Month: November 2010

by: David Gutierrez

(NaturalNews) Abuse of prescription painkillers continues to rise, according to a study conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

 

"We urgently need to take action," CDC Director Thomas Frieden said. "These prescription medicines help many people, but we need to be sure they are used properly and safely."

Emergency room visits for non-medical use of prescription painkillers have now reached a level equal to those for illicit drug use, the study found, using data from the SAMHSA Drug Abuse Warning Network. Such visits increased 111 percent between 2004 and 2008, from 144, 644 to 305,885. The increases were seen across all age and gender categories.

Emergency room visits associated with all painkillers increased, which doctors attribute in part to increasing prescription rates of those drugs across the United States. The drugs responsible for the most emergency room visits were oxycodone, hyrdrocodone and methadone, with other painkillers such as morphine, fentanyl and hydromorphone following close behind.

Nonmedical use of oxycodone was responsible for 105,214 visits in 2008, an increase of 152 percent over 2004. Hydrocodone-related emergency room visits increased 123 percent, to 89,051, and methadone-related visits increased 73 percent, to 63,629.

This surge in emergency room visits is actually straining an already overburdened U.S. health care system, Hyde warned.

"This public health threat requires an all-out effort to raise awareness of the public about proper use, storage, and disposal of these powerful drugs," Hyde said.

According to government statistics, prescription opioid abuse causes 13,000 deaths per year.

The growing epidemic of painkiller abuse has led pharmaceutical companies to research less addictive alternatives. The FDA recently approved an addiction-thwarting painkiller, Embeda, by King Pharmaceuticals. Another new painkiller, Acurox, is pending approval, but FDA advisers have urged that the drug be rejected.

The researchers found that olive oil appeared to protect rat DNA from the damage that can lead to cancer. Furthermore, it seemed to deactivate key proteins required for the continued survival of breast cancer cells.

Because the benefits were only seen in rats who consumed olive oil over the long term, researcher Eduard Escrich recommends that everyone consume 50 milliliters (10 teaspoons) of high-quality, extra-virgin olive oil each day.

Previous studies have linked olive oil to a lowered risk of certain kinds of cancer. Olive oil is also a critical component of the Mediterranean diet, which is associated with a lower risk of not only cancer, but also heart disease and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

In another study, conducted by researchers from Barcelona's Insitut Municial d'Investigacion Medica and published in the journal FASEB, olive oil was found to hamper the activity of genes associated with the hardening of arteries characteristic of heart disease.

"Knowing which genes can be modulated by diet in a healthy way can help people select healthy foods," researcher Maria Isabel Covas said.

"This study is ground-breaking because it shows that olive oil and a Mediterranean diet affect our bodies in a far more significant way than previously believed," said Gerald Weissmann, editor-in-chief of "FASEB."

The Mediterranean diet is high in fruit, vegetables, fish, whole grains, and fats from nuts and olive oil. It is low in red meat and dairy, and alcohol (especially red wine) is consumed in moderation. Researchers believe that the healthy fats and antioxidants found in these foods may play a crucial role in the diet's benefits.

Another classic Mediterranean ingredient, garlic, has been found to destroy breast cancer cells in the laboratory.

Published in the journal Lancet, the study used a system called multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) to assess damage caused by various drugs. Nine of the criteria evaluated specific harm inflicted on users of the drug, while seven criteria looked at the harm caused to others. Upon investigation, alcohol scored nearly three times more harmful than cocaine and eight times more harmful than ecstasy.

"It is intriguing to note that the two legal drugs assessed — alcohol and tobacco — score in the upper segment of the ranking scale, indicating that legal drugs cause at least as much harm as do illegal substances," said David Nutt, chairman of ISCD, and author of the study. His report concluded that "aggressively targeting alcohol harms is a valid and necessary public health strategy."

Nutt was forced to resign from the British Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) last year after criticizing British ministers for ignoring scientific evidence showing that alcohol, which is legal, causes more damage than cannabis (marijuana), which is illegal.

However, critics of the study cite the fact that while the aggregate harm of alcohol may score higher than many street drugs do on the scale, alcohol's actual harm to individual users is less than drugs like ecstasy or LSD, which can actually create holes in the brain and cause permanent brain and neurological damage.