In the United States society, the culture is that one pill will cure all ills-ailments. It has led to the opioid epidemic and a pill popping culture, that has been categorically deadly. Now, the CDC is pushing for non-opioid management of pain. Really now? That should have always been first line.
As a Surgeon, I am trained to take care of injury locally, but taught the fundamental physiology of the body as a whole system. An infection in your mouth-poor dental hygiene, can cause a stroke, endocarditis and a massive heart attack. As a General Practitioner, I stay ahead of internal injury, and try-attempt to place the patient in a state of healing and not repair. In repair, pain is uncontrollable.
The solution for non-opioid treatment of pain is to change the narrative about how pain is processed. Pain occurs at the site of injury, normally distally-infratentorally, but is processed supratentorally, that is, in the brain.
This is why I mainly use Therapeutic Medical Cannabis, Preventive Medicine and Meditation-Mindfulness techniques to treat pain. If I teach-hypnotize the patient, about how to stay in a high enough endorphin state, pain vanishes, and mental illness is extremely controllable or cured with some shocking in the mix (transcranial magnetic stimulation-TMS). Yes, you heard correctly, the cure for pain is mainly a hyperbolic endorphin state, as well as, high antioxidant/anti-inflammatory state, and minimal leaky gut, that is, a super tight gut lining microbiome seal- in essence the prevention of gut barrier failure.