<strong>New Study Raises Red Flags Concerning Increase in Opioid Prescriptions  and Overdoses:</strong>

If you are taking a prescription  painkiller long- term for pain, you are not alone—but should be  concerned and seek out drug-free relief.

About 3 percent of the  U.S. population, or nearly 8 million Americans, are being prescribed  opioids such as oxycodone, morphine and Vicodin for back pain, headaches  and other chronic pain conditions, according to a government-funded  study published in a January 2010 medical journal, Annals of Internal  Medicine. And even more alarming, deaths from prescribed opioids more  than tripled in the U.S. from 1999 to 2006.

"The threat to  patient safety is too great to allow current pain management and opioid  prescribing practices to remain as they are," White House Office of  National Drug Control Policy Deputy Director A. Thomas McLellan, PhD,  writes in an editorial published along with the study in the journal.

Patients  can turn to chiropractic for a drug-free alternative to medicines. A  doctor of chiropractic can develop a treatment plan that may combine  more than one type of treatment, such as spinal manipulation,  mobilization or massage, as well as procedures such as electric  stimulation, rehabilitative exercises, acupuncture, advice on nutrition,  and suggestions for posture modification—instead of medications and  surgery.

"Chiropractic actually treats the cause of the pain  rather than the sypmtoms," says Dr. Nelson. "Painkillers are a temporary  fix that masks the problem, where chiropractors diagnose the cause of  the pain and develop a treatment plan to solve the problem."

Two  studies highlight the effectiveness of chiropractic for two common,  chronic pain conditions: back pain and headaches.

A 2003 study  published in the medical journal Spine found that manual manipulation  provides better short-term relief of chronic spinal pain than does a  variety of medications. And a report released in 2001 by researchers at  the Duke University Evidence-Based Practice Center in Durham, N.C.,  found that spinal manipulation resulted in almost immediate improvement  for those headaches that originate in the neck, and had significantly  fewer side effects and longer-lasting relief of tension-type headaches  than a commonly prescribed medication.

"With so much in the news  about painkiller addictions and accidental overdoses, we've seen an  increase in patients who are concerned and want drug-free pain relief,"  continues Dr. Nelson. "Chiropractic is very effective in treating many  types of chronic pain, but also effective in treating other ailments  such as ear infections, asthma, colds and flu, reducing the need for  antibiotics."

Chiropractors can provide patients with ways to  boost their immune systems and guard against staph and other bacterial  infections, in lieu of taking antibiotics—reducing the risk of  antibiotic resistance.

"Beyond finding noninvasive and drug-free  relief for traditional back and neck pain, many of our patients have  recovered from recurrent ear infections and other bacterial infections  through chiropractic care," says Dr. Nelson. "Even ADHD patients have  seen promising results with non-drug treatments that focus on postural  muscles, nutrition and lifestyle changes that affect brain activity.  With today's chiropractic treatment plans, patients really do have an  alternative to taking antibiotics for infections and medications for  pain."