The Opioid Epidemic in America.

By Ruth Elder

24 years ago I was a slave to pain medications. Without them, I could not function. Over time though the side effects were starting to kill me. I found a solution to get me off. That is why I am writing this.

 

In 2016 opioid overdose killed more people in America than breast cancer or car accidents.  The death rate is on the rise in many states including Texas. 

This is not statistics and numbers. This is unbearable suffering again and again and again and...

Recently I listened to a report on NPR on people addicted to opioid pain killers and moving on to street drugs and how many people died from overdoses of such drugs.

What grabbed my attention, however, was a story of a man who had his whole life disrupted by severe pain. He could not work or participate in his children’s lives. Before you keep reading, please take a moment to take this in: A man in his prime unable to work or be involved in his children’s lives. Can you even?...

Why?

Because of severe, chronic pain!
So this man went to different doctors until he found one that was able to manage his pain enough that he could go back to work and sufficiently care for his children again. How? By prescribing a regimen of prescription drugs. He was taking them regularly, and it was keeping his pain in check.
Until it was not.

Here’s what happened: His doctor was fired from the pain management clicic due to what some thought was overprescribing narcotics. The new doctor wanted to get the patient off the massive doses of drugs. When he reduced the medications by 80% (!), there was insult to injury. Not only did he have to deal with the severe original pain, but he also had severe withdrawal symptoms. This is where the story ended. The patient was worse off than when he started. Two Doctors were frustated. Many Doctors don’t want to go into pain management due to the complexity and liability. Bottom line: They don’t know what to do!

However, I would have hoped for another ending.

The two doctors in this story were both trying to help. One by relieving the pain. The other by being concerned about the drug addiction.

What was missing? Neither one was able to address the cause of the pain. It seems too obvious. What would happen if the condition that caused the pain was no longer there? What if there was a highly trained physician who would know how to analyze the cause of the pain, remove that cause and allow the body to start healing.

The good news: No the Great News:

Doctors who can help the pain without drugs exist. They have studied the body as much as Medical Doctors, but instead of considering drugs (medicine) they have practiced how to manipulate the spine to keep the nerves flowing better through the spine so the brain can take over the healing. These Doctors are Chiropractors. Just like in medicine there are different fields of study. For cases where the pain is severe, it would make sense to go to a Chiropractor who is an expert in digging deeper.  For example; do they use imaging such as X-Ray or CT Scan to see what is going on?

Blair Upper Cervical Chiropractors examine the part of the neck where the brain sends the signals to the rest of the body. By removing the problem there, the body is free to work on healing itself.

What if the man in the NPR story had seen a Chiropractor who could remove the cause of the pain? What if the body could heal? Would there be a need for pain management if the pain was gone?

Here at the Blair  Chiropractic Clinic, we are passionate about restoring health rather than managing pain. Based on this story I can't help, but think we might even be part of saving someone's life. If you or someone you know have severe pain why don't you give us a call and we can talk about what help is best for you. Everybody starts with a screening appointment. It is quick, affordable and completely painless.  Not local to Lubbock? We have a list of great Chiropractors around the world who can help. 

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia and Upper Cervical Chiropractic [Video]

Dr Gordon D. Elder of The Blair Chiropractic Clinic in Lubbock Texas explains how Upper Cervical Chiropractic can help Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia.

Fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue
syndrome often go together.

Fibromyalgia is an interesting diagnosis, often in the past is called the trash can diagnosis. In other words, we’ve ruled out everything else and you’ve got muscle pain. So we’re going to give you a diagnosis that in another language means muscle pain. Chronic fatigue syndrome often goes with it.  The people who have muscle pain in eleven of these eighteen particular points and we can’t find any other reason for it are often chronically tired as well. A scientific study recently in the last few years found that the hole in the bottom of the skull where the brain stem the brain sends all the messages through or most of them through. In many and a high percentage of the population it is smaller than average. What they do is they would surgically bore that hole out larger and would it immediately give them some results but it caused more problems later.

So my feeling on that is your body is made with its own intelligence and that intelligence tells it how to make different things. So usually it’s not going to make things wrong but if you have a small hole for a lack of better word in the bottom of your skull where all the nerves are going through and the bone right directly underneath is not lined up properly, well now that small hole is even smaller. That can cause some severe problems one of which is fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. I have had several patients over the years come in with one or both of those diagnoses. We’ve adjusted them and they’ve gotten better. Sometimes, it’s just that they can manage the muscle pain and the fatigue better. Sometimes it’s cleared up and it seems to go away entirely.

Posted in Chiropractic Clinic and tagged chiropractic adjustment, Chiropractor, chronic fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Lubbock Texas, muscle pain, pain symptoms

Digestion and Upper Cervical Chiropractic [Video]

Dr Gordon D. Elder of The Blair Chiropractic Clinic, Lubbock Texas explains how Upper Cervical Chiropractic can have an effect on  digestion problems.

Oftentimes people come in as patients and they have digestion issues.

They don’t come to me for that usually, they’ll come for the headaches or the neck pain or the back pain and maybe even mention several weeks later. They can see this help digestion because things seem to be working a little bit better. There’s an obvious connection your since your digestion is run by your nervous system ultimately. So if there’s a problem in the nervous system it can affect the digestive system. Sometimes it may first affect the hormones which affect the digestion or the immune system which also affects the digestion. There may be other issues involved as well but I’ve had many patients that can tell sometimes when the bone goes back out of alignment because the digestion starts to be a little more troubled again.

Posted in Conditions and tagged Blair Chiropractic Clinic, Chiropractic, Chiropractor, digestion, digestive problems, Lubbock Texas, UCC, Upper Cervical Chiropractic

High Blood Pressure and Upper Cervical Chiropractic [Video]

In this video, Dr Gordon D. Elder of The Blair Chiropractic Clinic in Lubbock Texas explains how Upper Cervical Chiropractic can improve high blood pressure.

There was an interesting study done in Canada it was a pilot study which means they need to do it more with more people but it was using upper cervical chiropractic and people with hypertension. What they found was that there was a significant reduction in hypertension in those patients who received a specific  and precise upper cervical adjustment.

Posted in Conditions and tagged Blair Chiropractic Clinic, Chiropractic, Chiropractor, high blood pressure, hypertension, Lubbock Texas, UCC, Upper Cervical Chiropractic

Migraines, Tension, Headaches, and Upper Cervical Chiropractic [Video]

In this video, Dr Gordon D. Elder of The Blair Chiropractic Clinic in Lubbock Texas explains how Upper Cervical Chiropractic can improve migraines, tension, and headaches.

Headaches are interesting.

There’s so many different causes. A lot of them actually come back to the neck when you read the research migraine headachestends to be a circulation problem inside the skull.  I believe the latest research says that it’s in the the covering around the brain that there is some issues with the circulation there. My mother started upper cervical chiropractic as a

patient because of 24-hour seven-day-a-week migraines. I mean the worst I’ve ever heard of before. Obviously then I was a child before I was a doctor. It greatly helped her so a strong part of my practice has been people coming in with migraine headaches and them getting relief from that. There is a big obvious connection to the neck. The same thing with the tension headaches. It’s muscle tension and when the neck is out of alignment the muscles are imbalanced. As they get more tense from stress, whether it be a physical stress or a mental stress, the muscles in the neck tighten up and as they tighten up then they can affect the muscles that are going up and around the skull or at the base of the skull. This can very easily cause headaches.

Cluster headaches are severe.

I think when they’re very severe they’re the people who almost want to commit suicide. I’ve had a few patients and it’s not a very common thing that I’ve seen, but the few patients that have come into my office with cluster headaches have also improved.  In fact every time they got a cluster headache they knew that they needed another adjustment. They were out of alignment and they would come in and most the time they were correct. I needed to adjust them when their headache would go away fairly quickly.

Posted in Conditions and tagged Chiropractic, chiropractic adjustment, Chiropractor, Cluster headaches, headaches, Lubbock Texas, migraines, tension, Upper Cervical Chiropractic