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The use and abuse of prescription pain medications is now responsible for an astonishing 44 deaths per day in America, surpassing auto accidents as the leading cause of accidental deaths in American adults. Despite this fact, sales of opioid medications keep rising as do the number of prescriptions each year.
At the same time, the use of acupuncture has dramatically increased over the last 20 years, with more patients than ever using acupuncture as an adjunct treatment for both acute and chronic pain conditions.
Recently, The Joint Commission, an independent, not-for-profit organization that accredits and certifies nearly 21,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States, updated its Pain Management Standard to include acupuncture as an effective non-pharmacological strategy for managing pain.
Rebecca Berkson, L.Ac, Dip.OM, as part of the Kaplan Center’s freely offered Community Health Lecture Series, discussed how acupuncture can reduce – or even eliminate – the need for opioids and non-opioid drugs by:
* Stimulating the production of the body’s own “endogenous opioids”
* Stimulating the production of the body’s natural anti-inflammatory compounds
* Facilitating the body’s own natural chemistry creating the potential for similar – or sometimes better – benefits than synthetic drugs, without the risks of addiction or side effects.
