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

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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"

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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

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

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See VitaminDWiki 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 VitaminDWiki

• 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 VitaminDWiki - 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