Our way of thinking about pain must change to resolve the Opioid Crisis according to the Daily News. Last night I was talking to a physician friend of mine, comparing challenging cases we had recently seen. He mentioned a patient who had diffuse pain throughout their body which was of unknown origin. He diagnosed the patient with Polymyalgia Rhumatica which is a medical way of describing an inflammatory disorder that causes muscle pain and stiffness. He recommended the patient take prednisone and the next day they felt improvement, as the steroid reduced the patients pain. What I found interesting is that he could care less why the symptoms developed and considered the eradication of the patients system a cure. While it is important that patients get relief, any type of inflammatory event that occurs out of nowhere has a reason and that reason may have consequences sometimes days, weeks or months later. Possibilities can include Lyme disease, Gut problems and mechanical problems from the feet up. This same philosophy of pain relief without an understanding of why the person is having the symptoms is why we have an Opioid crisis. Treating symptoms without any understanding of the mechanism behind them can cause chronic health problems later in life, depending on the source. Recently, the Daily news explored this idea and suggested that to solve the Opioid crisis, we must look at pain differently. Pain is not something that just occurs. There is always a reason and more often than not, that reason has a mechanical basis. Perhaps, this is why so many people are discovering professions such as chiropractic whose drug free approach to improving movement and function has a growing fan base, even as insurers continue to make access to effective care such as this more difficult. A drug-free Rx for chronic pain: To attack the opioid crisis, we need to change the way we think By KEN BLAKER SEP 23, 2018 “I’ve failed at life, you, my family, my job, and I haven’t been in control of myself since last June.” My friend Robert wrote those words to his wife shortly before entering an opioid addiction treatment program last year. This summer he died of an overdose. There is a good chance that you may have a friend like Robert. After a low-risk outpatient procedure, Robert used the prescribed 30-day supply of Oxycodone for pain. He soon became an opioid addict. After repeated prescription renewals his doctor cut him off, and he started getting opioids illicitly. He lost his job. He totaled a car and a motorcycle. He was separated from his wife and children. His initial physical pain was replaced with psychological pain, and he overdosed. The internet-obtained pills found next to him were heavily laced with fentanyl. Read more