Use of Pain-killing Drugs

DRUGS to relieve pain are readily obtainable in most countries and are used on a regular basis by many persons. Is it wise? Medical reports show that phenacetin, an effective remedy for fever and pain, can, if used for years, gradually damage the kidneys. Dimethylaminophenazon, also used in some countries for pains of all types, can eventually put a stop to the production of certain white blood corpuscles, with possible fatal effects. Salicylic acid in combination with acetic acid (that is, aspirin), taken to relieve headaches, causes loss of small amounts of blood and, if taken constantly, actually results in frequent headaches.

Commenting on the continual use of such pain-killing drugs, Dr. Heinz Fidelsberger, in Der Einkauf, published in Vienna, Austria, said: “Because one suffers pain on a certain occasion and perhaps feels somewhat ill, one takes a remedy of this sort. Later, it is taken more and more frequently, and then pains set in that are the result of the continual pill-swallowing. Now several tablets are consumed daily to combat these pains, thus increasing the damage to the body.” Does it sound familiar?

In further describing these chronic pill swallowers, the doctor’s report said: “They complain constantly about innumerable afflictions, feeling miserable day and night, and nothing can help them. They have been poisoned, are the victims of preparations which were surely at one time very valuable but are now being swallowed by the millions daily like addictive drugs.”

Would it not be better to identify the ailment and to treat it, rather than always simply to kill the pain, and perhaps yourself?