Proper handling reduces overdoses

What can help you can also possibly kill you. People don’t realize that the average pain killers can be the cause for liver failure, seizures, and overdoses.

Every year there are approximately 20,000 overdoses in the United States from prescription drugs as well as over the counter.

This does not include the other 30,000 people who have liver failure due to misuse of OTC painkillers and acid blockers.

Just a little extra intake, like Tylenol and aspirin, can cause liver damage increasing chances of an overdose.

Along with liver failure, other health problems include stomach bleeding and immune system failure.

It’s also been noticed that teens will overdose on OTC drugs for the side effects, yet they don’t know it can be fatal.

While prescription drugs have their flaws, they’re also a safer, more reliable way of receiving medicine instead of taking unnecessary doses of painkillers. They are safer in a sense that a doctor has actually prescribed them and has instructed the patient on how much and how often to use the prescribed medication.

There is an easy way to prevent misuse, as well as overdose. All a consumer has to do is read the label and take the proper amount.

Some symptoms of overdose on painkillers or acid blockers would include nausea, blurred sight, and vomiting. Later possibilities from not getting treated would be a possible coma or even death.

Much like illegal drugs, prescription and OTC drugs can become addictive, then the consumer can go through withdrawls.

On top of that the body can become accustomed to a drug after it is used often. It becomes harder and harder to take effect because your immune system stops communicating with the drug. Because of this, many people unsuccessfully attempted to overdose thinking all they needed to do was increase the dosage.

In 2010 there was more than 12 million reports of people taking prescription painkillers for non-medical purposes.Two years before, in 2008, there was 14,800 deaths caused by overdose, which is more deaths than some hard drugs like heroin and cocaine.

Some prescription medicines are taken without the actual “okay” from a doctor, but taken at home from a family member or friend’s permission.

While it’s hard to prevent medication overdose, there are other solutions such as find another remedy, go to the doctors, and read labels.

People tend to jump straight to the pain relievers whenever they have a slight headache or growing pain, but what if, instead, they found natural cures like hot water bottles or hot packets for the area of pain and in some cases cold packs.

Another solution is that if someone continues to have certain pains or headaches they can visit a doctor so that they can give the user proper help or medication. Professionals can give tips and advice on how to go about the situations without painkillers.

So instead of jumping straight to the prescription drugs, I would think trying these other solutions would be a wise alternative.