How To Stop Pain Safely (some of this was taken from Consumer
Reports Volume 26 Number 2. Dr.
Huntoon’s comments and advice are in bold)
Are you worried about the new warnings
on pain drugs? What you need to know to
get relief
If you open up
your medicine cabinet, your purse or your briefcase, chances are you will find
at least one type of pain reliever there. From over-the-counter drugs for
headaches and muscle strains to powerful pills prescribed to control pain after
surgery, those drugs are everywhere. In fact, almost 80 % of adults say
they take some form of pain medication at least once a week.
Determining which
pain drug we actually need (I say none,
but read on) and how to use it, has become an increasingly difficult
decision. We’ve seen frightening headlines about many pain relievers,
including some that you may have considered harmless. In 2012, the Food
and Drug Administration proposed that labels of products containing
acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, carry stronger warnings saying
that the drug could cause severe liver damage if users exceeded the recommended
daily maximum dose (And yet they still
allow it to be sold, which to me is perplexing, if too much causes liver
damage, then any amount also leads to some level of liver stress. And if
the person taking the pain reliever doesn’t know this, then they are creating
more health concerns with a medication that has been approved by the FDA).
Even before that announcement, the maker of Tylenol reduced the maximum daily
dose on Extra Strength Tylenol to 3,000 milligrams from 4,000 milligrams, and
increased the dose interval from 4 to 6 hours, amid reports of increases in
accidental overdoses. (So let me get
this straight: There were reports of overdosing, yet instead of pulling the
product completely, they simply changed the label and changed the recommended
dosage and timing of the medication on the label. If one can overdose on
a medication, shouldn’t they restrict its availability to prescription
only? Wouldn’t that make sense? But let’s go on.)
The news on
prescription pain pills is even more worrisome.
To read more, click here
