Off Topic: 4X increase in Americans taking morphine-type drugs in last decade (consider Vitamin D instead)

47 million Americans now take morphine-type drug sometime each year Mercola Aug 2014

5,000,000,000 hydrocodone-containing pain pills in 2011

= enough for 8 times per day for three weeks for every man, woman, and child

Comment in forum: As Dr. Mendelsohn used to say they seldom discontinue a dangerous and unproven drug unless they have an equally dangerous and unproven drug to replace it

Drug Overdoses Are the 9th Leading Cause of Death in the US Mercola April 2017

• ". . . more Americans now use prescription opioids than smoke cigarettes.1 "

• " . . Americans now use 80 percent of all the opioids sold worldwide."

• "In Alabama, which has the highest opioid prescription rate in the U.S., 143 prescriptions are written for every 100 people"

Depressed and Anxious Patients Receive More Than Half of All Opioid Prescriptions Mercola July 2017

• 23 % of pregnant women on Medicaid filled a prescription for an opioid drug.in 2007

• "As it turns out, the opioid epidemic is taking a greater toll on women in general. In the last decade (2005 through 2014), opioid-related emergency room visits have nearly doubled, but while hospitalization rates among men rose by 55 percent, . . "

• ". . opioid addiction rose by 493 % between 2010 and 2016. . ."

• "Opioids Are Potent Immune Suppressors"

• alternatives discussed: Medical cannabis: Kratom, Low-Dose Naltrexone, Curcumin: Astaxanthin: Boswellia: Bromelain, Cayenne cream. Cetyl myristoleate, Evening primrose, black currant and borage oils, Ginger

  • Vitamin D/Sunshine was also discussed

See Vitamin D Life - More US adult deaths from Fentanyl than autos or COVID (Vitamin D might help) - several studies

See Vitamin D Life for pain reduction with Vitamin D

• Overview Pain and Vitamin D

• Chronic pain 40 percent less intense associated with 10 nanogram more vitamin D – April 2014

  • • suggests that will be able to decrease pain drugs if have more vitamin D

• 7 improvements in lives of veterans with chronic pain with 50,000 IU vitamin D weekly – June 2012

• Pain subjectively and objectively lower in people with higher levels of vitamin D – Aug 2014

• Back pain category listing which has items along with related searches

• Overview Fibromyalgia or Chronic Fatigue and vitamin D - also mentions Magnesium

• Vitamin D reduced skeletal pain in 85 percent of the patients – Nov 2012

• 100 Million Americans Have Chronic Pain – IoM June 2011 sometime during the year - not all at the same time

• Addictive pain relievers Oxycodone and Percocet (not needed as much if have enough vitamin D?) – July 2014

• 150,000 IU vitamin D reduced pain in immigrants – RCT Dec 2012

• Low vitamin D associated with chronic widespread pain for women

• After back surgery failure, vitamin D greatly reduced the pain of every person

• Hypothesis: Drug addiction in humans can be prevented and treated by vitamin D -May 2014

• All items in category Chronic Pain and vitamin D items

• Opiate addiction 2.4 X more likely if vitamin D deficient before surgery – June 2020

  The TOP articles in Pain and Vitamin D are listed here:

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See Magnesium in Vitamin D Life

• Overview Magnesium and vitamin D

• Magnesium and the Central Nervous System – ebook 2011 Chapter 11: The role of magnesium in pain

• Vitamin D and Opioids both reduce Magnesium, which results in constipation – Sept 2016

See also web

• Hydrocodone Wikipedia
  • 99% of the worldwide supply consumed in the US
  • In 2014, the FDA approved the first pure hydrocodone product in the U.S.: Zohydro ER
  • The FDA review panel voted 12 to 2 against approval
  • 30 U.S. states asked the FDA not to approve Zohydro ER in capsule form

• COMMON OPIATES quick overview: Buprenorphine, Codeine, Demerol, Heroin, Hydrocodone , Lorcet, Methadone, Morphine, Naloxone, Opium, Oxycontin, Vicodin, Vicoprofen

• Googled: FDA, name of drug, and "conflict of interest" got 40,000 hits Aug 2014, including

  • Critics of Zohydro ER Approval Suspect Conflict of Interest with Pharmaceutical Industry
• Gupta: Let's end the prescription drug death epidemic Nov 2012
  • Distribution of morphine, the main ingredient in popular painkillers, increased 600% from 1997-2007
  • 80% of the world's pain pills are consumed in the United States
  • 20,000 deaths due to accidental overdose every year
  • subgroup of patients taking pain pills for a long time develop a condition known as hyperalgesia, an increased sensitivity to pain.
  •      Note by Vitamin D Life - strongly suspect pain pills ==> reduce vitamin D ==> hyperalgesia
  •             Googled hyperalgesia "vitamin D" 50,000 hits July 2017

• Inadequate Vitamin D Levels Linked To High Use Of Narcotic Medication By Patients In Chronic Pain 2009

• Thread: Vitamin D Natural Way to Potentiate Opiates? forum discussion

• Short Answers to Hard Questions About the Opioid Crisis - New York Times Aug 2017 excellent text and graphs