A LONG JOURNEY THROUGH PAIN AND PAINKILLING DRUGS TO SURGERY

The conventional medical treatment for pain is painkillers, such as Aspirin, Paracetamol, Ibuprofen, Opioids, and their many derivatives. Painkilling drugs take us on a very long journey through pain, introducing greater toxicity into an already stressed body, which in turn leads to greater pain, the need for stronger more toxic drugs, and onwards.

It's a familiar process, is it not? Painkilling drugs do exactly what they say the will do. They kill pain, temporarily, for as long as the drug remains within the body. They do NOT treat the source of the pain, so the pain returns. Perhaps painkillers are sufficient for the temporary relief of pain after a minor accident - but not much use when they are used to treat the pain that accompanies chronic illnesses, like arthritis and related conditions.

In arthritis the pain continues, and the need to take ever more, ever stronger painkilling drugs increases. For any patient who is trapped within conventional medical treatment this becomes a vicious, ongoing circle. First pain, then drugs, then more pain, then more drugs, and so on. The process continues until, eventually, the pain becomes so great, the diseased limb so painful, it has to be surgically removed.

At his point patients usually forget the pain they have experienced, often over many years, and the failure of painkillers to provide any real solution. We praise the remarkable surgery that has replaced the limb. In most cases the operation leaves the patient pain-free - at least for a time. Unfortunately the disease, the cause of the pain, is still there - within the body. So what happens to the dis-ease? It moves on to another part of the body!

It's a familiar process, is it not? How many patients have a hip replacement to replace a painful limb only for tanother limb, previously unaffected, to become painful? Soon the other hip has to be replaced. Brilliant surgery indeed - but surgery necessary because of the failure conventional medicine to treat pain effectively over the long term.

Yet it is not just for arthritis that conventional medicine uses painkilling drugs. I became aware of the many diseases for which conventional medicine routinely prescribes painkillers whilst writing chapters for my 'Why Homeopathy? website. These include Menstrual problems, Chicken Pox, Chronic Fatigue, Earache, Endometriosis, Fibromyalgia, Gout, Haemorrhoids, Headaches and Migraines, Mastitis, ME, Motor Neurone disease, Mumps, PMT, PMS, Pneumonia, Prostatitis, Restless Legs, Sciatica, Shingles, Sinusitis, Sore Throats, Teething, Tonsillitis, and many others.

Painkillers do not treat any of these diseases. They just deal with the pain caused by the condition. Conventional medicine understands this very well, and painkillers are often prescribed because they have no other effective or relevant conventional treatment for the patient. As with arthritis they provide temporary relief, and introduce more toxicity into an already sick and ailing body.

So it is not just limbs that have to be replaced. Pharmaceutical drugs harm organs too, bringing on the need to more miraculous surgery - to replace kidneys, hearts, et al. Why do kidneys and hearts need replacing? Not just because conventional medicine has few effective treatments for kidney or heart failure, but because of the use and over use of painkillers to treat pain have worsened the disease.

It's a familiar process, is it not? Miraculous surgery once again comes to the rescue. We are in awe of the surgeon's skill (quite rightly) without ever recognising that his/her skill is necessary (in most instances) only because of the failure of conventional medicine.

And the journey does not end there. Replacement and transplantation surgery always requires that our immune system has to be compromised with what conventional medicine calls 'immunotherapy', the use of pharmaceutical drugs that stop our immune system getting rid of the transplanted organs and limbs, and thereby compromising the ability of the body to protect itself from attack from external infections, of all kinds - some of which can be painful.

But never mind, the doctor can always prescribe some more painkillers for these conditions too. They won't deal with the infection, but they will temporarily relieve the pain.

It's a familiar process, is it not?

Don't despair, as I was writing this blog I received this Natural News article, "Try these natural ways to reduce pain and stress". We don't have to be beholden to pharmaceutical drugs. And there is always homeopathy, always an effective therapy with a good matching remedy, always safe. Read this Homeopathy World Community website article, "Managing Pain with Homeopathy".

There is always a better way. 

No-one needs to rely on conventional medicine.

Or on (as-good-as-useless) pharmaceutical drugs. 

Start your personal search for solutions now.

Painkillers may not kill pain very well. But they still have serious side effects

New research has found that NSAID painkillers have no more effect than placebo in the treatment of back pain, but continue to cause patient harm.

The study, entitled "Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for spinal pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis" examined 35 randomised controlled trials, covering over 6,000 patients, that compared the efficacy of painkilling drugs with placebo control groups. It found that the drugs did reduce pain for a short period, but that overall "the effect was not clinically important", and that those on placebo control groups did equally well.

               "In summary, compared with placebo, NSAIDs do not provide a clinically important effect on spinal pain, and six patients must be treated with NSAIDs for one patient to achieve a clinically important benefit in the short term."

However, the team from the University of Sydney in Australia also found that the patients taking NSAID painkillers s were 2.5 times more likely to suffer from the well known adverse reactions to the drugs, notably adverse gastrointestinal complications than those taking placebo.

So whilst these pharmaceutical drugs are of little of no benefit, they continue to be a major threat to our health because of their harmful and damaging side effects!

Another noteworthy feature of the study was that it compared this finding with the current guidelines of NICE, the National Institute of Clinical Excellence in Britain. These guidelines were only recently updated, and made NSAID painkillers the 'first choice treatment' for low back pain. This advice followed similar findings about the ineffectiveness of Paracetamol (Acetamorfen in the USA), and the dangers of opioid painkillers.

So NICE does have a difficult task! What are they supposed to do? The three main groups of painkilling drugs available for conventional doctors don't work! But they do damage to patients. So perhaps their clinical guidelines should now be rewritten again, admitting that there are no safe painkillers, and no effective painkillers. At least this would be a more honest assessment of the situation conventional medicine now finds itself.

Yet NICE could be more positive. It could advise us all to look towards alternative medical therapies, like Homeopathy and Acupuncture, in recognition that if they are truly to pursue their objective of  'clinical excellence' the pharmaceutical industry no longer has anything to offer.

I have noticed several comments from doctors about this situation. One reflected sadly that "instead of everyone falling over themselves to say what we can't use, how about what we CAN use?" Clearly, the doctors cupboard is bare! The solution for conventional doctors is the same. They need to recognise that there are no safe or effective painkillers, and instead, they need to refer their patients to alternative medical therapies. In this way they will find that their patients are treated more effectively, and more safely.

Indeed, the lack of side effects of alternative medical treatment might also mean that patients do not have to  keep returning to the surgery, and doctors will not find themselves so stretched, and the NHS not in such a crisis!