http://www.drtomalin.com/blogbroomfield-chiropractor-the-spinal-column.html Pain Is Your Friend I always say that pain is actually the body’s way of telling us that something needs our attention and care. In that way, pain might be a person’s best friend. I don’t recommend medicating pain away, especially over a long period of time. For one thing, this creates a false sense of security—“Oh, the pain is gone, so I must be all right.” For another, there’s a very real chance that we may overdose on pain medication. Even over-the-counter pain medications that are perceived as being very mild and safe are not safe in certain quantities, and they are certainly not meant to be taken over a long period of time. If we overuse them, we may introduce a whole, new dangerous health issue into our lives. Pain Killers Can Kill YOU Tylenol, for example, is perceived as a very safe, over-the-counter, American-as-apple-pie medication. Doctors and nurses routinely recommend Tylenol by brand name, even for children. Yet The Journal of General Internal Medicine published a study last month that says Americans are taking way too much Tylenol and other sources of acetaminophen, sometimes in combination with one another. Brian Fung, writing in The Atlantic talks about this issue and also common intake and overdose levels in his article “Medication Nation”. According to the National Institutes of Health, acetaminophen overdose is the leading cause of liver failure in the United States and in other western countries. Although early treatment of liver failure helps more than half of all patients recover, irreversible brain damage and multiple organ failures can result. What’s more, liver failure from acetaminophen overdose is increasing in this country. en-us NYK RSS Feeder