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Medicine

Blocking Inflammation May Lead To Chronic Pain (neurosciencenews.com) 128

Using anti-inflammatory drugs and steroids to relieve pain could increase the chances of developing chronic pain, according to researchers from McGill University and colleagues in Italy. Neuroscience News reports: Their research puts into question conventional practices used to alleviate pain. Normal recovery from a painful injury involves inflammation and blocking that inflammation with drugs could lead to harder-to-treat pain. [...] In the study published in Science Translational Medicine, the researchers examined the mechanisms of pain in both humans and mice. They found that neutrophils -- a type of white blood cell that helps the body fight infection -- play a key role in resolving pain. Experimentally blocking neutrophils in mice prolonged the pain up to ten times the normal duration. Treating the pain with anti-inflammatory drugs and steroids like dexamethasone and diclofenac also produced the same result, although they were effective against pain early on.

These findings are also supported by a separate analysis of 500,000 people in the United Kingdom that showed that those taking anti-inflammatory drugs to treat their pain were more likely to have pain two to ten years later, an effect not seen in people taking acetaminophen or anti-depressants. "Our findings suggest it may be time to reconsider the way we treat acute pain. Luckily pain can be killed in other ways that don't involve interfering with inflammation," says Massimo Allegri, a Physician at the Policlinico of Monza Hospital in Italy and Ensemble Hospitalier de la Cote in Switzerland.

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Blocking Inflammation May Lead To Chronic Pain

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  • by shaitand ( 626655 ) on Thursday May 12, 2022 @05:16AM (#62525266) Journal
    Honestly doctors insist anti-inflammatory meds are highly effective because they don't want to deal with the FDA pushback on narcotics and drug seeking patients. There isn't any real comparison though, narcotics are both effective at relieving the pain and effective at making you not care.

    The downside is that they are insidious, if you need them for any duration (a couple weeks or more) you will form a mild dependency and your brain is really good at getting what it wants... it makes you feel the same aches/pains that have been effective at getting you to take the meds!

    Despite that, the effort to cut back prescribing these meds is resulting in a lot of people in pain having to suffer and the justification of denying some other person access to something they want to put in their body is weak.
    • by Italiano42 ( 6220070 ) on Thursday May 12, 2022 @06:02AM (#62525334)
      2006: As a child, i was given fentanyl and morphine after a pretty simple lancing of a cyst on my neck. Gave me a month of hydrocodone for pain. Overkill. 2021: My pelvis was shattered in a car accident. Tons of pain. No authorized pain prescription, i had to buy concentrated recreational marijuana for relief. Self-medicating because the doc is avoiding liability is clearly an issue here.
      • I forgot to mention that in 2006 the anesthesiologist walked away after injecting me, I had a serious allergic reaction and almost died. Fortunately, I went to sleep a few seconds into the reaction. Good way to die, no pain. I have lasting psychological damage from this neglect and no faith in the US healthcare industry.
      • by shaitand ( 626655 ) on Thursday May 12, 2022 @06:27AM (#62525372) Journal
        Yes, there is a middle ground here! Is there an opioid problem?

        A huge part of the 'overprescription' is from doctors in FL and elsewhere prescribing for the elderly. Not only do these people have lots of body pains they are also retired and entitled to do whatever they please. Sorry, you might selfishly want grandma coherent and to avoid a fall to get another year or two out of her but grandma might have different ideas at 85.
        • That's OK.Grandma isn't going to be stealing catalytic converters or carjacking to support her habit.

          • Grandmas DO have a tendency to let other family members use their meds to relieve pain

            • Yeah but then they don't need to steal catalytic converters either. What has never been adequately explained to me is some reason I give a shit about keeping pills away from junkies who want them in the first place. Seems to me, other than self-inflicted trauma, almost all the problem (thefts, etc) stem from making the pills hard to get.

              A bottle of 240 10mg hydrocodone is like $10-$15. On the black market they are more than that PER PILL. I say let them have their pills. We should definitely ask doctors and
              • Sure, that would make sense if the person who is already addicted just keeps those pills to themselves

                But they do not, they trade them for lodging, food, sex,... They use them to get other people addicted so that they can get them to do stuff for them

                That is why methadone and suboxone programs require either daily or weekly attendance to reduce the amount of opioids that hit the street for trade

                The 100k + overdose deaths a year are why opioids (they suppress respiration resulting in death) is the primary re

              • by PPH ( 736903 )

                some reason I give a shit about keeping pills away from junkies

                Because, for better or for worse, we as a society have taken it upon ourselves to provide medical aid and support for those suffering from a wide range of maladies. Included among these are the side effects of drug use. Now, if we would be willing to step over the convulsing and dying bodies of junkies, I'd agree with you: Let them take their drugs.

      • by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Thursday May 12, 2022 @07:16AM (#62525450)

        Just want to report that the number of deaths from Marijuana is still zero, as in absolutely no one has died from it, ever.

        Still federally illegal while alcohol and opiates kill tens of thousands every year.

        • by shaitand ( 626655 ) on Thursday May 12, 2022 @08:09AM (#62525544) Journal
          Absolutely! But while cannabis is great it isn't really a substitute for opiates for serious pain. It definitely combines well with them and is a great way to handle the withdraw pain when it is time to come off the opiates though.
          • Depends on your pain tolerance and the amount of chronic pain you are experiencing. This is a setup to be reckoned with: Globinhood E-Nail MPX Live Resin concentrates Thatâ(TM)s the best combo out there and it scales. I come home with a splitting headache and a modest dose of this stuff turns off the pain inside of 3 minutes. I leave some pain on to prevent further damaging myself during recovery. Some people like to be totally numb.
          • I have had chronic pain for decades due to herniated/ruptured lumbar disks and the occasional pressure on sciatic nerve due to narrowed gap

            I have always told my physician , NO OPIOIDS and I have avoided surgery, hoping that they work all the kinks out

            The most radical treatment that I have received has been three series of steroid injections

            Beyond that it is regular exercise, stretching and cannabis

            I can even take the cannabis away for extended periods, but certainly helps with recovery from the occasional o

            • I was really talking more acute pain. Cannabis is awesome but it isn't going to be the fix when you can see your femur!

              Still, that is great to hear. There was a time I did consulting for dispensaries in NM and actually contributed a wikibook on cannabis cultivation so I love hearing Ganja success stories.

              The steroid injections you speak of are just the sort of thing they are discussing here and so might be contributing to your chronic pain.
              • imo, it is acute pain when the sciatic nerve has become irritated and inflamed, then inflames the encasing muscle and forces it against the vertebrae...

                That is when I have used the steroid injections, they have been really good at reducing the acute pain and allow me to stand and walk

                There was a period of time when I over-used NSAIDs like naproxyn, and I have just had to accept that I am going to have to live with some level of pain

        • by HiThere ( 15173 )

          Depends on how you count "cause of death". There may be no "cannabis directly caused death", but there are lots of "cannabis encouraged reckless driving which lead to death". Of course, the same is true of alcohol. But it's not quite as safe as you are painting it.

          • Cannabis does not cause recklessness. Slowed reflexes and somnolence are possible causes of accidents, but reckless is not part of the profile of cannabis effects.

            • by Anonymous Coward

              Cannabis does not cause recklessness. Slowed reflexes and somnolence are possible causes of accidents, but reckless is not part of the profile of cannabis effects.

              I believe it was fairly clear the poster was meaning the person who drives while under the influence of cannabis is reckless, not that the effects of cannabis are inclusive of recklessness. Either you misunderstood that portion or are arguing out of bad faith.

        • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

          Yet it's a potent drug and can trigger latent mental issues, such as psychosis and schizophrenia, which can lead to suicide. I have had 1st hand experience of a fellow student who developed paranoid psychosis after a single intake of marijuana. A very difficult situation to handle, the guy had to quit studying and ended up in psych ward for six months. Don't know what happened to him afterwards.

          Medical supervision is important.

          • So can alcohol.

          • by UpnAtom ( 551727 )

            Which is the stronger causality though?

            Cannabis -> schizophrenia... or
            Schizophrenia -> cannabis.

            Ever consider that the crazy shit happening in schizophrenics head is partly because they actually like crazy shit?

            Not saying schizophrenia isn't a serious problem. It's one of the worst. And disliking crazy shit doesn't often reverse it.

        • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Just want to report that the number of deaths from Marijuana is still zero, as in absolutely no one has died from it, ever.

          Still federally illegal while alcohol and opiates kill tens of thousands every year.

          Are you sure?

          I'm pretty sure I've heard of deaths due to Marijuana due to acute collateral lead trauma. :) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne... [dailymail.co.uk]

          And aside from that attempt at gallows humor, people have died from car crashes while under the influence. And, a little searching did turn up a death that was the direct result of marijuan. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne... [dailymail.co.uk]

          The deaths of two men in Germany in 2014 is still being debated, with coroner finding that cardiovascular events occurred in two individuals, and

          • I believe calling it totally harmless is still the more accurate term. People die from drinking too much water. There are billions of potential test cases out there, there will always be edge cases that really don't impact the base impression that for the vast vast majority of people it is indeed harmless. There are absolutely people that have been harmed either directly or indirectly as a result of Cannabis consumption but they are thus far based on the math edge cases.
          • by narcc ( 412956 )

            If you need to stretch that far to claim any death indirectly caused by a drug more than half this country has used, it might be time to consider that it's not nearly as dangerous as you'd like to believe.

        • by jwhyche ( 6192 )

          Isn't that the truth. In my youth I hosted a few parties with several recreational products being present. I can say this for sure, I have never had a gathering where a bunch of people sitting around smoking weed, and a fight break out. The worse damage that was done was to my snack budget.

          But every time there was a party and a fight broke out some fucker was drunk.

        • by jwhyche ( 6192 )

          The angel said to the Lord, "God, you have to do something about those humans. They are just fighting and wrecking the whole place."

          God answered, "Really? What about that plant I sent down to calm them?"

          "They outlawed it." the angel replied.

        • this is not correct. I work in the field of mental health. Robust epidemiological studies, which have been successfully replicated, have shown how cannabis is associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia, a severe mental illness that sadly has a high mortality rate - both in terms of suicides and of shortened lives - some 10-15 years on average.
        • by koko ( 66015 )

          Stoners drive like shit. Wrong way driver? 2:1 it's a stoner. Like you.

        • But people have probably died from it indirectly, via the munchies, resulting in obesity, resulting in one or more of the many problems caused by obesity.

          (Note: any alleged similarity between the above chain of events, and those in my own life, is purely coincidental.)

      • How can it be you couldn't get a pain prescription for a shattered pelvis? What did they say?
        • I was discharged prematurely as i demonstrated i could put pants on while lying down. They wanted me gone because my insurance policy canceled 2 months prior and neglected to mention it. I was on COBRA taking a 2 year vacation and my coverage lapsed, but the $737.66/mo checks kept getting cashed by Blue Shield of California. I didnâ(TM)t ask for pain meds, maybe that was the problem. They may have assumed i couldnâ(TM)t afford the pills out of pocket? I was billed $50,000+ and almost bankrupted me
          • Sounds horrible. Would have been worth asking, opioid prescriptions actually don't cost much to fill either.

            I was given opioid prescriptions twice last year, once for a kidney stone and the second after a surgery. I didn't fill the prescriptions because they make me feel TOO good (scared of getting addicted) and the pain was luckily manageable, but I did take the one I was given at the Dr's office for the kidney stone at its worst and that was a godsend at that moment.

            • Sorry you had kidney stones. They suck. I wouldn't wish them on the devil himself.

              First set of stones brought me to the ER, where I was offered morphine, and let them push it once. I hated it. Just made me feel "off" for some reason, sort of like my bones had collapsed and lost their substance. And like part of my brain could feel sensation in my limbs, and another part couldn't. Hard to explain any better than that. It bothered me more than the pain, although it was tied for the most painful exper

      • Self-medicating because the doc is avoiding liability is clearly an issue here

        I think the best way to describe the situation is like so. You know where everyone starts to slow down because they can see highway patrol up ahead? Yeah, it's like that right now with pain killers.

        Lotta people upset about the whole opioid thing, which makes the politicians get mad because people are mad, which makes the President mad because the politicians are mad, which makes federal law enforcement mad because the President is mad. Been like this for quite a few years now, got doubled down back in 20

        • No one in politics is mad. If you think they are they have fooled you.

        • by garyisabusyguy ( 732330 ) on Thursday May 12, 2022 @11:27AM (#62526154)

          The solution is on the horizon, Ibogainalogs

          Ibogaine is a single -use treatment for opioid addiction that is more effective than any other treatment method

          Unfortunately Ibogaine is schedule 1 DEA (hallucinogen) and has a slight risk for cardiac event

          Several universities collaborated on creating new drugs based on ibogaine, which eliminate the opioid addiction while not causing cardiac harm or hallucinations

          They are expected to enter human trial later this year

          http://www.neuwritewest.org/bl... [neuwritewest.org]

          • by UpnAtom ( 551727 )

            Isn't the single-use effect caused by the hallucinatory trip?

            • That is what was studied, first they identified the active portion of the molecule and replicated it:
              They identified three major structural features of the ibogaine molecule, and then they synthesized 15 different molecules (termed “ibogalogs”) which each had two of the three major structural features. They identify two of these ibogalogs – ibogainalog and tabernanthalog – as particularly promising based on their induction of plasticity in cultured neurons and also based on chemical

    • by NormalVisual ( 565491 ) on Thursday May 12, 2022 @07:14AM (#62525442)

      It's especially frustrating when you have chronic pain, and it's *usually* not bad enough to justify taking an opioid, but once in a while, you really need it. I have a relatively high tolerance for pain, so whenever I've been prescribed opioids (like for kidney stones or the like), I might take one or two over the first couple of days, but keep the rest for when I have a really bad day and need one to be functional. I've never taken more than three in a single day. The times I've been prescribed hydrocodone/oxy, I've usually been given a bottle of 15 pills, and that will often last me for months. There just isn't any acceptance in the medical/government community that there are people out there that fully understand the dangers of opioids, and are able to use them responsibly.

      On top of that, when you get hydrocodone, it's usually combined with acetaminophen, which in my experience is one of the most useless drugs out there. For most people it's not a big deal, but it's almost like they WANT to punish abusers by destroying their liver.

      • by Ormy ( 1430821 )

        There just isn't any acceptance in the medical/government community that there are people out there that fully understand the dangers of opioids, and are able to use them responsibly.

        This. A million times this.

      • by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Thursday May 12, 2022 @10:06AM (#62525808)
        This is anecdotal, but I've seen several interviews with the people addicted to opioids and the reason was always the same: blue collar guys who needed to keep working after an injury and were taking the meds to work through the pain.

        Most people can't make do on disability. It doesn't pay enough to live. The ones that do are usually ones who made it to 65 (67 now, 70 soon), have social security, maybe a spouse or a pension from before we stopped doing those or maybe their kids help out.

        So they were popping pills to keep working, then they got cut off and the addiction kicked in, so they started taking illegal stuff and sooner or later it was too strong or cut with something and they died. That made the news, there was a scare and a backlash, we didn't solve the underlining problem because you're not allowed to stop working just because you can't anymore, and here we are.
        • I have a friend in that exact situation. Back pain -> doctor -> pills -> insurance -> cutoff -> dealer -> heroin. BTW, you are totally allowed to stop working for any reason. However, it'd be good if you planned well enough to have something to fall back on: like savings. I'm not big on the "steal from other people" plan you hint at, comrade. There is enough of that already and it's clearly not working.
          • The reason it doesn't work (in the US) is the curve of welfare isn't smooth. If someone earning welfare has a small income increase that moves them over some nonsensical threshold, they're fully cut from one or another program, and their total income drops. This incentive makes them avoid that increase unless it's big enough, in a single jump, to overcome the gap, which is rare.

            A smoothed curve, that reduced welfare proportionally with income until it went down to zero as income increased, would provide the

          • As a libertarian I absolutely oppose all the "steal from other people" stuff. Especially if we're talking about able-bodied and able-minded people here, although don't think either would be the case in this situation.

            As a human being, I would like to see some way we can help people in this situation, *without* the stealing from other people part. I don't know specifically how that would look or how we would get there. But I'd probably start by at least not throwing people in jail just because they needed

      • You are a bad patient.

        You are supposed to take all of them according to the schedule on the prescription. Doing this will ensure your nervous system is properly sensitized and permanently adjusted toward both opioid addiction and chronic pain.

        Can't you just do what you're told and become a good little drug slave? /s

        • fwiw, taking the entire prescription is good practice for antibiotics since NOT doing so results in antibiotic resistance in germs

          I have NEVER heard of a doctor insisting that a person take their entire script of pain pills

      • If I somehow experienced acute pain worse than a kidney stone I might want opioids.

        They aren't really for chronic pain. There are less risky ways to manage that in most cases.

        Agree re: acetaminophen/paracetamol. It's crap for chronic pain as well, has a low therapeutic ratio, and is among the leading causes of acute liver failure. I'd like to see it packaged with NAC (n-acetylcysteine) or some other glutathione precursor, as has been proposed off and on over the years, but not, as far as I can tell, seri

    • by Anonymous Coward

      It turns out that 1 in 4 of us Brits are suffering from chronic pain (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-61309962). I can't imagine what that's like, or indeed what the causes of it are, let alone the solutions. Therefore, I'm not really qualified to comment, but I can say, that taking any drug, regularly and long-term is probably a bad idea. It's ultimately masking something that needs addressing - although sometimes we can't actually address the problem, either because it's physiological but we don't under

      • by pjt33 ( 739471 )

        It's ultimately masking something that needs addressing

        The flip side of that is that not taking analgesics can cause the nerves to become sensitised such that the pain sensation persists for a long time after the original cause has healed. I had severe RSI as a student, refused the opioids my GP offered, and probably had a couple of months of unnecessary pain on top of the several months of healing.

    • Inflammation causes additional tissue damage and increases cancer risks though. We need a different answer.

    • ...The downside is that they are insidious, if you need them for any duration (a couple weeks or more) you will form a mild dependency and your brain is really good at getting what it wants...

      That's true for many people and perhaps even most, but not all. My wife had bad kidney stones that were moving but not being passed, and she was averaging three Oxy's a day for several weeks. Then she finally had lithotripsy to break up the stones; two days later the pain was down to a dull roar and she quit the narcotics cold-turkey with no withdrawal symptoms and no cravings.

      Granted, this is the same woman who had to be re-anaesthetized TWICE during said lithotripsy and then woke up on the way to the rec

      • "That's true for many people and perhaps even most, but not all."

        Fair enough. There are generalities but at the end of day everyone reacts to medication differently.

        It also could matter how much pain medication you've needed over time. As a kid I smoked two or three times, not incidents but stretches of 3-6 months and stopped due to parents catching me or moving and losing my supply, etc. I'd never once felt a 'craving' to smoke and thought that was a myth. Finally I smoked for a few weeks when I was around
      • Does she have red hair, perchance?

    • What we truly need, for petty much all medication is actual long-term and short-term studies that are done correctly. We also need (desperately) for people who form concrete opinions and don't follow updated information to either be more objective or STFU.

      If you search for NSAID and inflammation, you get a TON of bicycle forums (not a group that I'd take a consensus from) and a few articles here and there that are either no data (+ bad summary) or studies that have narrow scope and conclusions

      The two
      • Studies are typically done to further the goals of those who fund them, and in many cases, that biases them in favor of the med(s) under study.

        Prevention tends to be an awful lot more effective, both in cost and in quality of life terms, but it's also an awful lot less profitable than pushing a pill.

        • Studies are typically done to further the goals of those who fund them, and in many cases, that biases them in favor of the med(s) under study.

          Prevention tends to be an awful lot more effective, both in cost and in quality of life terms, but it's also an awful lot less profitable than pushing a pill.

          That makes a lot of sense. My doctor's recommendations often include "reduce stress" but that includes a level of control (e.g. having a commute, having certain hours) over my life that isn't in line with what I'm making to "keep the wheels on the bus" for my family.

          Don't even get me started about establishing and keeping an appropriate sleep schedule for a healthy lifestyle.

  • Didn't we allready know that?

  • ...for more drugs? Color me shocked. No way in hell did anyone expect that from Greed N. Corruption, CEO of Big Pharma, amirite?

    All corruption aside for a moment, this seems extra-insidious. As if the ethics class was taught by Dr. Mengele himself.

  • It tells you what you are doing wrong and to stop doing it.

    Stop taking things for every little bit of pain. You only need it when it prevents you from taking care of your basic needs.

    It's amazing how people take pills for everything, and yet they're the same people who refuse to take vaccines that demonstrably work. Especially those who are "spiritual" or whatever. The amount of stuff those charlatans try to sell you put Big Pharma to shame, and they don't even fucking work.
    • Re:Pain is good. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Bethany_Saint ( 5152993 ) on Thursday May 12, 2022 @07:43AM (#62525488)

      I'm guessing you don't have chronic pain. Even "mild" chronic pain can make you question your will to live after a while. Chronic pain doesn't stop you from taking care of your own basic needs. It just mentally becomes all consuming. Then add another temporary pain on top of that and I guarantee you'll want something to take it down a notch. A huge number of people taking pain meds fall in this category.

      • The article is talking about a potential CAUSE of chronic pain. It's NOT talking about taking drugs for chronic pain. It's talking about anti-inflammatory drugs that block pain that could potentially LEAD to chronic pain.

        Therefore, from context, it's bleeding obvious I'm talking about what the article is talking about.
        • by GoTeam ( 5042081 )
          Your post was antagonistic, what kind or replies did you expect to get? You made a declaration based on what you understood from an article or summary, then added in political commentary for... reasons?
          While your comment about pain being a good thing because it is a warning mechanism for your body to protect itself is correct, those with chronic pain understand the difference between a "warning" pain, and a constant "something is very wrong" pain. Instead of getting defensive about your comments, just real
          • Re:Pain is good. (Score:4, Informative)

            by The Evil Atheist ( 2484676 ) on Thursday May 12, 2022 @09:50AM (#62525760)
            When discussing an article, the ARTICLE sets the CONTEXT.

            The CONTEXT is about drugs being used to treat some temporary pain from inflammation LEADING to chronic pain.

            I do not need to spell that out because the ARTICLE sets the CONTEXT. There can be no way, with proper understanding of how context work, to take my comment to mean chronic pain is good. Because the ARTICLE sets the CONTEXT about the potential CAUSE of chronic pain.

            If you have trouble understanding context, shut the fuck up.
            • by GoTeam ( 5042081 )
              Go back and read your original comment "in context". If you're an honest person, you'll see why the idea of implied context doesn't work in your case. If you are trolling, I get the humor. If you are serious, then work on your anger issues. You can't have a reasonable discussion when you're angry.
      • YMMV I think.

        I have several types of chronic physical pain . . . generally mild-ish though they can flare up from time to time.

        But even at its worst, it is COMPLETELY outclassed in my case by:

        * emotional pain (living with people who can't stand me, including me)

        * insomnia, that I've had for long enough that it's caused serious brain damage.

        The physical pain is manageable in my case, without meds. But the other types are not. They make me wish I were dead every single moment o

    • It tells you what you are doing wrong and to stop doing it.

      Until "being alive"is what you are doing wrong. This is not about hitting your head or burning your fingers, this is about the alarm system of your body running wild and doing damage. Chronic pain causes sleeplessness, makes you walk in a non-healthy attitude, etc. This is probably more about nerve damage than about a normal functioning body.

      • Re:Pain is good. (Score:4, Interesting)

        by The Evil Atheist ( 2484676 ) on Thursday May 12, 2022 @09:58AM (#62525794)
        We're talking about taking anti-inflammatory drugs to lessen temporary pain.

        That is apparently LEADING to chronic pain.

        So we're not talking about chronic pain. We're talking about what is causing chronic pain later down the line, and it's potentially the practice trying to lessen temporary pain. That temporary pain is obviously what I'm talking about.

        Why can't people read an entire comment, and the context it's under?
    • by HiThere ( 15173 )

      Living up to your handle I see.

      Pain is useful when it's a warning. It isn't always. When your body starts wearing out, there are often acute pains that aren't useful, i.e. you can't do anything about the cause. I've had an intermittent knee joint pain since I injured it decades ago. There's nothing useful I can do about it. OTOH, there are also times when the same joint is offering pain as a warning to stop standing so much. There's no sensory way of distinguishing the two signals, I have to depend o

    • It's amazing how people take pills for everything, and yet they're the same people who refuse to take vaccines that demonstrably work

      My personal opinion on things summarized. Pain pills are amazing. Go get fucking vaccinated. Medicine in all forms is awesome and most doctors are really good at doling it out. Fuck them pre-19th century fuckers and their high mortality rate.

      • Medicine in all forms is awesome and most doctors are really good at doling it out.

        Yeah. Like opioids.

        Fuck them pre-19th century fuckers

        Yeah. Like opioids.

    • That would assume the body has a 100% logical pain feedback loop. It doesn't.

      Our "intelligently designed" bodies give us crippling pain for a toothache (a relatively easy malady to cure) yet can let cancer run rampant and symptom free until it's too late to treat.

    • It's amazing how people take pills for everything, and yet they're the same people who refuse to take vaccines that demonstrably work.

      Um ... they are? The same people?

      What makes you think so? That doesn't follow.

      • Look at the rates of vaccine hesitancy in areas where there is no mandates or gentler forms of "encouragement". Yet these people take all sorts of supplements including alt-meds.
        • Look at the rates of vaccine hesitancy in areas where there is no mandates or gentler forms of "encouragement". Yet these people take all sorts of supplements including alt-meds.

          I strongly suspect the percentage of drug abuse is higher in the areas with mandates ... key constituencies of those areas are not exactly known for being low in drug use ...

    • by twocows ( 1216842 ) on Thursday May 12, 2022 @10:00AM (#62525800)
      The original purpose of pain from an evolutionary perspective is to tell you what you're doing wrong, sure, but in the modern world there are lots of situations where pain arises from doing things that are useful or even necessary (or from circumstances outside our control entirely). Either way, I don't think that's a valid justification to avoid painkillers.

      There's generally nothing wrong with taking painkillers in moderation. TFA identifies a problem that may occur with (probably overuse of) a certain type of painkiller (NSAIDs). That warrants more investigation into that particular type of painkiller and that situation, but it's not a reason to stop using NSAIDs entirely in situations where the benefits outweigh the risks, nor is it even relevant to the question of using other kinds of painkillers like acetaminophen, which with typical doses has basically no ill effects whatsoever.

      Your line about vaccines seems completely irrelevant to anything being discussed, I'm not sure what painkillers have to do with vaccines. I've had all of my scheduled COVID shots and still use painkillers, I don't really understand what you think the connection is there.
      • from an evolutionary perspective, we would all be dead by age 25 - living to our 80s means chronic health conditions. chronic health conditions can mean that people have years of pain ahead of them. this is one major driver of all painkillers prescriptions (among the others reasons)
    • back pain being a big one. Arthritis another. Your body isn't telling your something, it's breaking down and we don't have the tech to fix it.

      Until we do the response isn't "live with it ya wimp!" or to victim blame. It's to try and reduce it as best we can.
  • It also turns out that reducing fever during the course of an infectious illness probably makes things worse [theconversation.com]. I've heard of this from several other sources as well.

    All this to say that we need to be careful when we circumvent or modify biological coping mechanisms that have evolved over millions of years simply because we think we know better.

  • by Thelasko ( 1196535 ) on Thursday May 12, 2022 @10:27AM (#62525900) Journal
    The big advantage of reducing inflammation and pain is it increases tolerance of physical therapy. If you can't do physical therapy, you won't recover from orthopedic injuries.

    Maybe these people aren't in any pain, but permanently crippled? Was mobility measured in this study?

A committee takes root and grows, it flowers, wilts and dies, scattering the seed from which other committees will bloom. -- Parkinson

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