Medipure News

THE NORTH AMERICAN PRESCRIPTION DRUG EPIDEMIC

Make no mistake – North America is in the midst of a prescription drug crisis. Dominated by an addiction to opioids, prescription drug overdoses claim the lives of well over 100 North Americans per day, making them more deadly than traffic accidents or gun violence. The USA and Canada are the number one and two users of opioids in the world, responsible for more than 80% of global consumption with less than 5% of the population. Clearly, North Americans have a problem with opioid abuse. How did things get so bad?

The Birth of an Epidemic

PAIN MANAGEMENT: AT THE CORE OF CANADA'S OPIOID CRISIS

Dr. Andrea Furlan, Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto, commented recently that pain management is at the core of Canada’s opioid crisis and the key to a solution.

In an article originally published in "The Conversation", an independent and non-profit Academic Journal and reprinted in the National Post, Dr. Furlan noted that two people die every day in Ontario from an opioid overdose. The prevalence of opioids and the physician’s prescription notepad share the responsibility.

THE 'GOOD, BAD AND UGLY' OF PRESCRIPTION PAIN MEDICATIONS

The drugs doctors prescribe for treating the symptoms of pain, anxiety and psoriasis carry with them powerful and often destructive side-effects.

Let’s review the current list and why at Medipure we’re convinced we need new medications and a new approach:

IN THE NFL 'AFTERLIFE' EVERYTHING HURTS

Not too long ago in the August 4th version of the San Jose Mercury News, reporter Elliott Almond caught up with NFL Hall-of-Fame quarterback Jim Plunkett to talk about life after football.

His response made headlines. "My life sucks", said Plunkett, now 69. "It’s no fun being in this body right now. Everything hurts."

THE 'PURE SCIENCE' AT MEDIPURE

For well on 100 years, doctors, scientists and researchers have been using molecules from plant and animal species or chemically synthesized ones to create new medications and prescription drugs which have enhanced the health and welfare of the human species.

ADDICTIONS DOCTOR ISSUES PLEA FOR ALTERNATIVES TO POWERFUL OPIOIDS

Dr. Peter Butt, an addictions consultant for the Saskatoon Health Region, issued a national appeal in the pages of the Toronto Globe and Mail for help in combating opioid addiction for chronic pain.

“We need to find new ways of helping treat people with chronic pain without prescribing them opoids”, he told his interviewer. “If you constantly chase chronic pain, it’ll just keep coming back, and the dose of opioids will just escalate and escalate to a point where there’s a problem.”

Pages