Within the last decade, an opioid epidemic has gripped America. Due to a change in pain medication recommendation standards in the late ‘70s, millions of Americans were prescribed pain medications to treat conditions ranging from physical strain to the pain that follows major invasive surgery.
While in many cases pain medications were did their job effectively, in other cases their euphoric effects proved addictive to hundreds and thousands of people. In recent years, opiate addiction is become so great that the CDC and FDA have recommended that doctors strictly moderate the amount of pain medication they prescribe and carefully monitor patients for whom they prescribe pain relievers.
It’s also been recommended that patients who live with chronic pain and not treat their condition with opioids because the high addiction risk factor. Instead, many medical professionals suggest treating chronic pain with massage. The reason being, many studies of found that in addition to easing the muscle tension that is often the source of chronic pain in both younger and older adults, massage also induces the body’s relaxation response, a condition wherein calming and pain relieving hormones are released into the body’s bloodstream.
Follow the link below to learn more about how massage can be better for chronic pain sufferers than opioid-based pain relievers.
Read the full article here: https://www.massagemag.com/can-massage-help-combat-opioid-epidemic-36842/