Disturbing Stats!

I came across some disturbing stats today that were posted on Twitter by WebMD concerning pain medication. It is a sensitive topic and I'm going to voice my opinion on this one. Please chime in if you feel like it. The first stat was that enough prescription painkillers are sold each year to medicate every U.S. adult all day, every day for one month! Second, more people have died each year from drug poisonings than from motor vehicle crashes since 2009 and third, opiods now account for more overdose deaths than heroin and cocaine combined!!! Startling to say the least. I sympathize for those with pain and it can be misunderstood for sure, but this is a huge problem. We treat a large amount of pain from the physical therapy perspective, but are often not an option to our patients. If you go to the doctor for back, neck, shoulder, hip, knee, etc. pain, ask for physical therapy so we can attempt to fix the problem from a biomechanics standpoint and address the underlying issue. Let's not get you on the path to dependency! You would be surprised how we can help your pain through soft tissue work, joint mobilizations, exercise, hot/cold modalities, TENS units, etc.!  I often hear about our patients only given pain meds as an option for pain and are sent home for it to reoccur. Go to your physical therapist and get evaluated because I believe what we do really helps and could potentially save the health care system large amounts of money by avoiding surgeries and filling prescriptions!
Please share so that we can all BeneFIT!!


www.ScottRusin.com

---