Dr. Joseph Mercola - Take Control of Your Health

Tramadol is widely prescribed for chronic pain because it's perceived as "safer" than other opioids but more effective than other over-the-counter pain relievers, yet newer evidence challenges both its effectiveness and long-term safety
A 2025 BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine analysis found tramadol reduced pain by less than one point on a 10-point scale, a change unlikely to meaningfully improve daily function
The same analysis linked tramadol to more than double the risk of serious adverse events, including cardiovascular complications, while also causing frequent side effects that disrupt normal activity
Beyond health risks, opioid medications like tramadol impair driving ability and have been increasingly detected in fatal car crashes, contributing to roadway deaths even when taken as prescribed
Safer pain management focuses on nondrug strategies such as acupuncture, physical therapy, massage, targeted nutrition, and stress reduction, which address pain drivers without exposing you to opioid-related harm

Researchers analyzing breast milk found traces of plastics, disinfectants, pesticides, and other industrial chemicals, showing that breast milk reflects everyday environmental exposure
Five separate studies using advanced testing methods identified chemicals that routine screening often misses, including newer plastic substitutes and personal care preservatives
Certain chemical levels in breast milk aligned with differences in infant growth measures, highlighting why early-life exposure draws scientific attention
Despite these findings, breast milk remains the gold standard for infant nutrition because it provides immune protection and biological signals no substitute matches
Reducing plastic contact, improving water quality, and simplifying personal care products lowers the chemical burden that transfers alongside the benefits of breastfeeding

Chronic stress keeps cortisol elevated, which disrupts sleep, slows physical recovery, blunts training progress, and prevents your body from fully resetting day to day
Clinical research shows ashwagandha consistently lowers cortisol, helping shift your body out of constant defense mode and back into repair and recovery
Benefits extend beyond stress relief, including improvements in sleep quality, energy stability, hormonal balance, endurance capacity, and post-exercise recovery
Ashwagandha works best when paired with stress-lowering habits like consistent sleep timing, appropriate exercise volume, and steady blood sugar from adequate carbohydrate intake
Consistent daily use over eight weeks or longer aligns with the strongest improvements, allowing stress signaling to calm so performance and resilience rebuild naturally

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is central to cellular energy and mitochondrial health, driving redox reactions that produce ATP. Declining levels are linked to metabolic disorders, sarcopenia, and diabetes
Alzheimer's disease has strongly associated with disrupted NAD+ balance, and research suggests restoring intake can reverse cognitive decline rather than merely slowing disease progression
Animal studies show restoring NAD+ fully reversed advanced Alzheimer's features, including memory loss, inflammation, tau pathology, oxidative stress, and DNA damage, even after severe disease was established
NAD+ functions as an upstream regulator of brain resilience, coordinating energy production, DNA repair, inflammation control, and protein processing, reframing Alzheimer's as a systems-level energy failure
Practical strategies emphasize testing NAD+ status and supporting production safely via niacinamide alongside adequate intake of other B vitamins

A mini-review published in Frontiers in Neurology suggests that acupuncture may assist ICU patients in recovering more quickly by relieving pain, lowering sedative use, shortening ventilator dependency, enhancing strength, and increasing days free from delirium
Acupuncture may help calm inflammation, boost immunity, and improve blood flow in sepsis patients, offering supportive benefits alongside standard ICU treatment
It's not just for managing one symptom: Acupuncture could act as a whole-body support tool in the ICU, easing pain, stress, and sleep issues while reducing drug side effects and helping the body recover
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a needle-free method using fingertip tapping on acupuncture points that offers a gentler alternative for patients wary of traditional acupuncture
Other nondrug therapies such as massage, music therapy, and mindfulness contribute to ICU recovery by alleviating anxiety, decreasing pain, and enhancing sleep quality