Posts Tagged ‘the painful truth’
Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)
What Is Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)? Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) affects between 1 and 3 million Americans, typically women between 15 and 50 years old. It is a dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system, or a dysautonomia disorder, which involves blood pressure, heart rate, digestion, urination, breathing, and body temperature. As the Standing Up…
Read MorePrescription Drug Advertisements
Selling Prescription Drugs via Direct-to-Consumer Advertising “Next year, how about fewer ads that fuel opioid addiction and more on access to treatment,” White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough complained on Twitter. “Was that really an ad for junkies who can’t [poop]? America, I luv ya but I just can’t keep up,” TV host…
Read MoreUnintended Consequences of Limiting Prescribed Opioids
Arbitrarily Reducing Opioids Payers, legislators, and healthcare systems are implementing limits on how many pills may be dispensed to people with pain in an effort to curb the opioid crisis. CVS announced this past September they would limit the number of pills new patients with acute pain can obtain to a seven-day supply. Last July,…
Read MoreThe Tribune was wrong. Medicine often involves a risk to the patient.
Please note: This version of the blog originally appeared as an op-ed in the Salt Lake City Tribune on December 10, 2017. The Tribune was wrong. Medicine often involves a risk to the patient. The Salt Lake Tribune published an editorial on Sunday Nov 12, 2017, “Medical professionals need to play a role in opioid crisis.” The…
Read MoreRevealing the Hidden Pain Crisis
Our Perception of Pain Depends on Time and Culture Pain seems universal and irrefutable. Surprisingly, though, our perception and treatment of pain have always depended on time and culture. Currently, pain isn’t considered to be as important as the opioid crisis. The voices of people in pain are often ignored. Sometimes, those who have pain…
Read MoreWhat the CDC Can Learn From Utah
Opioid Overdoses Increase Despite CDC’s Efforts Everyone can agree on a few things. First, we have an opioid epidemic. Second, we want to mitigate it. Third, the efforts we’ve seen at the national level to ameliorate the crisis are not working. As USA Today recently reported, the opioid epidemic is getting worse instead of better.…
Read MoreDo Opioids Impact Life Expectancy?
Meet Rachel and Lorna Meet Rachel * and Lorna. They are very different women, but they have one thing in common: they both used opioids. One morning, Rachel maneuvered her maroon Civic into a parking place at a local breakfast joint to buy opioids from her dealer. Accompanied by her two-year-old daughter and her brother,…
Read MoreInsomnia Is More Than an Inconvenience
“Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care, The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, Chief nourisher in life’s feast.” ‒William Shakespeare, Macbeth Why We Need Sleep Shakespeare may be complicated, but the universal need for sleep is not. The “Chief nourisher” is, indeed,…
Read MoreHarvey and Irma: A Harvest of Friends, Family, and Tolerance
We Believed in a Melting Pot Hurricanes Harvey and Irma were tragedies, but if there was a silver lining, it was that they brought out the best in people. They reminded us that humans can overcome partisanship and tribal differences to help one another. For generations, many of us took pride in thinking of the…
Read MoreHow We Force Hurricane Victims Into Withdrawal
Facing the Wrath of Hurricanes As of this writing, Hurricane Irma is about to invade Florida. It is reported to be a Category 5 storm. Many people are evacuating, while others cannot leave their homes and must prepare to shelter in place. The region will inevitably experience catastrophic effects, and this is on the heels…
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