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Tag: painkillers

  • Adolf Hitler Was A Junkie, Used Painkillers 24 Times A Day According To New Documentary

    Hard evidences have been uncovered pointing to Adolf Hitler’s dependence and addiction to drugs.

    According to a new TV documentary Hitler the Junkie which premiered on Foxtel on Wednesday, the villainous leader had regularly consumed a cocktail of different drugs including tranquilizers, morphine and crystal meth.

    During his reign as the Third Reich, Hitler’s followers who worshiped him like a god believed him to possess superhuman strength. However, recent reports exposed that Hitler was a nervous wreck who required a constant dose of morphine.

    The documentary dissects Hitler’s declassified documents to examine if use of drugs had caused Hitler’s neurotic leadership. Records and letters obtained from Hitler’s personal physician, Dr. Theodore Morell, played a vital role in proving that the dictator was indeed a drug addict.

    Hitler was reportedly addicted to Eukodal, a morphine-based painkiller which he used 24 times a day. The documentary also uncovered Hitler’s excessive use of Pervitin, an early form of crystal meth.

    Dr. Morell started treating Hitler of his ailments in 1936. His assignment had been quite peculiar given that the physician did not seem committed to the Nazi cause.

    According to Professor Sir Richard Evans of Cambridge University, Dr, Morell “showed no genuine interest in politics and was not a suitable person to be in the entourage of Hitler because he was simply not ideological.”

    “Eva Braun, Hitler’s partner, complained to Hitler about Morell’s body odor and Hitler said, ‘I don’t employ Dr. Morell for his fragrance, I employ him to treat me medically.’”

    Hitler received a collection of over 70 addictive narcotics, homemade drugs and uncanny alternative medication from Morell throughout the Second World War. Morell even used leeches to treat the leader of stress. When the leeches fail, Morell started giving Hitler shots of animal tranquilizers to put him to sleep.

    In a journal entry, Morell wrote, “20th of August 1941: Hitler was jittery, his hands were shaking and he was dazed. I gave him dessert spoon of Brom-Nervacit and after that he slept fine.”

    The documentary will replay on Tuesday 7 April 2015 at 1:00PM on National Geographic Channel.

  • Marijuana Legalization Shocker: Legalized States Have Fewer Painkiller Deaths

    In a bit of news that will surely give anti-legalization forces cause for worry, CNN reports that states that have legalized marijuana for medical purposes are reporting much lower death tolls due to painkiller overdose.

    The Journal of the American Medical Association released the supporting data behind this discovery. The study reviewed medical marijuana laws and death certificate data between 1999 and 2010. During this period only 13 states had legalized marijuana for medical purposes.

    “We found there was about a 25% lower rate of prescription painkiller overdose deaths on average after implementation of a medical marijuana law,” lead study author Dr. Marcus Bachhuber said in the article.

    Just in the year 2010, the number of overdose deaths was down by 1,700.

    While Bachbauer recognizes the facts of the data, he is quick to point out that this is not the only factor to consider, and that medical marijuana is one choice.

    “It can be challenging for people to control chronic pain, so I think the more options we have the better,” he said. “But I think it’s important, of course, to weigh the risks and benefits of medical marijuana.”

    Another senior author on the JAMA study, Colleen Barry, associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, calls deaths due to prescription painkiller overdose a “national public health crisis”.

    “As our awareness of the addiction and overdose risks … grows, individuals with chronic pain and their medical providers may be opting to treat pain entirely or in part with medical marijuana.”

    This newly-discovered benefit of legalizing medical marijuana can be added to the already-existing factors of lower traffic fatalities and reduced teen marijuana use in states that have legalized pot.

  • New Painkiller Could Be Made With Tarantula Venom?

    Those huge, scary, and furry spiders, namely tarantulas, carry venom that just may hold the key to the development of a safe and effective new painkiller, according to a new study. After all, the U.S. pain medication industry has millions of people addicted to their offerings, so this just might be a better alternative to those addictive prescriptions.

    Yale University researchers, along with a team of scientists from Australia, have found that a specific protein, or peptide, in the venom of the Peruvian green velvet tarantula can block activity in the nerve cells that transmit pain.

    The researchers say that the process, called toxineering, has the potential to search millions of different spider toxins for safe pain-killing drugs and therapies.

    Dr. Michael Nitabach from Yale School of Medicine and his colleagues screened toxins from a variety of tarantula species to find one that blocked TRPA1, (the transient receptor potential cation channel,) on the surface of pain-sensing neurons that involve inflammation and neuropathic pain.

    “The likelihood is that within the vast diversity of spider toxins we will find others that are active against other channels important for pain,” senior study author Nitabach said in a Yale news release.

    “The beauty of the system is we can also screen engineered toxins not found in nature,” added Nitabach, an associate professor of cellular and molecular physiology and of genetics. By doing so, he said, they could identify more potent variations that would not harm essential nerve functions.

    The study, published in the March 3rd issue of Current Biology, said that researchers analyzed more than 100 spider toxins from various tarantula species.

    The researchers found that one tarantula toxin in particular blocked this pain channel but did not affect any other channels on the surface of nerve cells.

    They say they plan to continue testing many thousands of new toxins that could produce similar pain-reducing effects, and find venom that blocks more than just one pain channel.

    The world can only hope that they come up with safer and less addictive treatment for pain.

    Image via YouTube

  • Medicare: Contributing To Painkiller Addiction

    Addictions to painkillers for Medicare patients is growing rapidly, but could Medicare be fueling this dangerous trend?

    It has been discovered that nearly one in three patients who get prescriptions for painkillers, can get them from multiple doctors, and the physician prescribing them is unaware that they are already receiving prescriptions from another doctor. This is a trend that could create a serious addiction, which can lead to not only further drug abuse, but hospitalization, HealthDay News reported.

    The British Medical Journal recently published a study that included research from medical professionals who analyzed data from 1.8 million people who are Medicare recipients, and who use narcotic pain killer prescriptions, also known as opioids. These drugs are extremely addicting, and include hydrocodone, oxycodone and morphine.

    They found that nearly 35 percent of patients were prescribed opioids from more than one doctor.

    Among 1.2 million beneficiaries with an opioid prescription, 418, 530 patients filled prescriptions from two providers, 171,420 patients, more than 14 percent, from three providers, and 143,344, more than 11 percent, from four or more providers. According to the study’s authors, the greater the number of prescribers, the greater the risk for addiction, abuse and hospitalization.

    “Patients with four or more prescribers were twice as likely to be hospitalized for narcotics-related complications than patients receiving the same number of prescriptions from a single caregiver,” study co-author Pinar Karaca-Mandic, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, said in a press release.

    Prescriptions for opioids have increased dramatically in the United States, according to the National Institutes of Health. Medical experts have blamed these types of painkillers, also called narcotics, for the recent spike in heroin use, as well as overdose deaths, because many patients often abuse painkillers before switching to heroin.

    According to the Boston Globe, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is working on a new initiative to discourage doctors from over-prescribing opioid painkillers, which are misused by more than 10 percent of Americans.

    Image via YouTube

  • Ryan Leaf: Former Chargers QB Arrested For Burglary

    For the second time in just one week, Ryan Leaf has been arrested for burglary involving prescription pain killers.

    At one time a young QB with a bright future (he was selected just after Peyton Manning in the 1998 draft), Leaf seemed to begin his downward spiral last year after he underwent surgery to remove a benign tumor from his brain stem–although Chargers fans think differently.

    Last Friday, March 30th, Leaf was arrested for breaking into a friend’s house and stealing pain killers; a search of his truck produced the missing bottle. He posted bail, only to break into a couple’s home on Sunday to steal more. He made off with three bottles that time after telling the owners he had the wrong address and fleeing. The couple later identified him in a lineup, and police are looking at GPS information from Leaf’s truck to try and connect him to a string of other burglaries in the area.

    Leaf released a statement about the arrests, saying, “I’ve made some mistakes, and have no excuses. I am using the tools I’ve learned to move forward rather than backwards, and will be open to talking about the details in the days to come. I am confident that there will be further understanding when the facts are revealed, and feel very blessed for all of the support, especially from my friends and family.”

    Twitter users seem to think this won’t be the last we hear about Leaf:

    (image)@gregvegas
    Greg McFarlane    It’s 10:15 am Mountain, and so far Ryan Leaf has had an arrest-free Tuesday. #babysteps(image) 2 hours ago via Mobile Web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@brandonKscott
    Brandon K. Scott    What I’m honestly wondering, here: Is anybody going to be there for Ryan Leaf? Does he have family, friends, doctors, anything?(image) 6 minutes ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@tommyjohnagin
    Tommy Johnagin    Ryan Leaf arrested twice over four days. The “Leaf vs. Manning” debate gets a little more lopsided(image) 1 day ago via Twitter for iPhone ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto