painkillers

New Research May Explain Unexpected Effects of Common Painkillers

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Summary: Researchers uncover the mechanism behind how a subset of NSAIDs reduces inflammation, which helps explain some of the curious side effects of the anti-inflammatories.

Source: Yale

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen and aspirin are widely used to treat pain and inflammation. But even at similar doses, different NSAIDs can have unexpected and unexplained effects on many diseases, including heart disease and cancer.

Now, a new Yale-led study has uncovered a previously unknown process by which some NSAIDs affect the body. The finding may explain why similar NSAIDs produce a range of clinical outcomes and could inform how the drugs are used in the future.

The study was published in the journal Immunity.

Until now, the anti-inflammatory effects of NSAIDs were believed to arise solely through the inhibition of certain enzymes. But this mechanism does not account for many clinical outcomes that vary across the family of drugs.

For example, some NSAIDs prevent heart disease while others cause it, some NSAIDs have been linked to decreased incidence of colorectal cancer, and various NSAIDs can have a wide range of effects on asthma.

Now, using cell cultures and mice, Yale researchers have uncovered a distinct mechanism by which a subset of NSAIDs reduce inflammation. And that mechanism may help explain some of these curious effects.

The research showed that only some NSAIDs — including indomethacin, which is used to treat arthritis and gout, and ibuprofen — also activate a protein called nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2, or NRF2, which, among its many actions, triggers anti-inflammatory processes in the body.

“It’s interesting and exciting that NSAIDs have a different mode of action than what was known previously,” said Anna Eisenstein, an instructor at the Yale School of Medicine and lead author of the study. “And because people use NSAIDs so frequently, it’s important we know what they’re doing in the body.”

The research team can’t say for sure that NSAIDs’ unexpected effects are due to NRF2 — that will require more research. “But I think these findings are suggestive of that,” Eisenstein said.

Eisenstein is now looking into some of the drugs’ dermatological effects — causing rashes, exacerbating hives, and worsening allergies — and whether they are mediated by NRF2.

This discovery still needs to be confirmed in humans, the researchers note. But if it is, the findings could have impacts on how inflammation is treated and how NSAIDs are used.

This shows a pill in a pair of tweezers
The finding may explain why similar NSAIDs produce a range of clinical outcomes and could inform how the drugs are used in the future. Image is in the public domain

For instance, several clinical trials are evaluating whether NRF2-activating drugs are effective in treating inflammatory diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, asthma, and various cancers; this research could inform the potential and limitations of those drugs.

Additionally, NSAIDs might be more effectively prescribed going forward, with NRF2-activating NSAIDs and non-NRF2-activating NSAIDs applied to the diseases they’re most likely to treat.

https://2581a66a3071e5c1e56d139d28d06db4.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

The findings may also point to entirely new applications for NSAIDs, said Eisenstein.

NRF2 controls a large number of genes involved in a wide range of processes, including metabolism, immune response, and inflammation. And the protein has been implicated in aging, longevity, and cellular stress reduction.

Said Eisenstein, “That NRF2 does so much suggests that NSAIDs might have other effects, whether beneficial or adverse, that we haven’t yet looked for.”

Medicinal Cannabis Shown to Reduce Pain and Need for Opiate Painkillers Among Cancer Patients

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Summary: Most cancer patients who used medical cannabis reported a significant improvement in pain measures and a decrease in some other cancer-related symptoms. Additionally, medical cannabis use reduced the consumption of traditional, opioid-based pain killers for those with cancer.

Source: Frontiers

A comprehensive assessment of the benefits of medical cannabis for cancer-related pain found that for most oncology patients, pain measures improved significantly, other cancer-related symptoms also decreased, the consumption of painkillers was reduced, and the side effects were minimal.

Published in Frontiers in Pain Research, these findings suggest that medicinal cannabis can be carefully considered as an alternative to the pain relief medicines that are usually prescribed to cancer patients.

Pain, along with depression, anxiety, and insomnia, are some of the most fundamental causes of oncology patient’s disability and suffering while undergoing treatment therapies, and may even lead to worsened prognosis.

“Traditionally, cancer-related pain is mainly treated by opioid analgesics, but most oncologists perceive opioid treatment as hazardous, so alternative therapies are required,” explained author David Meiri, assistant professor at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology.

“Our study is the first to assess the possible benefits of medical cannabis for cancer-related pain in oncology patients; gathering information from the start of treatment, and with repeated follow-ups for an extended period of time, to get a thorough analysis of its effectiveness.”

Need for alternative treatment

After talking to several cancer patients, who were looking for alternative options for pain and symptom relief, the researchers were keen to thoroughly test the potential benefits of medicinal cannabis.

“We encountered numerous cancer patients who asked us whether medical cannabis treatment can benefit their health,” said co-author Gil Bar-Sela, associate professor at the Ha’Emek Medical Center Afula. “Our initial review of existing research revealed that actually not much was known regarding its effectiveness, particularly for the treatment of cancer-related pain, and of what was known, most findings were inconclusive.”

The researchers recruited certified oncologists who were able to issue a medical cannabis license to their cancer patients. These oncologists referred interested patients to the study and reported on their disease characteristics.

“Patients completed anonymous questionnaires before starting treatment, and again at several time points during the following six months. We gathered data on a number of factors, including pain measures, analgesics consumption, cancer symptom burden, sexual problems, and side effects,” said Bar-Sela.

Improved symptoms

An analysis of the data revealed that many of the outcome measures improved, with less pain and cancer symptoms. Importantly, the use of opioid and other pain analgesics reduced. In fact, almost half of the patients studied stopped all analgesic medications following six months of medicinal cannabis treatment.

This shows a cannabis plant, seeds, and a dropped bottle
After talking to several cancer patients, who were looking for alternative options for pain and symptom relief, the researchers were keen to thoroughly test the potential benefits of medicinal cannabis.

“Medical cannabis has been suggested as a possible remedy for appetite loss, however, most patients in this study still lost weight. As a substantial portion were diagnosed with progressive cancer, a weight decline is expected with disease progression,” reported Meiri.

He continued: “Interestingly, we found that sexual function improved for most men, but worsened for most women.”

Meiri would like future studies to dig deeper and look at the effectiveness of medicinal cannabis in in different groups of cancer patients.

“Although our study was very comprehensive and presented additional perspectives on medical cannabis, the sex, age, and ethnicity, as well as cancer types and the stage of the cancer meant the variety of patients in our study was wide-ranging. Therefore, future studies should investigate the level of effectiveness of medicinal cannabis in specific subgroups of cancer patients with more shared characteristics.”

The Effectiveness and Safety of Medical Cannabis for Treating Cancer Related Symptoms in Oncology Patients

The use of medical cannabis (MC) to treat cancer-related symptoms is rising. However, there is a lack of long-term trials to assess the benefits and safety of MC treatment in this population.

In this work, we followed up prospectively and longitudinally on the effectiveness and safety of MC treatment. Oncology patients reported on multiple symptoms before and after MC treatment initiation at one-, three-, and 6-month follow-ups.

Oncologists reported on the patients’ disease characteristics. Intention-to-treat models were used to assess changes in outcomes from baseline. MC treatment was initiated by 324 patients and 212, 158 and 126 reported at follow-ups.

Most outcome measures improved significantly during MC treatment for most patients (p < 0.005). Specifically, at 6 months, total cancer symptoms burden declined from baseline by a median of 18%, from 122 (82–157) at baseline to 89 (45–138) at endpoint (−18.98; 95%CI= −26.95 to −11.00; p < 0.001). Reported adverse effects were common but mostly non-serious and remained stable during MC treatment.

The results of this study suggest that MC treatment is generally safe for oncology patients and can potentially reduce the burden of associated symptoms with no serious MC-related adverse effects.

Ask yourself: Why are there no prescription medications without horrific side effects?

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Image: Ask yourself: Why are there no prescription medications without horrific side effects?

The reason there are no prescription medications available today where the side effects aren’t worse than the ailment being treated is because Big Pharma will not treat or heal anything without creating several new issues that keep their “customers for life” coming back for more. Most Americans do not want to stop eating junk food, fast food, corporate franchise restaurant food, microwaveable food, prepared food bar “stuff,” and “diet” food that’s mostly chock full of synthetic sweeteners, GMOs and MSG.

Due almost entirely to these nasty eating habits, about 200 million Americans seek medical doctors to prescribe them chemical-filled pills to kill the pain, quell the hypertension, reduce the inflammation, unclog the clots, numb the anxiety, and nullify the depression.

The FDA and CDC do not allow anything that cures disease or disorders to be labeled “medicine”

Most Americans think the FDA was created to protect us from dangerous chemicals that might wind up in food and medicine, but just the opposite is true. Over the past century, the FDA has tried to destroy all forms of holistic care in America that compete with “slash-and-burn” drug and vaccine treatments that are readily dished out by the allopathic Ponzi sick-care scheme that masquerades as ‘health’ care in this country.

The CDC is a actually a for-profit corporation listed on Dun and Bradstreet. As a health protection agency, the CDC is supposed to save lives and conduct critical science for responding to threats when they arise, but pharma corporations have lobbyists and their vice presidents now in positions of control in the bureaucracy, writing legislation that favors new, untested drug approvals, as they have for decades.

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Both the FDA and the CDC promote toxic chemicals as medicine, including prescription medications, chemotherapy, and vaccines. Meanwhile, any food, herb, tincture, plant, seed, or essential oil that treats, prevents or cures disease is banned as “medicine” while being manipulated in labs, weakened or deadened, patented, and then declared a failure.

Prescription drug deaths skyrocket while the Big Pharma world pretends to search for cures for cancer, dementia, and diabetes

Twenty years ago, only four in every 100,000 people died from taking prescription drugs “as recommended” by their medical doctors. Now, one in every ten Americans struggle with addiction to prescription drugs (think opioids and SSRIs). Right now, over three million Americans are abusing painkillers, two million are misusing tranquilizers, 1.7 million are abusing stimulants, and half a million are misusing sedatives.

More Americans use and abuse “controlled” prescription drugs than heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines combined. How many of them will die this year? About 50 people will die today from overdosing on opioids. And now heroin is the death drug of choice for most people who become addicted to opioid pain relievers. Most teenagers think it’s safer to take a friend’s prescription drugs than to dose some illegal street drugs, just because they were prescribed by a doctor, but that’s not true at all.

The side effects of most prescription drugs that treat depression and anxiety include worsened depression and thoughts of suicide. How ridiculous is that? Every prescription drug advertised on television for all American children and teens to see comes slathered with side effects you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemies. Then they all feature the same tag line, “Ask your doctor if (fill in complex chemical name here) is right for you.”

It would only make sense that natural cures would be banned if they caused side effects like all the prescription medications do, but they don’t. If organic foods caused the health problems conventional foods do, they too would be banned, recalled or stuck with warning labels.

It’s as if we are all living in total idiocy like the movie “Idiocracy.” More than 200 million Americans think it’s okay if their medical doctor prescribes them “medicine” that can cause internal bleeding, loss of vision, coma, feelings of suicide, and thoughts of committing homicide. Wake up America. You’re living inside a real-life nightmare, where the food is toxic, the medicine is more toxic, and the medical doctors have no nutrition education, yet go to school for eight years to learn how to juggle chemical medicines like some Bozo science clowns. Maybe all M.D.s should wear big red wigs with big red noses and big red shoes while scribbling out those toxic prescriptions.

Sources for this article include:

TruthWiki.org

TruthWiki.org

FDA.news

CDC.news

NaturalNews.com

Talbottcampus.com

NaturalNews.com

Lawsuit Alleges That NFL Teams Distributed Painkillers Recklessly

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The National Football League (NFL) has been buffeted by the health controversies for the last few years. In 2014, the horrors of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) were first brought to the public’s attention in the form of a Boston University study. That athletes who suffered multiple concussions were at increased risk of cognitive impairment was known before this study, but the extent and pervasiveness of the problem was underestimated.

CNN reports that the NFL is now the focus of a lawsuit concerning their “reckless” use of opioid painkillers. These prescription drugs are extremely addictive and are a scourge that is killing thousands annually. The NFL lawsuit centers on informed consent and whether the players were cautioned about the dangers posed by these powerful pharmaceuticals.

The lawsuit against the NFL alleges incidents where unlabeled pills, Percocet and Motrin, were distributed to players in unmarked envelopes. The physical toll inflicted on footballs players and the influential role that team doctors play in their lives may make them uniquely susceptible to the dangers of opioids, but statistically they represent just the tip of the addiction iceberg.

It is not just NFL doctors passing out these pills like candy to injured players. In Alabama, which has the highest opioid prescription rate in the U.S., there are 143 prescriptions for every 100 people. Clearly, doctors bear a significant responsibility for creating this situation.

The extent of the addiction crisis is staggering. In 2015, there were more opioid users than smokers in America, a total of 27 million. Native Americans and Caucasians have the highest rate of death from opioids: 8.4 and 7.9 per 100,000 people. African Americans and Latinos have a death rate of 3.3 and 2.2 per 100,000. Addiction to opioids and heroin is costing the U.S. more than $193 billion each year.

It is inevitable that there is blowback for the overuse of opioid painkillers and it is no longer possible to ignore a calamity that has ruined and ended so many lives. Studies show that addiction ends up affecting over a quarter of those who use opioids for chronic non-cancer pain. Worse, 1 in 550 patients on opioid therapy dies from opioid-related causes within 2.5 years of their first prescription.

Perhaps this NFL lawsuit will help shed additional light on the dangers of powerful painkillers and the potential alternatives to these extremely dangerous drugs. That there is a huge problem has been acknowledged but to date the response has not been commensurate with the scope of the catastrophe. We need big pharma to acknowledge how dangerous their products are and make a point of minimizing their use. Natural and safer alternatives need to be promoted.

The most controversial and promising of these is medical cannabis. Medical marijuana has a long history as a natural analgesic. Its medicinal qualities are due to high amounts of cannabidiol (CBD), medicinal terpenes and flavonoids. Varieties of cannabis exist that are very low in tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) — the psychoactive component of marijuana that makes you feel “stoned” — and high in medicinal CBD.

Painkillers are Killing So Many People, Morgues Are Literally Overflowing

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More than 28,000 Americans died from opioid overdoses in 2014 — more deaths than any other year on record, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The number includes deaths from both heroin and prescription opioid pain relievers, but the latter accounted for at least half. The epidemic, which, by the way, is the CDC’s own term for this increasingly alarming trend, appears to only be getting worse.

Since 1999, opioid overdose deaths quadrupled, as did the amount of prescription opioids sold in the U.S. All of these pain relievers did not equate to equal amounts of pain relief, however, as Americans reported pain levelsstayed steady during that time.

Meanwhile, death rates from overdoses of oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone and other prescription opioids also quadrupled since 1999. In some areas, such deaths are becoming so commonplace they’re overwhelming coroner and medical examiner systems.

Some Areas Are Looking Into Renting Refrigerated Trucks to Store Bodies

In Connecticut, the chief medical examiner has considered renting a refrigerated truck to store bodies because the storage space at the medical examiner’s office is often maxed out.

The space shortage is attributed to rising drug overdose deaths, including opioid overdoses, which are pushing many medical examiner and coroner offices to their limits.

In areas like Cincinnati, Ohio, forensic pathologists responsible for conducting autopsies on many such victims may conduct more than 325 autopsies this year alone.

The National Association of Medical Examiners’ (NAME) accrediting program puts the limit at 325 a year, and offices that conduct more risk losing accreditation.

Some coroner’s offices are also facing backlogs of DNA testing for drug investigations, again in large part due to overdose deaths. Dr. David Fowler, Maryland’s chief medical examiner and president of NAME, told STAT News:

“There are many, many parts of the country that have substantial problems … I think the drug overdoses have substantially increased the problems.”

Opioid Use Among Seniors Soars

oxycodone

The opioid epidemic has touched lives both young and old. A new report from the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revealed that seniors take the drugs at an “astounding” rate.

About 12 million Medicare beneficiaries, or about 1 in 3, received at least one opioid painkiller prescription in 2015, totaling $4.1 billion. Among those taking the drugs, most received more than one prescription or refill; the average was actually five opioid prescriptions or refills per opioid user.

The most popular opioid drugs among seniors include the commonly abused OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin, fentanyl and generic equivalents. The study’s lead author noted concerns about the high rates of use as well as the potential for abuse.

Among seniors, the health risks of all medications are increased, because the body takes longer to break down and get rid of the drug than it does in a younger person.

As a result, the drug stays in an older person’s system longer, where it can cause even greater damage. Seniors are also likely to be taking multiple medications, which raises the risk of drug interactions.

Close to 2 million Americans abused or were dependent on opioids in 2014, according to the CDC. Many of them got hooked after taking the drugs for chronic pain, such as low back pain.

About 1 out of 5 patients with non-cancer chronic pain or pain-related conditions are prescribed such drugs, the CDC stated, but they should be reserved as an absolute last resort.

Research published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) even revealed that patients with non-cancer chronic pain (primarily back and other musculoskeletal pain) who took long-acting opioids were at an increased risk of premature death compared to patients taking other medications.

The long-acting opioids not only increased patients’ risk of death from unintentional overdose, but also increased risk of death for any reason by 64 percent and risk of cardiovascular death by 65 percent.

Study author Wayne Ray, Ph.D., professor of health policy at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, told the Epoch Times:

“The take-home message for patients with the kinds of pain we studied is to avoid long-acting opioids whenever possible … We knew opioids increase the risk of overdose. However, opioids can interfere with breathing during the night, which can cause heart arrhythmias.

Watch the video. URL:https://youtu.be/pROfg1vOp4w?list=PLW4wRvrGlUYkOnm6Iin_Wy-ArV0KhGoCI

Painkillers are Killing So Many People, Morgues Are Literally Overflowing

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HHL_july14_10

More than 28,000 Americans died from opioid overdoses in 2014 — more deaths than any other year on record, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The number includes deaths from both heroin and prescription opioid pain relievers, but the latter accounted for at least half. The epidemic, which, by the way, is the CDC’s own term for this increasingly alarming trend, appears to only be getting worse.

Since 1999, opioid overdose deaths quadrupled, as did the amount of prescription opioids sold in the U.S. All of these pain relievers did not equate to equal amounts of pain relief, however, as Americans reported pain levelsstayed steady during that time.

Meanwhile, death rates from overdoses of oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone and other prescription opioids also quadrupled since 1999. In some areas, such deaths are becoming so commonplace they’re overwhelming coroner and medical examiner systems.

Some Areas Are Looking Into Renting Refrigerated Trucks to Store Bodies

In Connecticut, the chief medical examiner has considered renting a refrigerated truck to store bodies because the storage space at the medical examiner’s office is often maxed out.

The space shortage is attributed to rising drug overdose deaths, including opioid overdoses, which are pushing many medical examiner and coroner offices to their limits.

In areas like Cincinnati, Ohio, forensic pathologists responsible for conducting autopsies on many such victims may conduct more than 325 autopsies this year alone.

The National Association of Medical Examiners’ (NAME) accrediting program puts the limit at 325 a year, and offices that conduct more risk losing accreditation.

Some coroner’s offices are also facing backlogs of DNA testing for drug investigations, again in large part due to overdose deaths. Dr. David Fowler, Maryland’s chief medical examiner and president of NAME, told STAT News:

“There are many, many parts of the country that have substantial problems … I think the drug overdoses have substantially increased the problems.”

Opioid Use Among Seniors Soars

oxycodone

The opioid epidemic has touched lives both young and old. A new report from the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revealed that seniors take the drugs at an “astounding” rate.

About 12 million Medicare beneficiaries, or about 1 in 3, received at least one opioid painkiller prescription in 2015, totaling $4.1 billion. Among those taking the drugs, most received more than one prescription or refill; the average was actually five opioid prescriptions or refills per opioid user.

The most popular opioid drugs among seniors include the commonly abused OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin, fentanyl and generic equivalents. The study’s lead author noted concerns about the high rates of use as well as the potential for abuse.

Among seniors, the health risks of all medications are increased, because the body takes longer to break down and get rid of the drug than it does in a younger person.

As a result, the drug stays in an older person’s system longer, where it can cause even greater damage. Seniors are also likely to be taking multiple medications, which raises the risk of drug interactions.

Placebo Effect Grows in U.S., Thwarting Development of Painkillers.

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Drug companies have a problem: they are finding it ever harder to get painkillers through clinical trials. But this isn’t necessarily because the drugs are getting worse. An extensive analysis of trial data has found that responses to sham treatments have become stronger over time, making it harder to prove a drug’s advantage over placebo.

The change in reponse to placebo treatments for pain, discovered by researchers in Canada, holds true only for US clinical trials. “We were absolutely floored when we found out,” says Jeffrey Mogil, who directs the pain-genetics lab at McGill University in Montreal and led the analysis. Simply being in a US trial and receiving sham treatment now seems to relieve pain almost as effectively as many promising new drugs. Mogil thinks that as US trials get longer, larger and more expensive, they may be enhancing participants’ expectations of their effectiveness.

Stronger placebo responses have already been reported for trials of antidepressants and antipsychotics, triggering debate over whether growing placebo effects are seen in pain trials too. To find out, Mogil and his colleagues examined 84 clinical trials of drugs for the treatment of chronic neuropathic pain (pain which affects the nervous system) published between 1990 and 2013.

Based on patients’ ratings of their pain, the effect of trialled drugs in relieving symptoms stayed the same over the 23-year period—but placebo responses rose. In 1996, patients in clinical trials reported that drugs relieved their pain by 27% more than did a placebo. But by 2013, that gap had slipped to just 9%. The phenomenon is driven by 35 US trials; among trials in Europe, Asia and elsewhere, there was no significant change in placebo reponses.The analysis is in press in the journal Pain.

Only in America
This effect would explain why drug companies have trouble getting new painkillers through trials, notes neuroscientist Fabrizio Benedetti, who studies placebo responses at the University of Turin, Italy. Over the past ten years, he says, more than 90% of potential drugs for treatment of neuropathic and cancer pain have failed at advanced phases of clinical trials.

But the finding that placebo responses are rising only in the United States is the most surprising aspect of the latest analysis. One possible explanation is that direct-to-consumer advertising for drugs—allowed only in the United States and New Zealand—has increased people’s expectations of the benefits of drugs, creating stronger placebo effects. But Mogil’s results hint at another factor. “Our data suggest that the longer a trial is and the bigger a trial is, the bigger the placebo is going to be,” he says.

Longer, bigger US trials probably cost more, and the glamour and gloss of their presentation might indirectly enhance patients’ expectations, Mogil speculates. Some larger US trials also use contract research organizations that can employ nurses who are dedicated to the trial patients, he adds—giving patients a very different experience compared to those who take part in a small trial run by an academic lab, for instance, where research nurses may have many other responsibilities.

No pain, no gain?
Mogil’s data also challenge one of the fundamental principles of placebo-controlled trials—that comparing a drug against placebo tells us how well a drug works. A basic principle of these trials is that drug and placebo effects are additive: our total response to any drug we take is equal to the placebo response plus the drug’s biochemical effect. But Mogil found that although placebo responses have increased over time, drug responses haven’t risen by the same amount.

That suggests placebo and drug responses may not always be strictly additive. This isn’t entirely unexpected, Mogil argues, because both placebos and pharmaceutical painkillers tap into similar biological mechanisms—such as the release of endorphins in the brain. But if true, it suggests that growing placebo responses are masking real painkilling effects. “There are a lot of people in the pain field who believe the drugs that are failing clinical trials actually work, it’s just that the trials can’t show it,” he says.

For companies trying to develop treatments, one remedy might be to compare new drugs against their best competitors instead of against placebo—or to go back to conducting smaller, shorter trials. Benedetti is not convinced, however. “I don’t think that controlling the placebo response will increase the number of successful trials,” he says. “What drug companies have to do is to find more effective drugs.”

Mogil suggests it is also worth investigating the elements that generate the more powerful placebo response in US trials, and then incorporating those elements (such as the relationship between patient and nurse) into patient care. Ted Kaptchuk, director of placebo research at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, agrees. “If the major component of a drug in any particular condition is its placebo component, we need to develop non-pharmacological interventions as a first-line response,” he says.

The Dangers of Painkillers.

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Did you know that painkillers known as NSAIDs are some of the most dangerous drugs on the market? This infographic explains just how dangerous they are and reveals lots of startling statistics…

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Painkiller use during marathons may increase health risk.

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http://m.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/apr/20/painkillers-marathons-health-risk-study