Question often arise concerning opiates use for pain management. Chemical use of pain management has proven over the years to cause serious negative health and life consequences for healthcare consumers. At the top of this many negative consequences is chemical dependency that leaves quality of life for many healthcare consumers and their loved ones in crisis, and in many cases less desirable.
In some cases, a physician has clinical need to halfway clinically kill his patient in the process medically known as sedation in order to restore the patient’s life or improve quality of life. Classic example is use of anesthesia in medical surgery. However, a physician does not have to continue the use of propofol for pain management following surgery.
In the same manner, it may make clinical sense in some cases to manage extreme case of pain following a major surgery using some class of opiates. Here is where the rubber meets the road for both physician and the healthcare consumer. Managing physician must have a time frame and healing plan in place to downgrade medication management to a set of non-addictive chemicals, if not a set of natural healing and rehabilitative regimen that allows the body to heal appropriately. This process is crucial and must take place timely.
I am of the clinical opinion that the physician and the consumer address this plan prior to the healing procedure. The physician’s responsibility is explaining reasons for such initial medication choice and intent of immediate clinical values for the consumer following major procedures. The physician should also explain to the consumer the consequences of not downgrading at the appropriate time. It makes a world of healing difference for the consumer’s healing process. It allows the consumer’s mind, body, and spirit to be on the same page about the progression of healing process and expectations. Most importantly, it allows all levels of the mind to force discipline on the body and appropriately manage the body’s pleasure desires and demand.
It is crucial that managing clinician must not yield and influenced by the patient’s apparent low pain tolerance and associated emotion, should that becomes an issue. Most times it and issue because of the body’s demand and desires for pampering and pleasure. The health dilemma and medical consequences for the patient is huge. He or she becomes addicted to opiates if use of opiates continues longer than clinical values.
Opiates are very addictive set of chemicals and more so than many other medications. For many chemical and biological reasons, the receptor cells and their pathways surrender quickly to supply of opiates and give up their natural functions quicker than with most other drugs. When opiates overpower these receptor cells and break down their pathways, the body’s natural abilities to manage pain is lost and the body completely depends on supply of chemicals, in this case opiates. That is the root of opiates dependence.
At that point, it becomes very difficult for the patient’s body to manage pain without adequate supply of opiates. This condition calls for alternative clinical healing measures. It calls for a change in case management with healing clinician who understands various levels of chemical dependency and integrated mind, body, spirit clinical healing. Major healing task of the clinician should focus on helping and motivating the consumer engage in a major healing work using among other healing interventions, botanical pharmacology to rebuild the receptor cells and restore back their normal healthy functions. It is not an easy healing task once opiates dependency sets in. It requires a clinician who has many tools in his or her clinical healing bag.
It is important for health clinicians using chemical interventions to understand there are many natural healing medicines that will produce better health results for every chemical prescribed. Clinicians should give their healthcare consumers that choice. I also recommend that physicians collaborate with integrated mind-body-spirit healing clinicians in major health issues especially, surgical procedures in the same manner they do with other health professionals. Their healthcare consumers would tremendously benefit from such collaboration. After all, it is about the health consumer and his or her life.

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