American servicemen and women face serious danger and death as a part of the daily routine. On the front lines or not, there is substantial stress in the job of providing defense for the nation.
Despite the powerful images they leave in our minds, combat injuries are not the most common cause of harm in the armed forces. In fact, the actual greatest “foe,” is something unexpected as described by Major Vancil McNulty of the US Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventative Medicine. He says the greatest present threat to the readiness of the armed forces is named “‘injury.’”
The statistics on injured servicemen are quite grim. The publication cites the injury rate as 2,500 injuries per year per 1,000 soldiers. In total, 25 million days are lost to limited duty from musculoskeletal injury per year, accounting for 68% of the total days lost.
According to Major McNulty:
“The top threat to readiness is identified and can no longer remain hidden.”
Active service and veterans need proactive health care that physically addresses injuries and the health of the body, not just pharmaceuticals.
The treatment of injuries via pharmaceuticals and especially the sole reliance on opioids has created a new level of risk in health care, one that also affects members of the military.
A study of injured veterans being treated with opioids assessed the risk of overdose due to treatment. The study examined the variable of how well the participants were educated on the risks of opioid treatment. The startling findings showed that the risk of overdose from pain killing medication was not deterred by the level of education about that risk. Fully 70% felt that they were below average in terms of risk of overdose. The study authors stated the following:
“Our results suggest that veterans in both groups underestimated their risk for opioid overdose.”
Without a doubt, our veterans deserve quality care and a broad range of options, including health care that is holistic, comprehensive, and directly affects the health and strength of the body at the site of injury, and on the whole person as well. When it comes to health care, veterans deserve the best.
1 https://www.army.mil/article/25626/injuries_the_modern_military_epidemic
2 Wilder CM, Miller SC, Tiffany E, Winhusen T, Winstanley EL, Stein MD. Risk factors for opioid overdose and awareness of overdose risk among veterans prescribed chronic opioids for addiction or pain. J Addict Dis. 2016;35(1):42-51.
Your health can protect you from the over-commercialization of the holidays. More and more, we hear about how the holidays have turned into something different than what they used to be. Instead of the “true” meaning of Christmas and other holidays they have become about consumerization. Buying and selling and big online sales, they had taken over the season.
Your health can protect you from the over-commercialization of the holidays. More and more, we hear about how the holidays have turned into something different than what they used to be. Instead of the “true” meaning of Christmas and other holidays they have become about consumerization. Buying and selling and big online sales, they had taken over the season.
Has anyone told you you don’t need permission to be a superhero? Or that you don’t need someone to tell you it’s okay to help other people? There are some amazing stories of people that decided they didn’t want to wait to help the people around them that needed help. These were people that didn’t have advanced degrees or complicated certifications. What they did have was the sense of action and an overwhelming urgency to start making changes in the world around them.
It’s a classic phrase by Rene Descartes – one that is instantly recognizable. And it comes from a totally unrecognizable world – 1637.
Yet it is still true today. Descartes’ attempt to get to the very bedrock of what he was as a human being is worth looking at as we turn over into the new year. Especially as we examine the beginning of something new – a time when discussions turn to the entire idea of new, and what the idea of new creates – the vision of new possibilities.
Anti-aging is a trick. And like all tricks, it’s not real. We all slow down, grow old, and die. But like all tricks, when done well, they are amazing and fun. Here is how the trick of anti-aging can work for you.
Take the aging progression above and expand it all the way. From the time we are very young, we grow, get bigger, stronger, smarter and generally better at everything as we go.
Here is the solution to understanding an ever-more common anxiety-causing malady. And how the key to solving it is getting two things – knowing what it takes to get healthy – and the power of understanding how to choose the quickest line at the grocery store.
