3 Ways to Avoid Opioids After Surgery
By Chris Brown
Years ago, barely out of the anesthetic sleep of wisdom teeth surgery, I received a prescription for a large bottle of opiates. I ended up never needing a single pill, but the mere supply of these highly addictive drugs pointed out the great risk of opioid abuse following surgery.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a whopping 50,000 people in the U.S. died from opioid overdoses in 2019. With more education on the dangers and addictiveness of these drugs, many doctors have cut back on their prescriptions in recent years. However, there are cases where opioids are necessary to deal with post-surgical pain. Indulging in opioids can be a slippery slope for some people and even increase pain duration in the long-term.
For those hoping to reduce the risks of drug dependency following surgery, there are three main ways to curb opioid use.
Start With Lower Strength Pain-Relief Medications
Oftentimes, opioids are prescribed as a first line of defense against pain, where much weaker (and less-addictive) alternatives may work just as fine. Different people have different pain tolerances, and not every surgery induces the same pain. Starting off with a lower strength pain reliever, such as over-the-counter medications, may be all that is required to dull post-surgical pain.
In a study by Michigan Medicine, post-operative patients were instructed to pre-empt pain relief with ibuprofen or acetaminophen and only take opioids at intense pain levels. After 90 days, over half of the post-surgical patients hadn't taken a single opioid and 98 percent had taken less than 10 pills throughout the study. This goes to show that, in most cases, opioids are an excessive solution to post-surgical patient pain.
Use the Power of the Mind
The mind is a powerful tool that can be harnessed to reduce pain without pharmaceuticals. Breathing and meditation techniques lower pain by breaking the body's circular pain sensation process. When the body relaxes through mindfulness techniques, muscular tension around the injury reduces, which then releases pressure from the nearby nerves. This released pressure decreases the flow of pain nerve signals being sent to the brain, therefore reducing the experienced pain. Additionally, the measurable decrease of cortisol that occurs during meditation produces less bodily stress.
Chiropractic Manipulation
Chiropractic manipulation's pain relief comes from its optimization of the body's nervous system. It lowers pain levels by correcting subluxations in the spinal column which magnify the body's pain signals. If a surgery has occurred near a joint, chiropractic can help relieve pain by calming muscular tension while correcting joint dysfunctions. This also helps facilitate proper healing of the support muscles around the joint and speed overall recovery.
To learn more about your health, wellness and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Davis, Calif.