray scans, 24,368 surgical procedures.”
Seems wonderful … except for the very obvious point that none of these procedures has been proven to have anything to do with restoring health or true healing. When people get screened for a disease, they are being subjected to dangerous radiation (more money for the Rockefellers) which harms tissue and can end up causing the exact disease it is supposed to be protecting against – as happens daily with the mammogram scam, designed to drum up new breast cancer clients.
Healing vs. Curing
Healing vs curing: there is a difference. Healing takes into account the energetic and holographic nature of our body and reality.
At this stage you may be thinking: well, Big Pharma and Western medicine do a lot of “managing” and “treating”, but aren’t they also in the business of “curing”? Yes – but even in this case, Western medicine is falling short of the ultimate goal of healing. Curing a disease and healing a disease are different things. As this website Healing Through The Arts states:
“Curing is what medical science attempts to do through medication, treatment and external intervention. It usually is the result of a series of treatments that hopefully lead to an event – the absence of disease.
Healing is an internal process you do for yourself. Healing restores the balance and harmony to the body, mind and spirit. It can be done without a cure. Healing activities are essential when the negative influences of illness, loss or life changes encompass your life.”
“Curing is a restoration of health, an absence of symptoms, and a remedy of disease. Healing, on the other hand, is a restoration of wholeness — not the level of wholeness before the diagnosis, but a restoration of wholeness that is new, different, and comparatively better than before the onset of disease. Healing is not the removal or cessation of symptoms, but rather an integrative process that transcends the physical and includes mental, emotional, and spiritual vitality and wellness.”
Others have defined curing as the “elimination of all evidence of disease” and healing as “becoming whole”. There are many ways to conceive and verbalize the difference between curing and healing, but the overall point is that healing is a deeper concept which includes the understanding that we are not just physical beings. If we want to attain true health, we must address all the levels of our being. Often a “disease” is merely an outer physical manifestation of a psychological, energetic or spiritual blockage which is taking place at a much deeper level.
Big Pharma has (rightly) been accused of making drugs that just mask symptoms without healing the underling cause. In many cases, they transfer the disease or imbalance from one part of the body to another. From a holistic perspective, this is only minorly helpful or not helpful at all, because as long as you have some imbalance, you’ve still got a health problem you have to deal with. So, even if Big Pharma actually cures your disease, rather than just treating it or managing it, you still aren’t really at a place of true healing, or real health and balance. If the cause of your disease is happening on an energetic level, how can drugs, surgery or radiation ever address it?
Towards True Healing
In conclusion, if you want true healing, look at all aspects of your entire life. Are you indulging in negative thought patterns? Are you involved in toxic relationships? Are you getting the right type, frequency and duration of exercise? Are you sleeping well? Is your lifestyle too sedentary? Are you allowing questionable food items into your diet? How are you dealing with stress? Even if you are doing a good job on most of these, being weak in one of these areas may be enough to throw your system off balance and lead to disease. We’re all on a journey of remembering our true selves, and reclaiming our wholeness through true healing is an inseparable part of it.
When it comes to survival medicine, I make no claim of being an expert. I am, after all, a mere layman with no medical training. On the other hand, I do possess a good deal of common sense so when something seems a bit off, I do my own research and make decisions based upon data and not upon supposition.
Something that has always been “off” to me are expiration dates on pharmaceuticals. Why is it that drugs always expire exactly one year after the date they were filled? The truth, as I wrote about in The Myth of Expiration Dates on Drugs and Prescription Meds, is that those expiration dates are often bogus.
Most of what is known about drug expiration dates comes from a study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration at the request of the military. With a large and expensive stockpile of drugs, the military faced tossing out and replacing its drugs every few years. What they found from the study is 90% of more than 100 drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter, were perfectly good to use even 15 years after the expiration date.
The question of whether outdated drugs are viable beyond their expiration date is a heated topic within the prepper community. I get that because there are some medications that absolutely should not be taken when they are old and expired. Some common examples include nitroglycerin, insulin, liquid antibiotics, and epinephrine but there are others.
Still, if the choice is to take an old, outdated medicine or die, I know what I would do.
In order to continue the discussion, and to shed further light on the myth of expiration dates, I am sharing an article by contributing author, Joe Alton. Joe, also known as Dr. Bones, is a medical doctor who is well versed in survival medicine. Here is his take on using old drugs for survival purposes.
Straight Talk About Expiration Dates
Years ago, I wrote an article about the truth relating to expiration dates on medications. Lately, I’ve seen some confusing information on the internet that tells you how dangerous they are while telling you that, in a survival scenario, you should probably use them. So I think it’s time to set the record straight with regards to expiration dates on medications.
Before I start, I want to tell you that my focus is medical preparedness for major disasters and long-term survival. That means a strategy of putting together stockpiles of supplies that might save a life in times of trouble.
Now, what you need to know.
Expiration dates were first mandated in the us in 1979.
They are the last day that a drug company will guarantee 100% potency of a medicine. These medicines do not, by and large, become toxic after the expiration date. I promise you that you will not grow a horn in the middle of your forehead if you take a pill the week after it expires.
In many cases, drugs in pill, powder, or capsule form will be 100% potent for years after their expiration date. How do I know this? FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Department of Defense stockpiles millions of doses of medications used in emergency settings. In the past, when those drugs expired, they were discarded.
This gets to be pretty expensive, so a study was performed called the shelf life extension program, something I first wrote about years ago. This program found that most medications, as long as they are in pill or capsule form, were still effective after their expiration dates, sometimes for years. As such, I recommended not throwing them away but, instead, making them part of your survival medical storage.
This, by the way, was not the case for medicines in liquid form. They lost potency quickly after their expiration dates, so are not useful for long-term survival settings.
These findings led the government to put out extensions of expiration dates for certain drugs as needed, such as the 5 year extension given the anti-viral drug Tamiflu during the 2009 swine flu epidemic.
Despite this, you’ll see quotes, often from academic types, that medications are dangerous when expired and should be tossed. These opinions are fine in normal times, but if you’re reading this article, you’re probably a member of the preparedness community or at least interested in the subject. You might even be the person that would be medically responsible in situations when the rescue helicopter is heading the other way.
Good, you’re exactly who I want to talk to since you may one day have to make a decision in a true disaster setting about whether or not to use an expired medication.
Let’s say a loved one is fading from an infection. Something bad has happened and you’re off the grid with little or no hope of getting to modern medical care. You have an expired bottle of antibiotics. What are you going to do? Someone you love is dying. Are you going to use the expired drug or not? Exactly.
Of course, medicines should be stored in cool, dry, dark conditions. Their potency will fade twice as fast if stored at 90 degrees as if stored at 50 degrees. Freezing them, however, is rarely helpful. Even if stored in suboptimal conditions, a capsule or tablet that hasn’t changed color or consistency is probably still worth keeping for austere settings.
Sometimes, in a true disaster, the issues that will facing the medically responsible will be very basic.
What’s the problem? Do I have medicine that will treat it? Could this medicine, although it has expired, possibly save a life? When it comes down to it, can you really choose to not use it to prevent a death because it may possibly have side effects or not be quite as strong as it was?
I say: In this situation, don’t withhold a drug because some professors said it wasn’t a good idea to use it. Believe me, they weren’t seriously considering a time when an expired medication might be the only option you have left.
Let’s hope it never gets to that point, but preparing for the worst, while hoping for the best isn’t a bad strategy to deal with the uncertain future.
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The Final Word
In our heart of hearts, we would never purposely do harm to a loved one. Talking that one step further, we would do everything we could to ensure their health and their safety when the chips are down.
These days, my own preference is to use herbal remedies and essential oils to take care of my loved one’s health care needs. But in times of distress, who can predict what we will have available following a disaster or other disruptive event? For that reason, I have stockpiled old, no longer used drugs. This includes both prescription and over-the-counter meds. They are tucked away with many of my other “I hope to never have to use” preps. The only cost to keeping them is the space they take and what the heck? Why wouldn’t I do that?
I know I have said this before but it bears repeating: knowledge is power and the best piece of survival gear you will ever own is the gray matter between your ears. Read and study as much as you can about survival medicine and always, use common sense.
To read more from Joe and his wife Amy, you can visit their website at www.doomandbloom.net. There you will find hundreds of articles related to medical preparedness in wilderness, disaster, or other austere settings.
Enjoy your next adventure through common sense and thoughtful preparation!
In spite of what many people believe, pharmaceutical drugs are not useful to achieve or maintain a healthy state, neither physical nor mental.
Both physical and mental health are closer to everyone than people imagine. Yet, so many people continue to believe that synthetic drugs are the solution to their problems.
Meds provided to the sick by a physician only perpetuate their unhealthy physical state, and those recommended by psychiatrists only aggravate the chemical imbalances in the brain.
The questions are then where do people go when they want to prevent and cure disease or when they want to stay healthy?
The answer is simple. Herbs and spices.
Herbs and spices are in most cases the inspiration for pharmaceutical companies to produce synthetic drugs that they allege treat and cure disease.
Those drugs unsuccessfully attempt to mimic what natural spices and herbs do all by themselves, without the help of artificial chemicals.
“Herbs and cooking spices contain a wide variety of antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins, and help maximize the nutrient density of your meals,” writes Dr. Mercola.
Just as any other food item people ingest, herbs and spices have an effect on their health, but different from most processed foods, they provide an upgrade to your nutritional habits.
When eating in low, normal doses such as ones most people use in preparing their meals, and for long periods of time, herbs and spices have the ability to prevent inflammation, which is the root cause of most diseases.
There are many lists that include spices which have shown signs of being beneficial to human health, especially when trying to prevent disease, but there are four of them that make every single one of those lists.
Clove, Ginger, Rosemary, and Turmeric have shown, in laboratory and human studies, to significantly reduce inflammation.
Out of the four most important natural anti-inflammatory herbs and spices, two of them, Turmeric and Clove are the most successful in combating the causes of inflammation, which as mentioned before, is at the root of most diseases.
According to NutritionFacts.org, “an elegant experiment” was performed in which individuals were fed normal amounts of clove and turmeric and other herbs and spices.
Later, “the blood of those eating different types of spices such as cloves, ginger, rosemary, and turmeric was tested for anti-inflammatory capacity.
Both turmeric and clove showed to be the greatest fighters of inflammation.
“For one week, 10 to 12 subjects in each of 13 groups consumed a small amount of a particular spice each day.
For example, those in the oregano group ate just half a teaspoon of oregano daily for seven days.
Blood samples were drawn one hour prior to consumption, and at the very end of the experiment.
The participants’ blood was then analyzed for antioxidant capacity.
The researchers also analyzed how well the blood could dampen an induced inflammatory response in white blood cells.
This was done by placing the participants’ blood onto white blood cells that had been damaged by oxidized cholesterol (commonly found in fried foods).
Even at the “every day” dosage amounts given, four spices were found to be significantly effective at quelling the inflammatory response.”
Millions of men face prostate issues, with treatment with drugs and surgery often making their problems worse. A new study reveals that simply eating flaxseed may be the best way to improve your symptoms, and take back control of your health.
According to the study, The American Urology Association (AUA) Guideline, 2010, defines benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) as proliferation of smooth muscles and epithelial cells within the prostatic transition zone. The typical symptoms include:
Urinary frequency
Urgency
Nocturia (abnormal frequency of night time urination)
Decreased and intermittent force of stream
Sensation of incomplete bladder emptying.
BPH is one of the most widespread health conditions faced by men today, with the incidence rising to nearly 50% of the male population by the eighth decade of their lives. Moreover, countries like China and India are now seeing an exponential increase in BPH diagnoses as they increasingly adopt the Western diet, lifestyle, and medical system.
Current approaches include side effect heavy pharmaceuticals such as alpha adrenergic blockers and 5a-reductase inhibitors, as well “gold standard” surgical procedures such as transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP), which so consistently produces surgery related impairments that there is an entire syndrome named after these side effects, namely, Transurethral Resection of the Prostate (TURP) Syndrome.
The human cost in both financial and existential terms is immense. This is why interest in safe, natural, affordable and effective alternatives is growing, and why the researchers felt compelled to test the hypothesis that eating flaxseed might provide an ideal alternative approach.
In the randomized, double-blinded, and placebo-controlled study, three groups of men, aged 45-75, with newly diagnosed BPH and an American Urological Association Symptom Index (AUASI) score of ‡ 13 , were given either a placebo, or a low or high dose of a lignin-rich flaxseed hull extract. More specifically:
“Study treatment consisted of 500 or 1000 mg of extract containing 100 mg (low-dose active [LDA] group, n = 26) or 200 mg (high-dose active [HDA] group, n = 26) of secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG), respec- tively. The placebo (P) group (n = 28) received matching maltodextrin capsules. Sixty subjects (LDA [n = 19], HDA [n = 20], and P [n = 21]) completed the study as per the protocol requirements. Change in the AUASI score within a period of 8 weeks, from baseline to end of treatment, was assessed.”
The promising results were reported as follows:
“In this study, supplementation with the flaxseed hull extract provided greater relief than placebo in obstructive symptoms of BPH, such as sensation of incomplete bladder emptying, ”stopping and starting” while urinating, weak urinary stream, and ”straining while urinating.” Low and high doses of the flaxseed extract provided statistically significant improvements in the scores of these obstructive symptoms at week 8 as compared with baseline. In contrast to this, the placebo group did not show a statistically significant improvement with respect to these obstructive symptoms.”
The treatment group did not see any sign of increased side effects relative to the placebo group, indicating how remarkably safe flaxseed is versus conventional treatment. Also, because the placebo group also saw a significant improvement, it is possible that the strong placebo effect may have overshadowed the real power of the intervention. We hope that in the future a non-pharmaceutical industry funded study compares flaxseed to both pharmaceutical and surgical intervention to assess its true power.
Another important observation is that the flaxseed groups saw an increase in free testosterone, as well as a decrease in the testosterone metabolite DHT, which is known to contribute to prostate growth both benign and malignant. The placebo group, on the other hand, saw both an increase in testosterone and DHT. This also means that aging men, whose testosterone levels often plunge in relation to their estrogen levels, might experience additional hormonal benefits from eating flaxseed that could contribute to their overall state of well-being.
Concluding Remarks
This study is highly promising for a number of reasons. First, flaxseed is a safe, time-tested, and highly nutritious food that has been researched for a wide range of health benefits. You can view over 70 health benefits we have identified here: Flaxseed research database. Anything that can be used as a nourishing food while at the same time significantly relieving human suffering from a common disease, is highly compelling.
But there is a deeper reason why flaxseed may work so well. Our bodies co-evolved with certain foods for hundreds of thousands of years. Certain foods contains phytocompounds which our bodies have become dependent upon for self-regulation and homeostasis It is possible that lignins are vitally important, as essential as vitamins for maintaining optimal health. Obviously BPH is not caused by a lack of surgery or synthetic chemicals, but it might be true to say that BPH is caused by the lack of an ideal diet which would include lignin rich foods like flaxseed. Cleary, therefore, flaxseed could be considered part of a root cause resolution approach to BPH, versus looking it as just a palliative “disease management” tool like most of the approaches within the conventional armamentarium.
Finally, BPH falls within the category of a condition that involves the abnormal growth of the very same epithelial tissue that cancer emerges within. Since flaxseed has been found to prevent and even regress cancerous epithelial growths, such as breast cancer, it is highly likely that flaxseed consumption may also be the best insurance policy out there to prevent prostate cancer from developing.
For more information on natural ways to address BPH, or prostate cancer, check out our two databases on the topic here:
For many centuries, the Chinese used snake oil as a treatment for joint pain, arthritis, and bursitis. They brought this folk remedy with them when they arrived in the US in the mid-1800’s to build the Transcontinental Railroad. That was backbreaking work. Synthetic pain-killers such as aspirin were not yet freely available. When the Chinese workers offered their remedy to Westerners as a palliative it was likely perceived to be a “primitive” form of “quackery” by the medical experts of that time. This is one probable origin of the derogatory meaning of the word “snake oil.”
The ironic thing about modern pharmaceuticals “snake oil,” i.e. petrochemical-derived and patented synthetic chemicals, is that they often have considerably less value than a placebo, and in certain cases may not even compare in therapeutic value to actual snake oil.
To prove the point, below are listed four remarkable studies, as cited on the National Library of Medicine’s bibliographic database known as Medline, referring to the potential therapeutic properties of sea snake and boa constrictor lipids — snake oil! — for inflammation and infection……
Pubmed Data : 1: Br J Plast Surg. 1990 Mar;43(2):183-6.
Article Published Date : Mar 01, 1990
Study Type : In Vitro Study
We don’t, of course, advocate consuming snake oil when other powerful, natural, and far more accessible anti-inflammatory fats are available from less sentient sources: flaxseed oil, for instance. Or, if you are really interested in the topic, here are 223 natural substances with demonstrable anti-inflammatory activity, many of which are foods, nutrients, spices and herbs.
The point here is that when age-old invectives like “snake-oil” are hurled at those advocating natural approaches to healing by those who would claim synthetic chemicals are the only “real” or evidence-based alternatives, the “insult” itself reveals a subconscious acknowledgement that practically all things produced by Nature have medicinal value.
Let’s look closer at another example of purported “snake oil”: the traditional practice among the Maori and Chinese of eating earthworms to settle an upset stomach. Long considered an obscene, disgusting, “folk medicine” practice, these 3 scientific studies tell quite a different story:
Pubmed Data : Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2008 Jul-Aug;12(4):237-43.Article Published Date : Jul 01, 2008
Study Type : Animal Study
In the first two studies, earthworms are shown superior to Ranitidine as an anti-ulcer, gastroprotective agent. Ranitidine is a chemical which blocks the H2-histamine receptors in the parietal cells in the stomach that produce hydrochloric acid, and is sold under the trade name Zantac. Until Zantac lost its patent in 1997, global sales reached 1.6 billion dollars annually. And yet despite these blockbuster sales, its value as a “medicine” compares poorly to the consumption of creatures that live beneath our feet, and who also, incidentally, make possible all the food we consume through their indispensable role in producing fecund soil.
So which is the “snake-oil,” the infatuated object of “quackery”? Synthetic chemicals excreted by a vast petrochemical-medical-industrial complex, and re-purposed and repackaged to the consumer as “medicines”? Or, natural substances and organisms traditionally used as food-medicines, sometimes for thousands of years before the advent of modern, scientism- and drug-driven medicine?
Just for the record, I won’t be eating worms any time soon. But given the choice between a chemical, with no biological or evolutionary precedent in my body, and an earthworm or sip of actual snake oil, I will gladly choose the latter.
Be sure to check out the other 40 instances of research showing Science confirming Traditional Medicine from around the world.
Opioids kill patients more frequently than any other medication used for nonfatal conditions,1 yet disturbing statistics reveal more than one-third of American adults were prescribed these dangerous drugs in 2015.2 Even more shocking, opioid overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50.3More than half of all opioid prescriptions in the U.S. are also issued to patients suffering from anxiety and depression,4 despite the fact that this increases their risk for addiction. Overall, studies show addiction affects about 26 percent of those using opioids for chronic non-cancer pain.5While back pain is one of the most common reasons for receiving a prescription for a narcotic pain reliever,6 a surprising number of people — especially teens and young adults — receive these potent drugs from their dentist. Women are also increasingly being prescribed opioids during pregnancy and after delivery,7 creating addicts in the womb and destroying families by creating drug-dependent mothers and infants.
Of the 1.1 million pregnant women enrolled in Medicaid in 2007, nearly one-quarter of them filled a prescription for an opioid drug.8 Not surprisingly, statistics9 reveal a disconcerting rise in neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). Between 2000 and 2009, the prevalence of NAS increased from 1.2 to nearly 3.4 per 1,000 live births.
1 in 3 American Adults Prescribed Opioids Every Year!
According to Dr. Wilson Compton, deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Maryland, 38 percent of adults (about 92 million people) in the U.S. were prescribed an opioid drug in 2015.10,11,12,13 Women, people over the age of 49 and those without college degrees were most likely to receive a prescription, and the unemployed, uninsured and adults with an annual family income below $50,000 had the highest prevalence of opioid misuse and addiction.
An estimated 5 percent of adults (11.5 million people) misused the drugs, and nearly 1 percent (some 1.9 million people) reported addiction. Interestingly, while women are prescribed opioids more frequently than men, men have a higher rate of misuse — 13 percent compared to 9 percent respectively. Of those misusing the drug:
41 percent reported getting leftover medication from family or friends14,15
64 percent said their use of the drug was motivated by need for physical pain relief
11 percent said they took the pills to relax or get high
“Overall, the results indicate that the medical profession is doing a poor job of appropriately prescribing opioid painkillers. Even though the rates have leveled off, we have a long way to go in improving medical care so these are not as overprescribed as they are currently … [T]here are a lot of leftover medications. In many cases, physicians could write smaller prescriptions, or avoid them completely for those who benefit from ibuprofen or acetaminophen.”
Nearly 70,000 Physicians Were PAID to Prescribe Opioids
A recent paper17 hints at one of the reasons why opioids are still so vastly overprescribed. Between 2013 and 2015 alone, 68,177 physicians received in excess of $46 million in payments from drug companies marketing narcotic pain relievers.18 In all, that amounts to 1 out of every 12 doctors in the U.S. As noted by pediatrician Scott Hadland, who led the study, “The next step is to understand these links between payments and prescribing practices and overdose deaths.”
Dr. Karen Lasser, associate professor of medicine and public health at the Boston University School of Medicine’s Clinical Addiction Research & Education (CARE) Unit, told CBS News pain management needs significant revision:19
“Doctors need to adopt a stepped-care approach to pain management. With this approach, doctors would first try to manage pain using nondrug means — such as physical therapy, yoga or acupuncture — or prescribe milder pain medications, including aspirin, ibuprofen or acetaminophen.
There would be guidelines for all the medications you should try before you get to opioids. In addition, patients should have to sign an opioid treatment agreement outlining the risks and benefits of such therapy, so they understand the potential for addiction.”
Oral Surgeons and Dentists Are Major Opioid Prescribers
Oral surgeons and dentists, in particular, need to reconsider their prescribing habits. Each year, about 3 million Americans, most under the age of 25, have their wisdom teeth removed, and most if not all receive a prescription for opioids. This, despite research20,21showing a combination of ibuprofen and acetaminophen actually works better than opioids for the treatment of pain following wisdom tooth extractions.
As noted by The New York Times,22 “dentists and oral surgeons are by far the major prescribers of opioids for people ages 10 to 19,” and even short-term use is associated with future opioid misuse and addiction among teens and young adults.
In fact, children who receive an opioid have a 1 in 3 chance of “lifetime illicit use.” According to recent research,23 of the people who received a mere 12-day supply of an opioid, 1 in 4 were still taking the drug one year later, and that includes all age groups. Children and teens are at higher risk for continued use once they’re exposed.24
Overdose Deaths Continue to Climb
While you certainly hear more about the dangers of opioids these days, growing awareness has yet to impact death statistics. According to the latest data from the National Center for Health Statistics, more Americans died from opioid overdoses in the first nine months of 2016 than in the first nine months of 2015. When broken down into quarters, you can see the death toll from drug overdoses steadily climbing, quarter by quarter.25
First quarter of 2015: 16.3 overdose deaths for every 100,000 people
Second quarter of 2015: 16.2 overdose deaths per 100,000
Third quarter of 2015: 16.7 overdose deaths per 100,000
First quarter of 2016: 18.9 overdose deaths per 100,000
Second quarter of 2016: 19.3 overdose deaths per 100,000
Third quarter of 2016: 19.9 drug overdose deaths per 100,000
Other recent research drives home the severity of the problem, showing opioid deaths have been significantly underestimated. According to this report,26 published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, mortality statistics involving drug overdoses from 2008 through 2014 underestimated opioid-related deaths by 24 percent. Overdose deaths involving heroin was underestimated by 22 percent.
Spike in Fatal Car Crashes Linked to Opioid Use
Overdose deaths are not the only problem associated with skyrocketing opioid use. It’s also causing people to die on our roadways. Statistics reveal driving under the influence of drugs now causes more fatal car crashes than drunken driving.
According to a report27,28,29 compiled by the Governors Highway Safety Association and the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility, prescription and/or illegal drugs were involved in 43 percent of fatal car crashes in 2015, while 37 percent involved illegal amounts of alcohol.
Another recent report30 found drivers killed in car crashes while under the influence of opioids specifically rose sevenfold between 1995 and 2015. Among male drivers killed, the prevalence of prescription narcotics in their system increased from 1 percent in 1995 to 5 percent in 2015. Among women, narcotic pain relievers were implicated in 1 percent in 1995 and 7 percent in 2015.
According to lead author Stanford Chihuri, staff associate in the department of anesthesiology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, “The significant increase in proportion of drivers who test positive for prescription pain medications is an urgent public health concern.31 ”
Co-author Dr. Guohua Li, professor of epidemiology at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, added,32 “The opioid epidemic has been defined primarily by the counts of overdose fatalities. Our study suggests that increases in opioid consumption may carry adverse health consequences far beyond overdose morbidity and mortality.”
Avoid Driving Under the Influence of Narcotics
It’s important to realize that illegal drugs are far from the only drugs capable of impairing your judgment behind the wheel. Hundreds of medications can impair your driving ability, including some sold over-the-counter. Opioids are certainly part of that list. Drugs — both prescription and illegal — in combination with alcohol is particularly risky.
So, please, if you absolutely must take a prescription painkiller, carefully assess your ability to drive safely. Ideally, let someone else drive. And, if you know someone who is using an opioid, remember that just as with alcohol, “friends don’t let friends drive impaired.”
President Trump Declares State of Emergency
In related news, a government opioid commission recently called for President Trump to declare a state of emergency to force Congress to fund strategies to curtail and treat opioid addiction.33,34,35
The commission is chaired by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Other members include Charlie Barker, governor of Massachusetts, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, former U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy and Bertha Madra, a psychobiology professor at Harvard Medical School. In their White House report, the commission states:36
“According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) … 142 Americans die every day from a drug overdose … The opioid epidemic we are facing is unparalleled. The average American would likely be shocked to know that drug overdoses now kill more people than gun homicides and car crashes combined. In fact, between 1999 and 2015, more than 560,000 people in this country died due to drug overdoses — this is a death toll larger than the entire population of Atlanta …
In 2015, nearly two-thirds of drug overdoses were linked to opioids like Percocet, OxyContin, heroin, and fentanyl … [H]ere is the grim reality: Americans consume more opioids than any other country in the world. In fact, in 2015, the amount of opioids prescribed in the U.S. was enough for every American to be medicated around the clock for three weeks.
Since 1999, the number of opioid overdoses in America have quadrupled … Not coincidentally, in that same period, the amount of prescription opioids … quadrupled as well. This massive increase in prescribing has occurred despite the fact that there has not been an overall change in the amount of pain Americans have reported in that time period.
We have an enormous problem that is often not beginning on street corners; it is starting in doctor’s offices and hospitals in every state in our nation.”
President Trump declared the opioid epidemic a national emergency on August 10, saying, “The opioid crisis is an emergency … It is a serious problem, the likes of which we have never had … We’re going to spend a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money on the opioid crisis.”37
Pain and Hopelessness Fuel Opioid Crisis
According to recent research, half of all Americans are living with chronic illness,38 and many addiction specialists believe pain and hopelessness are driving the opioid crisis in the U.S. As noted in The Washington Post:39
“Fatal overdoses from prescription opioids have quadrupled since 1999 and heroin overdoses have gone up about six-fold since 2001. But other drugs also play a role. A Post analysis of federal health data found that white women are five times as likely as white men, for example, to be prescribed drugs for anxiety in tandem with painkillers, a potentially deadly combination.
Meanwhile, the suicide rate among middle-aged white women has risen in parallel with prescriptions for often-ineffective psychiatric drugs. Both have roughly doubled since 1999 … According to federal health officials, nearly 1 in 4 white women ages 50 to 64 are [sic] being treated with antidepressants. Binge drinking is also on the rise, as women close the gap with heavier-drinking white males.”
Limiting the availability of opioids and making overdose-reversal drugs (naloxone) and treatment for drug addiction more readily available are certainly part of the answer. But it’s not enough. We have to take a much deeper look at the root of the problem. What is causing all this physical and emotional pain in the first place?
Clearly, the U.S. health care system is blatantly ineffective at treating chronic health problems. Whether ill health is promoting hopelessness or the other way around is difficult to ascertain, but the two appear to be closely intertwined and need to be addressed together. Somehow or another, we need to refocus our efforts to create lives worth living, and improve access to and information about basic disease prevention, such as healthy foods and foundational health-promoting lifestyle strategies.
Nondrug Solutions for Pain Relief
It’s important to realize that in addition to the risk of addiction, opioids can also severely impair your health by suppressing your immune function. In fact, several studies show that one primary risk for HIV and AIDS is opiate exposure.40,41,42,43 In cancer patients, opiates have a tendency to produce a rapid decline in health as the drug causes their immune system to falter.
So please remember, opiates are highly immunosuppressive drugs that raise your risk of any number of diseases, as your immune system is your frontline defense against all disease. It’s particularly important to avoid opioids when trying to address long-term chronic pain, as your body will create a tolerance to the drug.
Over time, you may require greater doses at more frequent intervals to achieve the same pain relief. This is a recipe for disaster and could have lethal consequences. Following is information about nondrug remedies, dietary changes and bodywork interventions that can help you manage your pain.
Eliminate or radically reduce most grains and sugars from your diet
Avoiding grains and sugars will lower your insulin and leptin levels and decrease insulin and leptin resistance, which is one of the most important reasons why inflammatory prostaglandins are produced. That is why stopping sugar and sweets is so important to controlling your pain and other types of chronic illnesses.
Take a high-quality, animal-based omega-3 fat
Omega-3 fats are precursors to mediators of inflammation called prostaglandins. (In fact, that is how anti-inflammatory painkillers work, by manipulating prostaglandins.) Good sources include wild caught Alaskan salmon, sardines and anchovies, which are all high in healthy omega-3s while being low in contaminants such as mercury. As for supplements, my favorite is krill oil, as it has a number of benefits superior to fish oil.
Optimize your sun exposure and production of vitamin D
Optimize your vitamin D by getting regular, appropriate sun exposure, which will work through a variety of different mechanisms to reduce your pain. Sun exposure also has anti-inflammatory and pain relieving effects that are unrelated to vitamin D production, and these benefits cannot be obtained from a vitamin D supplement.
Red, near-, mid- and far-infrared light therapy (photobiology) and/or infrared saunas may also be quite helpful as it promotes and speeds tissue healing, even deep inside the body.
Medical cannabis
Medical marijuana has a long history as a natural analgesic and is now legal in 29 U.S. states. You can learn more about the laws in your state on medicalmarijuana.procon.org.44
Kratom
Kratom (Mitragyna speciose) is another plant remedy that has become a popular opioid substitute.45 In August, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration issued a notice saying it was planning to ban kratom and list it as a Schedule 1 controlled substance. However, following massive outrage from kratom users who say opioids are their only alternative, the agency reversed its decision.46
Kratom is likely safer than an opioid for someone in serious and chronic pain. However, it’s important to recognize that it is a psychoactive substance and should not be used carelessly. There’s very little research showing how to use it safely and effectively, and it may have a very different effect from one person to the next.
Also, while it may be useful for weaning people off opioids, kratom is in itself addictive. So, while it appears to be a far safer alternative to opioids, it’s still a powerful and potentially addictive substance. So please, do your own research before trying it.
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT)
EFT is a drug-free approach for pain management of all kinds. EFT borrows from the principles of acupuncture in that it helps you balance out your subtle energy system. It helps resolve underlying, often subconscious, and negative emotions that may be exacerbating your physical pain. By stimulating (tapping) well-established acupuncture points with your fingertips, you rebalance your energy system, which tends to dissipate pain.
K-Laser, class 4 laser therapy
If you suffer pain from an injury, arthritis or other inflammation-based pain, I’d strongly encourage you to try K-Laser therapy. It can be an excellent choice for many painful conditions, including acute injuries. By addressing the underlying cause of the pain, you will no longer need to rely on painkillers.
K-Laser is a class 4 infrared laser therapy treatment that helps reduce pain, reduce inflammation and enhance tissue healing — both in hard and soft tissues, including muscles, ligaments or even bones. The infrared wavelengths used in the K-Laser allow for targeting specific areas of your body and can penetrate deeply into the body to reach areas such as your spine and hip.
Chiropractic
Many studies have confirmed that chiropractic management is much safer and less expensive than allopathic medical treatments, especially when used for pain such as low back pain.
Qualified chiropractic, osteopathic and naturopathic physicians are reliable, as they have received extensive training in the management of musculoskeletal disorders during their course of graduate health care training, which lasts between four to six years. These health experts have comprehensive training in musculoskeletal management.
Acupuncture
Research has discovered a “clear and robust” effect of acupuncture in the treatment of back, neck and shoulder pain, and osteoarthritis and headaches.
Physical therapy
Physical therapy has been shown to be as good as surgery for painful conditions such as torn cartilage and arthritis.
Foundation training
Foundation training is an innovative method developed by Dr. Eric Goodman to treat his own chronic low back pain. It’s an excellent alternative to painkillers and surgery, as it actually addresses the cause of the problem.
Massage
A systematic review and meta-analysis published in the journal Pain Medicine included 60 high-quality and seven low-quality studies that looked into the use of massage for various types of pain, including muscle and bone pain, headaches, deep internal pain, fibromyalgia pain and spinal cord pain.47
The review revealed massage therapy relieves pain better than getting no treatment at all. When compared to other pain treatments like acupuncture and physical therapy, massage therapy still proved beneficial and had few side effects. In addition to relieving pain, massage therapy also improved anxiety and health-related quality of life.
Mind-body methods
Methods such as hot and cold packs, aquatic therapy, yoga, cognitive behavioral therapy48 and various mind-body techniques, including meditation and mindfulness training can also result in astonishing pain relief without drugs.
For example, among volunteers who had never meditated before, those who attended four 20-minute classes to learn a meditation technique called focused attention (a form of mindfulness meditation) experienced significant pain relief — a 40 percent reduction in pain intensity and a 57 percent reduction in pain unpleasantness.49
Grounding
Walking barefoot on the earth may also provide a certain measure of pain relief by combating inflammation.
Astaxanthin
Astaxanthin is one of the most effective fat-soluble antioxidants known. It has very potent anti-inflammatory properties and in many cases works far more effectively than anti-inflammatory drugs. Higher doses are typically required and you may need 8 milligrams (mg) or more per day to achieve this benefit.
Ginger
This herb has potent anti-inflammatory activity and offers pain relief and stomach-settling properties. Fresh ginger works well steeped in boiling water as a tea or grated into vegetable juice.
Curcumin
In a study of osteoarthritis patients, those who added 200 mg of curcumin a day to their treatment plan had reduced pain and increased mobility. A past study also found that a turmeric extract composed of curcuminoids blocked inflammatory pathways, effectively preventing the overproduction of a protein that triggers swelling and pain.50
Boswellia
Also known as boswellin or “Indian frankincense,” this herb contains specific active anti-inflammatory ingredients.
Bromelain
This enzyme, found in pineapples, is a natural anti-inflammatory. It can be taken in supplement form but eating fresh pineapple, including some of the bromelain-rich stem, may also be helpful.
Cetyl myristoleate (CMO)
This oil, found in fish and dairy butter, acts as a joint lubricant and anti-inflammatory. I have used this for myself to relieve ganglion cysts and carpal tunnel syndrome. I used a topical preparation for this.
Evening primrose, black currant and borage oils
These contain the essential fatty acid gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), which is particularly useful for treating arthritic pain.
Cayenne cream
Also called capsaicin cream, this spice comes from dried hot peppers. It alleviates pain by depleting the body’s supply of substance P, a chemical component of nerve cells that transmits pain signals to your brain.
Naltrexone is an opiate antagonist, originally developed in the early 1960s for the treatment of opioid addiction. When taken at very low doses (LDN, available only by prescription), it triggers endorphin production, which can boost your immune function and ease pain.
