Bottom Line:
If you haven’t heard about the problems that opioids have caused over the past decade, you must be living under a rock! Did you know that many of the people dying from opioids aren’t recreational drug users looking for the next high? In fact, they are people who were prescribed these drugs by their doctors for the treatment of chronic pain.

Bottom Line:
What began as a chronic pain epidemic has evolved into our current opioid crisis. For decades, opioids were marketed as a “safer” alternative to treat chronic pain. However, as the number of people with chronic pain began to rise, so did the number of people addicted and dying from prescription opioids.

Bottom Line:
About 30 years ago, there was a fundamental shift in medicine as to how pain was understood and treated. The number of people with chronic pain seemed to be rising, and it was thought that the options to address the pain weren’t adequate.

Bottom Line:
Degenerative disc disease is a condition that can affect your spinal discs as you age. Due to stress and injury throughout your life, your spinal discs may begin to deteriorate and cause pain. Unfortunately, there is no way to completely prevent degenerative disc disease, but researchers have discovered a few ways that you may be able to slow down the process.