Drugs Kill More Than Auto Accidents

The following is from Dr. Gerry Clum, former president of my alma mater, Life Chiropractic College West.

"We are not talking about crack cocaine, meth and heroin here, we are talking about the stuff giant corporations hold the patents on. According to the LA Times quoting the Centers for Disease Control, in 2009, prescription drugs exceeded MVA as a cause of death killing at least 37,485 people. While almost all other areas of preventable death are declining, drug related deaths have increased to a rate of one every 14 minutes in the United States. That is double what it was a decade ago. The main culprit is thought to be prescription narcotic overdoses-Vicodin, Darvocet, Oxycontin and all their brothers and sisters. A new addition to the pain killer killing list is Fentanyl provided in patch of lollipop form and packing a power level 100 times greater than morphine. Linda Rosenstock of UCLA's School of Public Health was quoted as saying the liberalized prescription of pain drugs "may in fact be the cause of the epidemic we're now facing".

Drug deaths among teens and young adults doubled between 2000 and 2008. The rise is deaths parallels medical doctors prescribing more painkillers and anti-anxiety meds. Remember the old days when you thought about someone strung out on heroin willing to do anything for their next fix, well the cost of Oxys or Vikes on the street for a heavy user is about double that of a heroin addict. By the way, lest you think this is an LA thing hydrocodone is the most widely prescribed drug in America.

Some steps that have been proposed to deal with the problem will amaze you. How about a police coordinated drug buy-back program similar to the gun buy-back programs in many cities. Better yet, and this is a quote from the LA Times "Another initiative would develop voluntary courses to train physicians on how to safely prescribe pain drugs, a curriculum that is not widely taught in medical schools". Huh? I kinda thought that was a big part of their education and training, if not and medics have made hydrocodone the #1 prescribed drug here in America not knowing how to safely prescribe them it is no wonder things aren't way worse than they are.

After almost 40 years as a chiropractor I am thrilled to say we haven't contributed the first script to this problem. I hope and pray my son and daughter who are chiropractors will be able to say that is true when they hit the 40 year mark."

Thanks for your insights Dr. Clum.

My closing comment on this issue: And there are people in the medical profession who claim chiropractic adjustments should be banned because they are dangerous.

Auto Accidents

Summer, winter, spring, fall - there are auto accidents in every season.  The amount of damage done to occupants can be great even when little damage is done to the vehicle.  The human neck is particularly vulnerable in a motor vehicle accident but the low back, shoulders, jaw and knees are also commonly hurt.  When symptoms occur immediately, it can be a sign of significant injury, but often it can be several days before symptoms appear.  Even with a large amount of soft tissue damage, symptoms may not be severe initially.

To understand how damage occurs in an accident, basic physics needs to be considered.  The force from the mass of the impacting vehicles is transferred to the occupants who are of considerably less mass.  The result is a tremendous amount of stress on the soft tissues, particularly in the spine.  The head which weighs about the same as a 10 pin bowling ball is whipped backward, forward, or sideways depending on the location of the impact.  The term whiplash is used to describe these forceful, sudden motions.  The tissues of the neck are not nearly strong enough to withstand the forces from even a minor accident.  Damage is usually not limited to the neck.  The entire spine is usually affected and the extremities may be as well.

Because of the extensive damage, correcting the injuries can take a considerable length of time.  Chiropractic adjustments, low level laser therapy, therapeutic massage, nutritional supplementation, and exercise programs may all need to be employed to get proper healing of the injured tissues.  The sooner treatment can be started after the injuries occur, the better the results usually are.  Delayed or untreated injuries will heal with scar tissue which is less elastic and less functional than the original tissue.  This can result in accelerated degeneration and increased susceptibility to future injury.  Many chronic conditions can result from improperly treated whiplash injuries.  I can't tell you how many times patients have told me they wished they had looked after their injuries better following auto accidents that had occurred years earlier.  These people have come to realize too late that not properly rehabilitating the accident related spinal injuries has resulted in ongoing health issues.

In Alberta, only chiropractors and physiotherapists are authorized to establish treatment plans for injuries sustained in motor vehicle accidents.  This is because insurance companies recognize that physical treatment is far more effective than drug therapy or rest for the type of soft tissue injury incurred in auto accidents.  The insurance industry in conjunction with the government and health care providers has established a very streamlined system to assure accident victims received proper care.  All persons involved in an accident, regardless of who is at fault, are pre-approved to receive 10 or 21 treatments from recognized practitioners after assessment and recommendation by a chiropractor or physiotherapist.  Obviously I'm biased, but I think you should consult a chiropractor first.  I say this because we are the only profession specifically trained to find and adjust subtle spinal joint injuries called vertebral subluxations.  Unless the subluxations are corrected the spine cannot function properly.  Without a well functioning spine, a person cannot be healthy.

If you, or someone you know has been in a motor vehicle accident,  get your spine checked by a chiropractor as soon as possible.  The sooner treatment can begin the better the prognosis.