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show first aired June 25, 2009
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1108
OxyContin is a powerful pain medication first introduced in 1995. Since then it’s been a godsend to people suffering from trauma, injuries, muscle pain, dislocations, fractures, arthritis, lower back pain, and pain associated with cancer. However, it also has mood altering properties that make it a prime candidate for abuse. On this week’s Health Show, we’ll go to Alaska’s capital city and hear about the fight to keep young people away from Oxy. We’ll also hear about an east coast conference on opiate abuse...and we’ll hear from Dr. David Kessler, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration on another serious addiction issue...America’s addiction to overeating.
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TEENS AND OXY ABUSE IN THE 49th STATE
Abuse of the pain killer OxyContin by teenagers is a nationwide problem with local consequences. A recent survey in Juneau, Alaska show is remains the illegal drug of choice for teens there for the third year in a row. That's one reason the Juneau School Board is putting a mandatory, random, student drug-testing program up for public hearing and possible action this August. A committee is already working on a proposal. The active ingredient in OxyContin is oxycodone, a powerful narcotic with an addiction potential similar to that of morphine. While drugs like Percodan or Tylox contain 5 milligrams of oxycodone, OxyContin can contain 30 times as much. And as Rebecca Sheir reports, that can make for one hard habit to break.
A Pain Meds Conference In The Berkshires
It goes without saying that the problem of drug abuse isn’t confined to the great northwest...or any one community. Health care professionals in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts have assembled a task force to both fight the problem of abuse and improve pain management and treatment. This task force recently held a conference in the Berkshire County city of Pittsfield aimed at educating local medical practitioners about the issue. The Health Show’s Charlie Deitz reports.
Dr. David Kessler - The End Of Overeating
Dr. David Kessler served as commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration under presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. He is a pediatrician and has been the dean of the medical schools at Yale and the University of California, San Francisco. But, his latest project is tackling the issue of obesity. In his new book, The End of Overeating, Dr. Kessler cracks the code of overeating by explaining how our bodies and minds are changed when we consume foods that contain sugar, fat, and salt. He says Food manufacturers create products by manipulating these ingredients to stimulate our appetites, setting in motion a cycle of desire and consumption that ends with a nation of over-eaters. The Health Show’s Joe Donahue spoke with Dr Kessler him recently about how he came to explore the end of overeating.
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