Pain (Life) Killers!

Over the past three year Mum has taken a wide variety of drugs including nerve suppressants, steroids, morphine, and laxatives. At one stage she swallowed over 20 tablets a day. She is currently taking a daily dosage of ‘Tramadol’ and ‘Pregabalin’. Some jargon and translation:

Tramadol - is a ‘monoamine uptake inhibitor’ used to treat moderate to severe pain and most types of neuralgia – conditions affecting the nervous system. It has been suggested that Tramadol could be effective for alleviating symptoms of depression and anxiety because of its action on the ‘noradrenergic’ and ‘serotonergic’ systems, the involvement of which appear to play a part in its ability to alleviate the perception of pain. However, health professionals have not yet endorsed its use on a large scale for disorders such as this.

Pregabalin - is an anticonvulsant drug used for neuropathic pain. It has also been found effective for ‘generalized anxiety disorder’. It was designed as a more potent successor to ‘Gabapentin’, used in the treatment of Epilepsy. Recent studies have shown that Pregabalin is effective at treating chronic pain in disorders such as fibromyalgia and spinal cord injury. In June 2007, Pregabalin became the first medication approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration specifically for the treatment of fibromyalgia. Mum does not have fibromyalgia.

In January and February 2009, Mum underwent two procedures at London’s ‘National Hospital for Neurology & Neurosurgery’, whereby she was intravenously fed ‘Lidocaine’ (Jan) and ‘Ketamine’ (Feb) for 2 hours at a time. These drugs are anaesthetics which work to inhibit receptors in the brain. Ketamine is used primarily in veterinary surgery and is commonly sought as a recreational hallucinogen said to induce a state referred to as "dissociative anaesthesia”, blocking signals to the conscious mind to bring about a ‘dreamlike’ state of sensory deprivation.

The first treatment (Lidocaine) caused pain more severe than any experienced in her life, leaving her almost entirely unable to walk for one month. The second (Ketamine) offered little if any change whatsoever. After this Mum declined a third treatment scheduled for March. She has a ‘review’ appointment with the same hospital booked for May. It is with this in mind that I came to visit her now (April).

Some reported side-effects of these drugs are:

Chronic constipation, dizziness, drowsiness, muscle cramps/spasms, numbness, respiratory depression, immune system depression (low white blood cell counts) and fluid retention in the cells (resulting in damage/death of the cells – info on Lymphology and ‘dry cell states’ to follow). Mum has all of these.

Another common side effect is a urinary disorder that can actually thicken the bladder wall, lowering sensitivity and control of this area. It was immediately following an operation to tighten Mum’s bladder that any symptoms and pain first began; and yet nobody advised her that this already damaged organ could possibly take strain from the ‘treatment’ programme. And, despite her primary symptoms being numbing, cramping and pain in her in her legs and feet, AT NO STAGE WAS SHE OFFERED MASSAGE OR SHOWN STRETCHING TECHNIQUES THAT MAY ALLEVIATE THE PAIN.

The companies that produce and distribute pharmaceutical drugs are privately owned and are primarily concerned with their own profits. This is not a revelation but needs to be understood when deciding on the appropriate actions to take when loved ones become unwell.

Consider that a private pharmaceutical company absolutely depends on your not being well in order to exist! They literally sell their products to health authorities and in turn they sell them to you – be that direct or not, it is in everybody’s interest that you/me/my mum, receive these drugs and therefore they will always be recommended before any other form of treatment.

‘Pfizer Inc.’ (that produce Mum’s ‘Pregabalin’) is the single largest pharmaceutical company in the world with an annual ‘product marketing budget’ of $3 billion. That’s MARKETING as in ADVERTISING. Their tight links with the US Government date from 1910 when they produced penicillin in the First World War. In 1995 they contributed $250,000 (the maximum allowed) to the second inauguration of George W. Bush.

Is it any surprise then, that drugs become endorsed by government and other treatment be officially termed ‘alternative’? Yoga has been with mankind since time immortal. Medicinal properties of herbs, spices and whole-foods were deliberately placed on the earth by God/Mother Nature/Natural Order… The brain is the single greatest laboratory in existence, capable of producing ANY CHEMICAL COMPOUND OR COMBINATION KNOWN TO MAN. It simply needs to be given the opportunity to do its work without the hindrance of ‘intelligent intervention’.

Food, medication, and dis-ease have changed drastically in the 20th Century. It is these ‘norms’ that are alternative; it is modern civilization that has created states of illness and disease through separation of the self from the natural order of existence.

“The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease”

- Thomas A. Edison.

Mum is doing well, thank you for your love and support.