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Painkillers: Friend or foe?
Athletes at risk
By Joel Felcher |
Imagine non-stop aching throughout your entire body or sharp shooting pressure in your muscles that just won't go away.
Welcome to the world of an athlete. Regardless of the season or sport, pain and injury are huge facets of physical competition. Different injuries require different treatments and medications, and while many are beneficial, others have addictive characteristics which can greatly affect and alter the habits and lifestyles of many athletes.
For most people, Tylenol or Advil pack enough of a punch to alleviate the normal aches and pains associated with work, stress or school, but what about athletes who put so much stress and pressure on their bodies each and every day? The contact during football games is likened to a car accident at 40 miles per hour. Now, think about the number of times each player is hit throughout the course of a game ñ it's not hard to see why these guys tend to be sore on Monday mornings. "It got to a point where I dreaded practice because I knew I'd be in so much pain after it," said Mike Lane, a former Ithaca College Crew team member. "Immense amounts of pain" This is why doctors usually don't shy away from the prescribing of various narcotic analgesics. According to Dr. Glenn Kehlmann, of the Brookline Medical Center outside of Boston, "Most of the time, when people exhibit immense amounts of pain we give them strong medication because we always want our patients to be comfortable." It can be a struggle for any athlete to get out of bed every day because of nagging injuries that always produce pain. Taking the medication can lighten the soreness and allow the athlete to perform without constantly thinking about his aching body. Bumps and bruises may not just go away throughout the course of a demanding and intense season, but if the athlete can come home, take a pill and feel ready to go the next day, it's a plus. Another plus: the alternative beneficial uses of painkillers. "We don't just write scripts for pain though. A lot of people need these types of medications for other purposes to feel good everyday," Kehlmann says. These drugs help treat or suppress coughs and colds, and they can relieve diarrhea and upset stomachs as well, valuable uses for athletes. Suppose a pitcher was scheduled to take the mound in a huge game but he was being haunted by those burritos from the night before. Administering a painkiller would soothe and relax the stomach, returning the athlete to usual form and reduce tensions regarding a mid-inning bathroom break. In cold climates, practicing outside can be very harsh on the lungs and chest, yet another positive reason to use painkillers. "We would wake up way early and be practicing in the crazy cold," said Lane, "When I was feeling sick, I'd take one and would be able to breathe easy, not cough and choke all day." High risk of addiction Clearly, there are beneficial uses of prescription pain relievers but doctors do, however, need to be more careful when prescribing these drugs because they often fall into the wrong hands. "Sometimes I'm hesitant to prescribe these medications because of the high risk of addiction and the high number that do get addicted and rely on them," said Kehlmann. The 17th annual study on teen drug abuse, administered by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, found that in 2004 more teens had abused a prescription painkiller than cocaine, crack, ecstasy or LSD. Recently, in Utah, nine high-school athletes including four baseball players were suspended for abusing prescription painkillers. School officials who cracked down on the problem offered this reason for the drug misuse: "They are looking for an escape." When young people see their favorite athletes using such substances, they automatically think that it's all right for them to do the same thing. The young athletes try to mimic their role models anyway possible, even if it means taking a painkiller before each game. Brett Favre, quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, admitted to being addicted to Vicodin after the 1996 season and entered rehab. This past season, Terrell Owens of the Dallas Cowboys almost died when he took too much pain medication, and it reacted adversely with some other supplements. These select instances can open the minds of some young people, but far too many still ignore the warnings and dangers associated with addiction. According to the Federal Government, any patient that does not follow the directions of any prescription medicine is considered at risk. That refers to the administration of the drug, the dosage as well as frequency of use. Sometimes, athletes will take the drugs and immediately feel the euphoric, psychologically stimulated feelings and still go out on the field and compete. When an athlete is on a painkiller, he or she often maintains false feelings of invincibility, that they cannot be hurt no matter what. This, in turn, increases one's threshold for pain, which masks any serious injury that the athlete might face. This allows the player to participate for any given amount of time without feeling pain symptoms, but when the medicine wears off, the athlete might feel even worse than before. Those that abuse prescription painkillers are also at greater risk of experiencing the side effects associated with them. No athlete can expect to compete at the top level when they are dealing with drowsiness, mental clouding, itching or constipation. Abusers also become much more likely to become addicted, using them when they don't absolutely need to or acquiring them illegally. Many users that fit this description have even more health problems including dose-related respiratory depression, apnea circulatory depression, respiratory arrest, coma, shock and cardiac arrest. "I had a couple teammates who weren't even prescribed the stuff, would take a bunch before practice, do nothing to help us, then go home and take more and be out of it for the rest of the day," Lane says. >Pain will forever be associated with athletics, and the medications, when used properly, can be very beneficial to treat it. However, if people continue to use these analgesics the wrong way, they simply won't get better and will become just another statistic: like the 6.2 million Americans that misuse prescription drugs.