It’s Time To Stop Cultivating A Culture Of Chronic Pain Patients

By Dr. John Rosa

chronic pain

We’re addicted to masking the pain.

When you have a medical system that is as addicted to taking the easy way out by masking problems that cause pain instead of getting to the bottom of them and healing human pain and suffering, you create a cycle of addiction and a culture of chronic pain. That’s exactly the position we are in as a culture today.

Based on our current reimbursement systems, it’s easier for doctors to prescribe a pain pill than it is for them to prescribe a multi-disciplinary system of treatment that will actually get to the source of the pain and eliminate it. And, believe me, I am aware that this system is like a double-edged sword.

Patients just want to be pain-free.

The easiest way to do that instantly is to take opioids. But, the problems created by this seemingly instantly gratifying method are deadly and devastating. So, both patients and doctors are going to have to actively participate in ending this vicious cycle.

Educating both the doctors who are accustomed to working solo, and the patients who want the quickest relief to the fact that living pain-free requires more effort than popping a pill is without doubt going to be a difficult task. But it isn’t as difficult as it may seem.

Among the 14 Integrative Medical clinics I oversee, one is a free clinic. In this clinic alone, we have seen a 70% reduction in opioid prescriptions. Through the use of chiropractic, acupuncture, massage, yoga, meditation and physical therapy, our patients live pain free and pill free. This is the future I see for our country.

If this is a vision you share and someone you love is dependent on or addicted to opioid drugs, please seek help before it’s too late. If you would like to learn more about the Opioid Crisis as it relates to awareness, prevention and treatment or schedule a corporate or organization seminar contact us at DrJohnRosa.com. Here you will learn how to connect with the leading experts on the crisis and how to help your community stay safe.

Decrease Pain, Increase Mobility, Limit Opioid Medications

By Dr. John Rosa

pain management

What if I told you that you could decrease pain without medication?

The title of this article is the holistic strategy used with patients who come to my chiropractic centers in pain. My goal is to educate patients, caregivers and anyone else who is interested, how to manage pain without the use of opioid medications.

I recently placed myself into a busy Primary Care medical practice where we have been able to reduce opioid prescriptions by 70% through the integration of Chiropractic, physical therapy and behavioral medicine. Some of the therapies and behavioral approaches include yoga, Acupuncture, massage, mindfulness and meditation, among others. This highly successful integrative approach clearly illustrates that we, as a society, do not need to be drug dependent to be pain-free.

The Pain Is Real

Without question many people live with chronic, oftentimes debilitating pain. As a result of attempting to relieve this pain, the pharmaceutical industry has created highly addictive medications. The medications do relieve the physical pain, but more often than not they lead to more severely painful problems such as addiction and death. And, importantly, they inhibit the body’s own healing wisdom.

In addition, doctors and the pharmaceutical companies have a responsibility to prevent the unnecessary use and abuse of opioid medications. In a recent article I read about some very recent research on the topic, “the researchers concluded that prescribers, pharmacists, drug companies and the FDA — all of whom had agreed to special rules and monitoring for use of the powerful opioid — had allowed it to fall into the hands of thousands of inappropriate patients. Over time, the FDA and drug companies became aware this was happening but took no action, the researchers found.” The research also stated that, “Using five years of insurance claims data, the researchers found that between 34.6 percent and 55.4 percent of patients shouldn’t have received the drugs.”

Integrative Pain Management

I’ll begin by saying that integrative pain management is a process that requires more effort than merely popping a pill. However, long-term, this method allows the natural healing process of the body to work its wonders. The body’s ability to heal itself is nothing short of miraculous, but we have to give it the time it needs. A comprehensive multidisciplinary approach to pain syndromes and musculoskeletal disorders will typically not satisfy most American’s desire for instant gratification, but it will lead to healing versus addiction.

Speaking Of Pain

In my quest to educate and help move our society away from the use and abuse of opioid drugs, I conduct events and speak to groups about the opioid epidemic and how we can help turn the tide of this devastating practice. Don’t get me wrong. There is a time and a place for the use of opioids, but those times and places are not widespread and do not call for widespread prescriptions. We, as a culture, must get over our insistence on instant gratification.

The most common pain related diagnosis is low back pain. The most common cause of disability is low back pain. The most common reason for prescription opioids is low back pain. And, the treatment that has the highest rate of success battling low back pain is Chiropractic. Funny…Chiropractic is the only physician in the medical world that NEVER prescribes medication, yet only 1% of medical doctors make referrals for the known cure. Now that’s painful!

America Has Been Duped Into Believing Pills Can Cure Pain And Suffering

By Dr. John Rosa

Opioid Crisis
Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

When I do speaking engagements, I like to grab my audience’s attention with a startling fact.

The sad thing is that the same startling fact has been the same during all the years I’ve been traveling and speaking to corporations, organizations and groups.

Here’s the shocking fact. The U.S. is roughly 5% of the world population, yet we consume 90% of all the opioids in the world.

Think about that. This fact screams to me that, 1. The rest of the world has no pain, or 2. We’ve been duped. That’s right. We’ve been duped by a medical community that wants everyone to believe that pain can be relieved by taking a pill.

But, what about the rest of the world? Why aren’t they suffering? They aren’t suffering because they do not turn to drugs for pain relief. They turn to the methods that have been used for thousands of years: acupuncture, diet, herbs, massage and other methods that our society considers “alternative.” The truth is that modern medicine is truly “alternative.” Traditional methods of healing have been suppressed and we as a society have been duped.

As a result we are now dealing with more suffering.

There have been 115 deaths a day on average since 2014 due to opioid addiction. 80% of people suffering from an addiction to heroin started with a prescription for an opioid pain reliever.

I’m an upstream kind of guy. We are all aware of the problem of opioid addiction. It’s making headlines and our loved ones are dying needlessly. But, are we aware of what we can do to prevent opioid addiction? My answer to that is a definitive no. And it is my mission to change that.

If you, or someone you love is dependent on or addicted to opioid drugs, please seek help before it’s too late. If you would like to learn more about the Opioid Crisis as it relates to awareness, prevention and treatment or schedule a corporate or organization seminar contact us at DrJohnRosa.com. Here you will learn how to connect you, your company or organization with the leading experts on the crisis and how to help your community stay safe.

The Opioid Crisis Goes Live On TV And Social Media

By Dr. John Rosa

overdose

More and more law enforcement offices throughout the country are wearing body cameras and capturing people overdosing live.

These videos are ending up on local as well as national news shows and are going viral on social media. For some, this publicity comes as a wake-up call. – maybe not so welcome, but a wake-up call nonetheless. For others, this kind of unexpected publicity presents just another harsh episode in an already untenable life. But, with the opioid crisis continuing to grow and the prevalence of video equipped smart phones and the popularity of social media, we can expect the coverage and the humiliation to continue.

What A Way To Find Out Your Loved One Is On Drugs

Imagine seeing your mom or dad, your brother or sister, your son or daughter or someone you know and love on the evening news, passed on, overdosed and possibly even dying right before your eyes. Imagine not knowing and finding out this way that your loved one is doing drugs. That is the case in some instances. Imagine seeing yourself this way.

The New York Times published a 3-part series on the opioid crisis called Hooked In America, in which it was stated that not only law enforcement but also “strangers with cameras have started posting raw, uncensored images of drug users passed out with needles in their arms and babies in the back seats of their cars The videos rack up millions of views and unleash avalanches of outrage.”

Public Shaming To Help End The Epidemic Is Questionable

Without question public humiliation has its effect on the addicted exposed on TV and/or social media. But, whether the effect is positive or not remains iffy. By filming the overdoses and sending them to the news media, police departments say they are simply trying to reveal the brutal reality of what they see every day.

According to the New York Times article, deputy director of policy and planning at the Harm Reduction Coalition, an advocacy group, Daniel Raymond says, “We’re showing you this video of them at the worst, most humiliating moment of their life. The intent is not to help these people. The intent is to use them as an object lesson by scapegoating them.”

The horrific images of addicts overdosed with their young children crying as their parents are passed on in retail stores or in the back of overheated cars may serve to prevent some people from every taking drugs of any kind. However, are these images serving to put an end to the opioid epidemic?

The answer is ABSOLUTELY NOT!

What this process does is fuel the stigma associated with this disease. It is the reason that only one in ten suffering from addiction seek help. The stigma and humiliation that these people feel only causes them to look for another escape and continue to use. A recent poll showed that almost 70% of our population blames the addicted for the problem. This is all wrong and only fuels the flames of stigma.

If 80% of heroin users started with a prescription medication, then you tell me who is to blame?

The people, for the most part have been duped by a system that was meant to protect us. Most people with view these videos and say, “Look at what the people are doing to themselves.” My dream with every fiber of my heart and soul is to have people see such videos and say, “Look at what we did to you all.”

The real question is, “how do we as a nation put an end to the desire to solve pain and problems with a pill?”

Prevention

Benjamin Franklin once said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Even though he said that in 1736 when Philadelphia was burning, it is equally applicable to today’s opioid epidemic. How do we prevent doctors from prescribing opioids for pain relief? How do we impress upon those in pain that there are other, safer, healthier roads to pain-free living?

If you, or someone you love is dependent on or addicted to opioid drugs, please seek help before it’s too late. If you would like to learn more about the Opioid Crisis as it relates to awareness, prevention and treatment or schedule a corporate or organization seminar contact us at DrJohnRosa.com. Here you will learn how to connect you, your company or organization with the leading experts on the crisis and how to help your community stay safe.

Ask For A Drug-Free Prescription For Pain Relief

By Dr. John Rosa

prescription drugs

No one wants to live with chronic pain.

The costs are too great. From sleeplessness to irritability to interfering with one’s work, pain can wreak havoc. But, taking a doctor prescribed pill that relieves pain often leads to even more detrimental effects.

The pills doctors prescribe for pain relief are killing people every single day. They are causing otherwise normal, law-abiding people to become drug dependent. In order to keep up with built up tolerance to drug levels we see people turn to lying and stealing to afford the addiction.

This country is in the midst of an opioid epidemic that shows no signs of slowing down. The only way it can be stopped is if people become aware of the problem and refuse to accept prescriptions for pain relief that come in pill form.

Instead, insist that your doctor give you a drug-free prescription for pain relief.

Drug-free methods of pain control include but are not limited to chiropractic, physical therapy, massage therapy, yoga, mind-body therapies, Botox injections and transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), among others. Pain has been controlled without addictive pills for decades. While I understand the power of instant gratification when it comes to pain relief, the long-term consequences of that gratification must be taken into consideration. Most of the methods I’ve mentioned will offer relief on an ongoing basis. Depending on the nature and cause of the pain some methods are going to work better than others.

Chronic pain is no way to live.

But addiction is a deadlier more disruptive pain. Please do not accept the notion that a pill is your way out of pain. Insist on a pain-free prescription for controlling, managing and ultimately ending the pain.

If you, or someone you love is dependent on or addicted to opioid drugs, please seek help before it’s too late. If you would like to learn more about the Opioid Crisis as it relates to awareness, prevention and treatment or schedule a corporate or organization seminar contact us at DrJohnRosa.com. Here you will learn how to connect you, your company or organization with the leading experts on the crisis and how to help your community stay safe.

No Federal Limits To Marketing Opioids Gives Pharma Companies Free Rein

By Dr. John Rosa

Opioids

The pharmaceutical companies that make opioids are given free rein to market their drugs wherever they please despite the fact that this country is experiencing a tragic opioid epidemic.

The reason I bring this up is that a new study has shown that the areas of our country hardest hit by the opioid epidemic are the exact regions where pharmaceutical companies marketed prescription opioids.

According to the study, “In one county, doctors received about 31 times the national average of direct marketing from pharmaceutical companies between 2013 and 2015, even as the opioid epidemic claimed lives in the same area.” In addition the study found that, “increases in marketing were associated with higher prescribing and a higher rate of overdoses from prescription opioids.” The new research was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association’s Network Open journal (Jama).

Addiction To Wealth And Power More Important Than Life

The addiction to wealth and power is allowed to proliferate despite the deadly and tragic results. This all-consuming addiction to greed is profoundly affecting the health of our country, yet it is allowed to continue without restraints.

It is painfully obvious that the desire for wealth and power supersedes the desire to preserve lives. To prove this, “the recent study found an association between pharmaceutical company marketing of opioids and higher rates of death from opioid overdoses one year later. Researchers examined more than $40m in drug company marketing, directed at 67,500 physicians across more than 2,200 counties nationally between August 2013 and December 2015.”

Meanwhile The Bodies Pile Up

Despite the gravity of the opioid addiction problem, there are no laws being cobbled together to prevent pharmaceutical companies from freely marketing their products. Unlike the tobacco and liquor industries, pharmaceutical companies remain untouched for the trail of death they leave behind in the wake of their marketing efforts.

If you’re not convinced, just take a look at the following statistics from the CDC, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the United States (US) Department of Health and Human Services which reveal the gravity of the problem.

1. In 2016, health care providers across the US wrote more than 214 million prescriptions for opioid pain medication—a rate of 66.5 prescriptions per 100 people.
2. As many as 1 in 5 people receive prescription opioids long-term for noncancer pain in primary care settings.
3. More than 11 million people abused prescription opioids in 2016.
4. Every day, more than 1,000 people are treated in emergency departments for misusing prescription opioids.
5. More than 40% of all US opioid overdose deaths in 2016 involved a prescription opioid.
6. Drug overdoses claimed the lives of nearly 64,000 Americans in 2016. Nearly two-thirds of these deaths (66%) involved a prescription or illicit opioid.
7. The CDC estimates the total economic burden of prescription opioid misuse in the US is $78.5 billion a year, including the costs of health care, lost productivity, addiction treatment, and criminal justice involvement.

If You Want Help

If you, or someone you love is dependent on or addicted to opioid drugs, please seek help before it’s too late. If you would like to learn more about the Opioid Crisis as it relates to awareness, prevention and treatment or schedule a corporate or organization seminar contact us at DrJohnRosa.com. Here you will learn how to connect you, your company or organization with the leading experts on the crisis and how to help your community stay safe.

As Predicted For Some People The Holidays Were Not Happy

By Dr. John Rosa

opioid addiction

Here we are on the other side of another holiday season.

Typically, the holiday season is filled with joy, excitement, the happy anticipation of spending time with friends, family and loved ones. However, for some people, the holidays are filled with dread.

It is well known that excessive stress, especially during the holidays, can trigger negative behavior including the use of drugs and overdose. This is one reason that the use of drugs is exacerbated during the holidays and why so many people in recovery programs relapse during this time.

Families with loved ones who are addicted to opioids are also filled with dread going into the holiday season.

All it takes is a quick look at overdose deaths reported during the holiday season on the Internet to see why. At this early stage in the New Year, it has been reported that between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve thirteen people in Shelby County Tennessee died due to opioid overdoses. In Plymouth, Massachusetts, two young men in their 30’s died of opioid overdose right before Christmas. According to the article I read, the town’s police chief stated, “Unfortunately, we have found over the years that December seems to be a critical month for overdose deaths.”  That’s just two areas of the country I found within seconds.

As I predicted in my December blog, the holidays proved to be heartbreaking for too many people due to opioid overdose deaths. Due to the opioid epidemic, these deaths are too easy to predict. The pain of losing a loved one to opioid addiction is horrendous and cannot be healed.

If you, or someone you love is dependent on or addicted to opioid drugs, please seek help before it’s too late.

If you would like to learn more about the Opioid Crisis as it relates to awareness, prevention and treatment or schedule a corporate or organization seminar contact us at DrJohnRosa.com. Here you will learn how to connect you, your company or organization with the leading experts on the crisis and how to help your community stay safe.

Lack Of Understanding About Addiction Leads To Not Caring

By Dr. John Rosa

addiction

Many people don’t understand why or how other people become addicted to drugs—or to anything for that matter.

Addiction is addiction whether it is perceived as a positive or negative addiction. Most people think those who are addicted to drugs and or alcohol lack moral principles. They think those souls should exercise greater will power and that stopping is just a matter of choosing.

If anyone has been addicted to over-eating or consuming chocolate or addicted to work at the expense of their families and friends are engaged in addictive behavior. And all addiction starts in the brain.

Just Say No

Drugs actually change the brain in ways that makes quitting difficult. Drug addiction is a complex disease and more often than not, quitting – even for those who really want to quit – takes more than good intentions. Once an addiction has taken hold, just saying no is rarely good enough.

According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, “Addiction is a chronic disease characterized by drug seeking and use that is compulsive, or difficult to control, despite harmful consequences. The initial decision to take drugs is voluntary for most people, but repeated drug use can lead to brain changes that challenge an addicted person’s self-control and interfere with their ability to resist intense urges to take drugs. These brain changes can be persistent, which is why drug addiction is considered a “relapsing” disease—people in recovery from drug use disorders are at increased risk for returning to drug use even after years of not taking the drug.”

Doctor Prescribed Addictions

It has been reported that more than 11.5 million people misused prescription pain medicine in 2016. In addition, 48.5 million Americans have used illicit drugs or misused prescription drugs. And those numbers only reflect the people who were willing to admit to using drugs. It is thought that those numbers are much higher. Drug and opioid addiction are not new to this country. The history of our country’s addiction to drugs goes back 150 years when heroin, morphine and codeine were widely prescribed to treat battle wounds after the Civil War.

Today’s epidemic was brought on in part by excessive prescription of opioid painkillers after Purdue Pharma brought OxyContin to the market in 1995 and then aggressively promoted the drug as a pain-relieving godsend that boasted a low risk of addiction. And the sad truth is that knowing what we know they, they are still allowed to make and prescribe this drug.

New Opioid Killer 100 Times Stronger Than Heroin

In 2011, oxycodone ranked first in cause of drug related deaths. From 2012 to 2015, it was heroin, and in 2016, fentanyl, the relatively new kid on the block. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), is 80 to 100 times stronger than heroin or cocaine.

We’ve lost too many of our young to this epidemic. We’ve lost many talented people who gave of themselves to the world. Until it hits close to home, most people will continue to think that those addicted to opioids have a choice and that they could just simply quit. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our country needs a much deeper understanding of the effects of opioids on the brain. We need greater early education. We need to make it unappealing to try drugs in a similar way that the tobacco industry has finally made smoking unappealing.

Awareness Leads To Understanding

We need to educate people and doctors that there are other ways of treating pain that does not require pills. We need to wean our society off the idea that there is a magic pill for whatever ails you. Understanding and awareness must always come first before anything can change. I am on a mission to bring that awareness to as many individuals and organizations as I can.

If you, or someone you love is dependent or addicted to opioid drugs, please seek help before it’s too late. If you would like to learn more about the Opioid Crisis as it relates to awareness, prevention and treatment or schedule a corporate or organization seminar contact us at DrJohnRosa.com. Here you will learn how to connect you, your company or organization with the leading experts on the crisis and how to help your community stay safe.

Hundreds Will Have A Heartbreaking Instead Of A Happy Holiday Season

By Dr. John Rosa

opioid overdose

It’s a fact that many families are going to be grieving instead of celebrating this holiday season.

I can’t tell you who those dear souls will be, but with opioid overdoses at an all-time high, there are more than 200 people dying every single day in this country.

At the end of November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new figures showing that “drug overdoses killed more than 70,000 Americans in 2017, a record.” The report states that, “Overdose deaths are higher than deaths from H.I.V., car crashes or gun violence at their peaks. The data also show that the increased deaths correspond strongly with the use of synthetic opioids known as fentanyls.”

In fact, according to an article in the New York Times, “The recent increases in drug overdose deaths have been so steep that they have contributed to reductions in the country’s life expectancy over the last three years, a pattern unprecedented since World War II.”

While a majority in this country who are Christians will be celebrating the birth of Jesus, hundreds will be mourning the death of someone who brought light, love and laughter into their lives. The most heartbreaking thing of all is finding a way to stop the rising death toll, to stop the addiction.

This epidemic started in the doctor’s office but has now spread to the black-market drug world.

Due to the stigma attached to those who are addicted, people are not likely to admit to their addiction. This makes it nearly impossible to know who is hooked. Sometimes the way families find out their loved ones were addicted is when they are found dead due to overdose.

If you, or someone you love is dependent or addicted to opioid drugs, please seek help before it’s too late. If you would like to learn more about the Opioid Crisis as it relates to awareness, prevention and treatment or schedule a corporate or organization seminar contact us at DrJohnRosa.com. Here you will learn how to connect you, your company or organization with the leading experts on the crisis and how to help your community stay safe.

Just Say No To Pills, Pills, And More Pills

By Dr. John Rosa

prescription pills

Do we really think all it takes to effectively reverse the effects of one pill is another pill?

Really? What are we doing? We must get over the idea that pills are magic. We must remember what Einstein said. First of all, he said that insanity is when we keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different outcome. And secondly, he said we cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.

This is why if we are to effectively stem and eventually stop the opioid epidemic in this country, we must stop believing that pills are magic. We must turn our attention to the amazing healing abilities of our bodies and we must give them the time they need to heal. Healing is not an instantaneous process. I know that’s difficult for a society that wants instant gratification to hear, but it’s the truth and it’s the only way to effectively put an end to the opioid crisis in this country.

How The Opioid Crisis Got Started

Just look at how it all got started, then see if you think it can be turned around with a pill. According to drugabuse.gov, “In the late 1990s, pharmaceutical companies reassured the medical community that patients would not become addicted to prescription opioid pain relievers, and healthcare providers began to prescribe them at greater rates. This subsequently led to widespread diversion and misuse of these medications before it became clear that these medications could indeed be highly addictive.”

Slowly, but surely we began seeing the opioid overdose rates increase. According to the government statistics, “In 2015, more than 33,000 Americans died as a result of an opioid overdose, including prescription opioids, heroin, and illicitly manufactured fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid. That same year, an estimated 2 million people in the United States suffered from substance use disorders related to prescription opioid pain relievers, and 591,000 suffered from a heroin use disorder (not mutually exclusive).”

What We Know Today About Opioids And Addiction

Today we know so much more about opioids and addiction. We know enough to stop prescribing them for starters. Or at least to closely monitor their use and identify abuse when we see it. This is what we now know about the transition from the management of pain to addiction.

•Roughly 21 to 29 percent of patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain misuse them.
•Between 8 and 12 percent develop an opioid use disorder.
•An estimated 4 to 6 percent who misuse prescription opioids transition to heroin.
•About 80 percent of people who use heroin first misused prescription opioids.
•Opioid overdoses increased 30 percent from July 2016 through September 2017 in 52 areas in 45 states.
•The Midwestern region saw opioid overdoses increase 70 percent from July 2016 through September 2017.
•Opioid overdoses in large cities increase by 54 percent in 16 states

Source: https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-crisis

A Range Of Different Options

Pain can be and has been managed for decades without addictive pills. I have been treating pain through chiropractic my entire career. An aspirin or over the counter analgesic can be helpful, however, the dependency on stronger drugs is, as we have come to find out, not constructive.

Besides chiropractic, pain can be managed by physical therapy, massage, yoga, meditation and a variety of other modes besides pharmaceuticals. Clearly the pills are creating more pain than anyone could have ever imagined. The pain may seem unbearable, but it won’t kill you. The pills you take to minimize the pain will kill you though. And when you are gone, the pain of loved ones left behind is immeasurable.