If you’ve ever been treated for severe pain from surgery, an injury, or an illness, you know just how vital pain relief medications can be.

Pain relief treatments come in many forms and potencies, are available by prescription or over-the-counter (OTC), and treat all sorts of physical pain— including that brought on by chronic conditions, sudden trauma, and cancer.

Pain relief medicines (also known as “analgesics” and “painkillers”) are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Some analgesics, including opioid analgesics, act on the body’s peripheral and central nervous systems to block or decrease sensitivity to pain. Others act by inhibiting the formation of certain chemicals in the body.

Among the factors health care professionals consider in recommending or prescribing them are the cause and severity of the pain.

TYPES OF PAIN RELIEVERS

OTC Medications
These relieve the minor aches and pains associated with conditions such as headaches, fever, colds, flu, arthritis, toothaches, and menstrual cramps.

There are basically two types of OTC pain relievers: acetaminophen and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

Acetaminophen is an active ingredient found in more than 600 OTC and prescription medicines, including pain relievers, cough suppressants, and cold medications.

NSAIDs are common medications used to relieve fever and minor aches and pains. They include aspirin, naproxen, and ibuprofen, as well as many medicines taken for colds, sinus pressure, and allergies. They act by inhibiting an enzyme that helps make a specific chemical.

Prescription Medications
Typical prescription pain relief medicines include opioids and non-opioid medications.

Derived from opium, opioid drugs are very powerful products. They act by attaching to a specific “receptor” in the brain, spinal cord, and gastrointestinal tract. Opioids can change the way a person experiences pain.

Types of prescription opioid medications include

• morphine, which is often used before and after surgical procedures to alleviate severe pain
• oxycodone, which is also often prescribed for moderate to severe pain
• codeine, which comes in combination with acetaminophen or other non-opioid pain relief medications and is often prescribed for mild to moderate pain
• hydrocodone, which comes in combination with acetaminophen or other non-opioid pain relief medications and is prescribed for moderate to moderately severe pain

FDA has recently notified makers of certain opioid drugs that these products will need to have a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) to ensure that the benefits continue to outweigh the risks.

Affected opioid drugs, which include brand name and generic products, are formulated with the active ingredients fentanyl, hydromorphone, methadone, morphine, oxycodone, and oxymorphone.

FDA has authority to require a REMS under the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007.

Types of non-opioid prescription medications include ibuprofen and diclofenac, which treat mild to moderate pain.

USE PAIN RELIEVERS AS DIRECTED

Pain medications are safe and effective when used as directed. However, misuse of these products can be extremely harmful and even deadly.

Consumers who take pain relief medications must follow their health care professional’s instructions carefully. If a measuring tool is provided with your medicine, use it as directed.

Do not change the dose of your pain relief medication without talking to your doctor first.

Also, pain medications should never be shared with anyone else. Only your health care professional can decide if a prescription pain medication is safe for someone.

Here are other key points to remember.

With acetaminophen:

• Taking a higher dose than recommended will not provide more relief and can be dangerous.
• Too much can lead to liver damage and death. Risk for liver damage may be increased in people who drink three or more alcoholic beverages a day while using acetaminophen-containing medicines.
• Be cautious when giving acetaminophen to children. Infant drop medications can be significantly stronger than regular children’s medications. Read and follow the directions on the label every time you use a medicine. Be sure that your infant is getting the infants’ pain formula and your older child is getting the children’s pain formula.

With NSAIDs:

• Too much can cause stomach bleeding. This risk increases in people who are over 60 years of age, are taking prescription blood thinners, are taking steroids, have a history of stomach bleeding or ulcers, and/or have other bleeding problems.
• Use of NSAIDs can also cause reversible kidney damage. This risk may increase in people who are over 60 years of age, are taking a diuretic (a drug that increases the excretion of urine), have high blood pressure, heart disease, or pre-existing kidney disease.

With opioids:

• Use of opioids can lead to drowsiness. Do not drive or use any machinery that may injure you, especially when you first start the medication.
• The dose of an opioid pain medication that is safe for you could be high enough to cause an overdose and death in someone else, especially children.

KNOW THE ACTIVE INGREDIENTS

A specific area of concern with OTC pain medicines is when products sold for different uses have the same active ingredient. A cold and cough remedy may have the same active ingredient as a headache remedy or a prescription pain reliever.

To minimize the risks of an accidental overdose, consumers should avoid taking multiple medications with the same active ingredient at the same time.

All OTC medicines must have all of their active ingredients listed on the package. For prescription drugs, the active ingredients are listed on the container label.

Talk with your pharmacist or another health care professional if you have questions about using OTC medicines, and especially before using them in combination with dietary supplements or other OTC or prescription medicines.

MISUSE AND ABUSE
Misuse and abuse of pain medications can be extremely dangerous. This is especially so in regard to opioids. These medications should be stored in a place where they cannot be stolen.

According to the National Institutes of Health, studies have shown that properly managed medical use of opioid analgesic compounds (taken exactly as prescribed) is safe, can manage pain effectively, and rarely causes addiction.

But the abuse of opioids is a significant public safety concern. Abusers ingest these drugs orally, and also crush the pills in order to snort or inject them.

Commonly abused opioid pain medicines include prescription drugs such as codeine, and the brand-name products Oxycontin (oxycodone), Vicodin (hydrocodone with acetaminophen), and Demerol (meperidine).

Addiction is just one serious danger of opioid abuse. A number of overdose deaths have resulted from snorting and injecting opioids, particularly the drug OxyContin, which was designed to be a slow-release formulation.

USE OPIOIDS SAFELY:  3 KEY STEPS

1. Keep your doctor informed. Inform your health care professional about any past history of substance abuse. All patients treated with opioids for pain require careful monitoring by their health care professional for signs of abuse and addiction, and to determine when these analgesics are no longer needed.
2. Follow directions carefully. Opioids are associated with significant side effects, including drowsiness, constipation, and depressed breathing depending on the amount taken. Taking too much could cause severe respiratory depression or death. Do not crush or break pills. This can alter the rate at which the medication is absorbed and lead to overdose and death.
3. Reduce the risk of drug interactions. Don’t mix opioids with alcohol, antihistamines, barbiturates, or benzodiazepines. All of these substances slow breathing and their combined effects could lead to life-threatening respiratory depression.

This article appears on FDA’s Consumer Health Information Web page (www.fda.gov/consumer), which features the latest updates on FDA-regulated products. Sign up for free e-mail subscriptions at www.fda.gov/consumer/consumerenews.html.

Looking to make a change and lose some weight? I have reviewed the top diet on the internet and you can go and read over 200 comments people have made about why this diet has worked well for them, as well as some of the problems.

Tags: acetaminophen, aches, allergies, arthritis, brand-name products, cancer, chemical, chemicals, constipation, cough, cramps, dietary supplements, drowsiness, fever, food and drug administration, generic products, headache, headaches, heart disease, high blood pressure, ibuprofen, kidney disease, machinery, OTC, OxyContin, pain, pains, peripheral and central nervous systems, pharmacist, respiratory depression, surgery, toothaches, www.fda.gov/consumer, www.fda.gov/consumer/consumerenews.html

A cooling-off period should follow any workout. Cooling off, or more accurately tapering off, consists of slowing down to a crawl but keeping moving. After a vigorous game of squash, you might leisurely yet purposefully mosey around the court for two or three laps at a decelerating dawdle. There are sound reasons for a relaxed dawdle.

While you are actively engaged in exercise your heart is pumping out blood much faster in order to keep the muscles supplied with oxygen and nutrient. During this exercise the blood, having left the muscles, arrives at the other end of the muscles, or the veins. Blood reaches the muscles due to the forceful pumping action of the heart. But there is no such mechanism to effect return of the blood to the heart.

Blood flow during workouts

Once blood passes across the muscles and into the veins, the main channels to the heart, some pumps must be found. Unlike the arteries the veins are thin-walled and almost devoid of muscle. They are easily compressible. When veins are filled with blood, the pressure of adjacent contracting muscles produces a ‘ ‘milking action” on the veins with the propulsion of blood toward the center of the body because veins have valves which direct blood flow to the heart. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Buckingham Palace, cramps, energy

Carbohydrate loading is a method that has been used for at least 20 years now by marathon runners and other endurance athletes. The idea behind carb loading is that you would eat a huge amount of carbohydrates, usually complex carbohydrates in the 12-18 hours before competition. The Mayo Clinic came up with this great primer on the how, what and why of Carb loading.

Carbohydrate loading can improve your performance during high-intensity endurance exercise. Use this strategy to prepare for a marathon, triathlon or another endurance event.

Perhaps you’re training for a marathon or triathlon. Or maybe you’re a long-distance swimmer or cyclist. Whatever your sport, if you plan to complete 90 minutes or more of high-intensity exercise, carbo-loading (carbohydrate loading) may improve your performance.

Carbohydrates: The body’s fuel

The food you eat contains carbohydrates, protein and fat. These nutrients supply the calories your body uses for energy. Although your body needs all three nutrients, carbohydrates are your body’s primary source of energy.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: athlete, average athlete, bloating, carbohydrate-containing sports, cramps, cyclist, dairy products, diabetes, energy, food, Loading Carbohydrate, long-distance swimmer, Mayo Clinic, registered dietitian, soccer, Sports Medicine, Swimming, triathlon, weightlifting

Some of the most astonishing miracles to come out of the nutrition laboratories in recent months have had to do with the mighty family of water-soluble vitamins grouped together under the head of the B complex.

When they use the term “B complex,” scientists are tacitly admitting that they do not know all the vitamins that compose it. Yet experiments with animals indicate that the B vitamins may turn out to be the most remarkable treasure house o£ human health thus far discovered.

The entire B complex (not the individual and better known B vitamins) appears to be a preventive o£ baldness and of gray hair, at least in animals, as we shall later see. Liberal B intake in animals is believed by many researchers to encourage greater resistance to infantile paralysis. Also, in very recent experiments, it has proved remarkably effective in preventing the development of liver cancers in laboratory rats. Right now there is a ferment of activity to relate these startling findings to human beings. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: alcoholism, anemia, b complex, b vitamins, B1 deficiency, baldness, beef liver, beriberi, chicken livers, constipation, cramps, delirium tremens, dizziness, energy, Energy-yielding carbohydrates, food, Golf, hallucinations, head, headache, heart failure, infantile paralysis, liver cancers, numbness, pain, peptic ulcers, poisoning, starvation, temperance lecturer, Tennis, thiamin, vitamin b1, vitamin deficiencies, water soluble vitamins, yeast

Here in Calgary we have one of the most exciting times of the year. It is the time of the Calgary Stampede and there are parties, free pancake breakfasts and of course a world famous rodeo that lasts right through next week.

The company that I work for had a stampede breakfast and mini rodeo on Saturday at the Calgary Stampede and I went along with my wife and two kids. We met some people there and although we brought our own lunch we did have the sausage, pancakes and hash browns for breakfast. The lunch was packed by my wife and was healthy fruit and sandwiches which were great for all of us and helped us avoid the crazy prices for food on the fairgrounds.

But this story is not about the food or the food on the grounds.

I always get excited about hanging out and playing with the kids. I am a pretty active guy when it comes to looking after the kids running behind and trying to keep up with them and that was the case on Saturday, but I did not bring any water to drink and really did not think about drinking anything. Just like anyone on a really hot day I was fine until it was a bit too late. Just before we left in mid afternoon I started feeling a little light headed and went a little downhill from there. We got in the car and went to the first 7-11 we could find to get a drink for me. After sucking back some liquids I was fine but I would bet that there were others that day that did not fare as well as me.

It is really important to drink a lot of liquids when you are active and at these times most people realize it and do get in the liquids and electrolytes that they need to keep them in peak condition. But, when you are just running around and away from home on a hot day quite often you don’t really think about the water just as I did on Saturday. If you were to go to the first aid tent at any event during the summer you should see that the majority of people are suffering from heat exhaustion or dehydration not from being active but just from drying up in the heat.

The easiest way to avoid these problems is to make sure that you drink a lot of liquids throughout the day. Mix it up drink fruit juice for the sugar, water for the pure hydration and try to keep yourself in the shade whenever possible. This time in July and August is prime time for these problems. Especially when it is really hot take care of your kids as they are not nearly as good at regulating their temperature and can get heat stroke which is an even worse problem and can require hospitalization.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: blisters, calgary, cramps, dehydration, emergency treatment, fever, first aid, food, heart disease, heat-related illness, high blood pressure, low-sodium diet, mental illness, muscle pains, nausea, obesity, pain, Parkinson�s disease, rash, sports beverage, stroke, sunburn

Any decision you make about your health care is important–including deciding whether to use acupuncture. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) has developed this fact sheet to provide you with information on acupuncture. It includes frequently asked questions, issues to consider, and a list of sources for further information. Terms that are underlined are defined at the end of this fact sheet.

Key Points
Acupuncture originated in China more than 2,000 years ago, making it one of the oldest and most commonly used medical procedures in the world.

It is important to inform all of your health care providers about any treatment that you are using or considering, including acupuncture. Ask about the treatment procedures that will be used and their likelihood of success for your condition or disease.

Be an informed consumer and find out what scientific studies have been done on the effectiveness of acupuncture for your health condition.

If you decide to use acupuncture, choose the practitioner with care. Also check with your insurer to see if the services will be covered.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: acupuncture, acupuncture points, Alternative Medicine, Asthma, back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, chemotherapy, China, Complementary Medicine, complex chronic, cramps, energy, fatigue, fibromyalgia, headache, health care systems, insurance plans, irritable bowel syndrome, James Reston, Japan, Korea, Massage, meditation, meridians, muscle pain, National Center for Complementary, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, National Institute of Health, nausea, negative energy, New York Times, Office of Alternative Medicine, osteoarthritis, pain, physician, placebos, positive energy, reporter, stroke, surgery, tennis elbow, traditional Chinese medicine, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, United States, vomiting, Web search engines

I just ran into a couple of great articles on Hoodia and thought it would be great to share them. Why do I care about Hoodia? Well I keep getting spam about the “Greatest weight loss product ever” and man do I hate unfounded hype.

It seems that Hoodia may be a good product but if there is ever a wonder drug that will stop people from eating and help them lose weight than the lack of exercise will surely kill people. I t is very important to remember that even if Hoodia does a great job in helping you lose weight that you still need to exercise regularly to stay or regain health. I have made my own notations here in bold from this great article at about.com written by Cathy Wong

Introduction to Hoodia

Each year, people spend more than $40 billion on products designed to help them slim down. None of them seem to be working very well.

Now along comes hoodia. Never heard of it? Soon it’ll be tripping off your tongue, because hoodia is a natural substance that literally takes your appetite away. It’s very different from diet stimulants like Ephedra and Phenfen that are now banned because of dangerous side effects. Hoodia doesn’t stimulate at all. Scientists say it fools the brain by making you think you’re full, even if you’ve eaten just a morsel.

Hoodia is a cactus that’s causing a stir for its ability to suppress appetite and promote weight loss. 60 Minutes, ABC, and the BBC have all done stories on hoodia. Hoodia is sold in capsule, liquid, or tea form in health food stores and on the Internet. Hoodia is also found in the popular diet pill Trimspa.

Hoodia gordonii can be found in the semi-deserts of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola. Much like a cactus it has recently been turned into a cash crop in Namibia where there are hundreds of acres of it being grown to meet the demand in North America.

It takes about 5 years before hoodia’s pale purple flowers appear and the cactus can be harvested. Although there are 20 types of hoodia, only the hoodia gordonii variety is believed to contain the natural appetite suppressant.

Although hoodia was only marketed recently, the San Bushmen of the Kalahari desert have been eating it for a very long time. The Bushmen, who live off the land, would cut off part of the hoodia stem and eat it to ward off hunger and thirst during nomadic hunting trips. They also used hoodia for severe abdominal cramps, haemorrhoids, tuberculosis, indigestion, hypertension and diabetes.

In 1937, a Dutch anthropologist studying the San Bushmen noted that they used hoodia to suppress appetite. But it wasn’t until 1963 when scientists at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa’s national laboratory, began studying hoodia. Initial results were promising — lab animals lost weight after taking hoodia.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 60 Minutes, ABC, Africa, Angola, anthropologist, BBC, Botswana, Brown University in Rhode Island, Cathy Wong Introduction, correspondent, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, cramps, depression, diabetes, energy, health food stores, Hoodia plant, hypertension, indigestion, Kalahari desert, Leslie Stahl, liver disease, Namibia, north America, pfizer, pharmaceutical giant, Rhode Island, South Africa, South Africa's national laboratory, supplement, tough product, Trimspa, tuberculosis, Unilever, USD, weight loss product, weight loss solution