Today’s show is all about a growing problem in America, something that is not
just aging our population, its killing our population. The worst part is that this
epidemic started with the medical field. Facts we will cover this episode are:
• Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illicit drug
heroin as well as the licit prescription pain relievers oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, morphine, fentanyl and others.
• Opioids are chemically related and interact with opioid
receptors on nerve cells in the brain and nervous system to
produce pleasurable effects and relieve pain.
• Addiction is a primary, chronic and relapsing brain
disease characterized by an individual pathologically
pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other
behaviors
• Of the 20.5 million Americans 12 or older that had a
substance use disorder in 2015, 2 million had a substance
use disorder involving prescription pain relievers and
591,000 had a substance use disorder involving heroin.
• It is estimated that 23% of individuals who use heroin
develop opioid addiction. National Opioid Overdose Epidemic
• Drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in
the US, with 52,404 lethal drug overdoses in 2015. Opioid
addiction is driving this epidemic, with 20,101 overdose
deaths related to prescription pain relievers, and 12,990
overdose deaths related to heroin in 2015.
• From 1999 to 2008, overdose death rates, sales and
substance use disorder treatment admissions related to
prescription pain relievers increased in parallel. The
overdose death rate in 2008 was nearly four times the 1999
rate; sales of prescription pain relievers in the US
Thank you for listening to the Stay Young Radio Show! With all the mixed messages on health, you need information that you can use and that you can trust. Listen in as the experts discuss all topics health related. It's time to STAY YOUNG and stay healthy! Each week we tackle a topic and often with leading scientists, best-selling authors, and even your favorite celebrities! As a listener of our show, your input is important to us. Please take a moment to fill out this quick survey so we can serve you better - https://survey.libsyn.com/stayingyoung2
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