Time for Change: Pain Relief Without Opioids

By Editorial Staff

"There is no better place on earth to have a news event," the National Press Club boasts, and it's easy to understand why: Every year, the 108-year-old Washington, D.C.-based organization hosts countless press conferences on the hottest topics impacting America and often the world.

That backdrop makes the recent invitation-only press briefing by the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress as important as it deserves to be, considering the topic and the opportunity to expand awareness of the chiropractic profession's role in preventing and managing chronic pain.

The topic: the opioid crisis. The event: the official launch of the foundation's "Save Lives. Stop Opioid Abuse. Choose Chiropractic" campaign.

Distinguished speakers at this historic event outlined the scope of the crisis, putting blame squarely on prescribing doctors and the current pain-management system while urging nondrug alternatives, including chiropractic care.

Here are a few soundbites from the distinguished panel of presenters that should whet your appetite for the complete briefing, available online in its entirety at www.f4cp.com/watchpressclub/. Watch it and learn how chiropractic can play a role in managing pain without drugs.

• Keynote speaker Marc Siegel, MD, professor of medicine at New York University of Medicine at NYC Langone Medical Center: "[W]e're getting a growing awareness of two things: the abuse of back surgery and the abuse of opioids. ... Let's replace [them] with things that work – heat, weight loss, exercise, physical therapy, acupuncture, chiropractic."
• Wayne Jonas, MD, executive director of Samueli Integrative Health Programs: "We are not getting our money's value, largely because we wait so long to do expensive treatments at the end ... when we could have prevented or engaged in health promotion. ... Only about 5 percent of our dollars go into preventing the very things we're trying to treat with things like opioids."
• David Thomas, PhD, program officer, Division of Epidemiology, Services and Prevention Research, National Institute on Drug Abuse: "We don't take care of people in pain well, and we use opioids as a substitute for comprehensive pain treatment."
• Linda Porter, PhD, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Pain Policy and co-chair of the National Pain Strategy and Federal Pain Research Strategy steering committees: "What we've got isn't working ... and we know there are other pain strategies that are going to help out."
• Jan Chambers, founder and president of the National Fibromyalgia and Chronic Pain Association: "Most medical doctors do not have the answers and solutions we need. ... [Chiropractors] have an important place in our health care."

To learn more about the opioid crisis, and why the foundation and others are so excited about the potential for chiropractic care and other therapies to provide a drug-free alternative, read our article in the March issue, "7 Signs and Symptoms: Opioid Prescription Is Leading to Danger."