Arthritis – pain and painkiller addition!
Pharmaceuticals – prescription and non-prescription (over-the-counter)
Most of us have experience pain in one form or another at different times in our lives, for example toothache and reach for some form of medication to relief the pain. Using painkillers in this way (occasionally) is quite normal and will do no harm. However, for people who experience constant chronic pain as in many different types of arthritis suffers, there is a great demand for painkillers and all too often are taking far too many over a long period of time. This can have a detrimental affect on the whole body. If you are someone who is suffering almost constant chronic pain you are probably having more than your fare share of painkillers of one type or another.
There are some very interesting statistics about some over-the-counter or self-prescribed medications. I have stated statistics from Britain but world-wide similar pictures have emerged. Some 36,000 women in Britain are addicted to Over-The-Counter pain-killers, taking loads every day! Addiction is not just confined to women, men are also addicted.
Here are some basic statistics of the average over-the-counter drug addict. Yes I do mean addict in the true sense of drug addiction. These figures have been taken from Britain but again many countries have a similar story to tell.
Females painkiller addicts average about 26 tablets a day
Males about 225mls liquid or mixture a day
Females visit about 4 different chemists/pharmacists a week
Males visit about 6 different chemists/pharmacists a week
Females spend about £20.00 on average over a week on medication
Males spend about £35.00 a week on average on medication
On top of this expensive is the traveling cost to different chemists/pharmacists
Females travel under 100 miles a week and spend about £15.00
Males travel over 100 miles a week and spend about £20.00
If these people kept going to their local chemist/pharmacy presumably it wouldn’t take the pharmacist long to figure out that their customer had a problem with painkillers.
One of the drawbacks of most painkillers is that they often irritate the stomach and cause pain, and to solve this problem people often take one of the newer acid-reflux drugs a long with their painkillers! They don’t treat the cause and put a great strain on your digestive systems, to say nothing of the damage they can cause to the liver if taken on a regular basis, long term.
Commonly used anti-inflammatory drugs including Voltaren and Cataflam, carry as high a risk of heart attack or stroke as did Vioxx (which was removed from the market a few years ago after several deaths). Incidentally Vioxx was also approved for children!!!
These drugs more often than not mask or bury symptoms, the very symptoms we should be taking note of. If someone breaks into our property and sets off the alarm – we have two choices a) cut the wires to turn off the noise or b) go and investigate to find out what caused the alarm to go off in the first place. We have the same choices when our alarm bells keep going off a) we can take a drug like a painkiller or b) investigate the cause.
Pain killers are also known as analgesics. Over-the-counter analgesics are pharmaceutical painkillers that can be bought without a prescription, which include aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, naproxen sodium, and several others. These drugs present no danger for people in general when taken as recommended. But some conditions make taking even these seemingly safe painkillers dangerous for the kidneys and liver. There is also another over looked but important fact with any medication – the combination of drugs taken on a regular basis over a longer period of time, may increase the risk for kidney problems or even liver problems. Rarely is the synergistic affect of a ‘cocktail of medicines’ taken into account. Aspirin and acetaminophen together with caffeine or codeine are most likely to damage the kidneys.
Over-the-counter pain killers have various trade names too many to mention here, however I have listed the ingredients – so check out the ingredients on your particular painkiller.
Codeine Phosphate 8mg known as Solpadeine in Britain
8 tablets is approximate the same amount as morphine as someone who ‘shoots up’ heroin once a day!! It is easy to take two tablets every four hours = eight tablets if you are in a lot of pain.
It is a narcotic opiate-based analgesic for mild to moderate pain relief, used as a cough suppressant, also used to treat diarrhea. Has a depressant affect on the central nervous system.
Codeine, an opiate agonist-sedative, and analgesic narcotic substance in opium concentrations between 0.1% and 2%.
Heroin is converted into morphine by the body through a process of chemical reactions in the brain and so is codeine.
Paracetamol (acetaminophen) 500mg
It is a non-narcotic analgesic for mild to moderate pain. It has no anti-inflammatory properties, however it can reduce fever. If you are taking paracetamol or medication containing paracetamol regularly, be careful if you have these conditions – anaemia or are prone to it, kidney disease, hepatitis, phenyketonuria, if you have problems with Aspirin, food dyes or preservatives.
Just 8 tablets of Paracetamol can lead to some sort of liver damage. There are plenty of people who are taking 2 tablets every 4 hours, easily qualifying for the 8 tablets or more a day on a regular basis.
Caffeine 30mg is often added to many painkilling medications
It is a mild central nervous system stimulant, found also in tea, coffee and soft drinks (in far more than you may realize). Caffeine is added to many formulas to increase their absorption and addiction.
In some individuals caffeine can cause headaches, maybe the very thing they are trying to treat.
Also avoid if you have trouble sleeping, are pregnant, or breast feeding.
Ibuprofen 200mg – known in Britain as Nurofen
Ibuprofen is gentler on the stomach than aspirin. And in Britain is the second most popular over-the-counter medication. This medication comes under NSAID, which means Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug.
Other products may contain Ibuprofen and Codeine Phosphate. This NSAID has a milder effect than other NSAIDs, therefore have less side-effects than the other stronger cousins.
Full doses of Ibuprofen can reduce the effect of ACE inhibitors prescribed for high blood pressure. Liver dis-function is possible after taking more than the recommended dose for 6 weeks or so.
Paracetamol 500mg and Codeine Phosphate 8mg known as Codalgin or Paradeine.
Paracetamol 500mg and Dihydrocodeine Tartrate 7.46mg known as Paramol is the strongest analgesic you can buy over-the-counter. It contains paracetamol and dihydro-codeine a powerful morphine derivative.
One fifth of people taking anti-inflammatory painkillers for more than two months had an ulcer diagnosed. Don’t worry, there are medications for that too and other medications for other side-effects and of-course, there are medications for them too. The elderly are even more at risk. The medication is commonly used to relieve the symptoms of arthritis, often thinking these medications like NSAID (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs) to be safe.
Dr Frank McKenna a consultant rheumatologist believes there maybe as many as ten deaths a day in Britain, indirectly or directly related to taking anti-inflammatory medications, the elderly being most vulnerable!! This problem is the same in the US and other parts of the world.
If you take painkillers continually for a headache you may very well end up with a continuous headache. Why would taking painkillers regularly, over the long term induce headaches? Taking painkillers for prolonged periods stops our bodies from producing its own happy chemicals – endorphins, our natural painkillers. The painkillers wear-off and headaches rebound. The term for this condition is ‘Chronic Daily Headache’ CDH.
Aspirin
How many people have you met, that have an Aspirin deficiency? Yet people are taking Aspirin everyday, with its negative side-effects. Some use Aspirin as a blood thinner and others as a painkiller. Yet nature has provided us with substances that can thin the blood and kill pain and bring with them a whole host of positive affects.
Aspirin – many older people are on a long term low-dose aspirin, taking it everyday for so many years.
“Many Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) are caused not by the drug directly but by drug-induced nutritional deficiencies. One glaring example of this concerns aspirin. Marketed and prescribed for daily use to prevent heart attack, aspirin depletes the body of the life-saving nutrient folic acid, as well as iron, potassium, sodium, vitamin C, and more. The very nutrients needed to protect the circulatory system. Symptoms of folic acid depletion include anemia, birth defects, elevated homocysteine (a risk factor for heart disease), headache, fatigue, hair loss, insomnia, diarrhea, and increased infection. This warning should not be taken lightly. Studies show that the side-effects of aspirin are so severe they can increase the risk of death in people who take it regularly”.- Jon Herring
Voveran (Diclofenac sodium) Generic Voltaren) is used to relieve tenderness, pain inflammation , and stiffness caused by rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis and ankylosing spondylitis. Generic Voltaren (Voveran) is in a class of medications called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs). It works by stopping the body’s production of a substance which causes pain and inflammation.
Liver and kidney damage, water retention leading to high BP
Contact your doctor immediately if you experience swelling of the face, lips, tongue, hands, throat or eyes; if you have difficulty breathing; or hoarseness.
Warnings
Interestingly cigarette packets have health warnings in LARGE letters, but medication has health warnings in tiny letters often too small to read. The largest percentage of ‘drug users’ are the elderly, this sector of the population has trouble reading clearly at the best of times. I could never figure out why it is made so difficult to read!