The disturbing connection between well-meaning physicians and the prescription drug epidemic. Three out of four people addicted to heroin probably started on a prescription opioid, according to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the United States alone, 16,000 people die each year as a result of prescription opioid overdose. But perhaps the most frightening aspect of the prescription drug epidemic is that it’s built on well-meaning doctors treating patients with real problems. In Drug Dealer, MD, Dr. Anna Lembke uncovers the unseen forces driving opioid addiction nationwide. Combining case studies from her own practice with vital statistics drawn from public policy, cultural anthropology, and neuroscience, she explores the complex relationship between doctors and patients, the science of addiction, and the barriers to successfully addressing drug dependence and addiction. Even when addiction is recognized by doctors and their patients, she argues, many doctors don’t know how to treat it, connections to treatment are lacking, and insurance companies won’t pay for rehab. Full of extensive interviews—with health care providers, pharmacists, social workers, hospital administrators, insurance company executives, journalists, economists, advocates, and patients and their families—Drug Dealer, MD, is for anyone whose life has been touched in some way by addiction to prescription drugs. Dr. Lembke gives voice to the millions of Americans struggling with prescription drugs while singling out the real culprits behind the rise in opioid addiction: cultural narratives that promote pills as quick fixes, pharmaceutical corporations in cahoots with organized medicine, and a new medical bureaucracy focused on the bottom line that favors pills, procedures, and patient satisfaction over wellness. Dr. Lembke concludes that the prescription drug epidemic is a symptom of a faltering health care system, the solution for which lies in rethinking how health care is delivered.

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES and LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER “Brilliant . . . riveting, scary, cogent, and cleverly argued.”—Beth Macy, author of Dopesick, as heard on Fresh Air This book is about pleasure. It’s also about pain. Most important, it’s about how to find the delicate balance between the two, and why now more than ever finding balance is essential. We’re living in a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli: drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, gaming, texting, sexting, Facebooking, Instagramming, YouTubing, tweeting . . . The increased numbers, variety, and potency is staggering. The smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine 24/7 for a wired generation. As such we’ve all become vulnerable to compulsive overconsumption. In Dopamine Nation, Dr. Anna Lembke, psychiatrist and author, explores the exciting new scientific discoveries that explain why the relentless pursuit of pleasure leads to pain . . . and what to do about it. Condensing complex neuroscience into easy-to-understand metaphors, Lembke illustrates how finding contentment and connectedness means keeping dopamine in check. The lived experiences of her patients are the gripping fabric of her narrative. Their riveting stories of suffering and redemption give us all hope for managing our consumption and transforming our lives. In essence, Dopamine Nation shows that the secret to finding balance is combining the science of desire with the wisdom of recovery.

Now a major TV series on Disney+ 'A shocking investigation... Dopesick is essential' The Times 'Unfolds with all the pace of a thriller' Observer 'A deep – and deeply needed – look into the troubled soul of America' Tom Hanks 'Essential reading' New York Times Beth Macy reveals the disturbing truth behind America's opioid crisis and explains how a nation has become enslaved to prescription drugs. This powerful and moving story explains how a large corporation, Purdue, encouraged small town doctors to prescribe OxyContin to a country already awash in painkillers. The drug's dangerously addictive nature was hidden, whilst many used it as an escape, to numb the pain of of joblessness and the need to pay the bills. Macy tries to answer a grieving mother's question – why her only son died – and comes away with a harrowing tale of greed and need.

Exercise, a healthy diet, stress management, sound sleep: Most practitioners would agree that living well can mitigate the impact of mental disorders. Yet many are unprepared to address lifestyle factors in their care of patients. Lifestyle Psychiatry seeks to instill confidence by collating and analyzing the impressive emerging body of evidence that supports the efficacy of healthy lifestyle practices -- both as the primary intervention and in conjunction with traditional treatments such as psychopharmacology or psychotherapy -- in preventing and managing psychiatric disorders. This volume examines the impact of lifestyle interventions -- from exercise, yoga, and tai chi to mindfulness and meditation, diet and nutrition, and sleep management -- on psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, and addiction. Readers can readily find data to support the use of specific lifestyle interventions for a patient presenting with a specific disorder. Detailed descriptions of the mechanisms of each lifestyle intervention also prepare practitioners to educate their patients on the specific neurobiological and psychological effects of these interventions to support their recovery. With chapters that focus on developing a robust therapeutic alliance and inspiring patients to assume responsibility for their own well-being, this guide provides a framework for lasting, sustainable lifestyle changes. Additionally, the book discusses the impact of the provider's lifestyle on clinical behavior and the implications of lifestyle medicine and psychiatry for health care systems and population health, offering a broader examination of the important role this new field can play in leading a sophisticated, holistic approach to optimizing wellness.

Is The Movie You Must Read.. From the moment that fifteen year-old “Ty” (Tyrell Nobles), first ventured out into the streets and started hustling, his life was forever changed from that of the average ghetto youth into one of a seemingly complicated adult. He had placed himself in a direct position to be exposed to all the dangerous violence, influences and negative temptations that the cold drug world had to offer. His choices on a personal and political level would ultimately come to determine the outcome of the freedom, safety and aspirations of his family as well as the people living within the ghettos. –That is, having risen in power and considered to be one of the most controversial and influential “Drug Dealers” in the U.S. You will learn how staying alive while trying to restructure the game itself to benefit those most harmed by it had become his priority.

Examines OxyContin, the so-called miracle prescription drug that swept the nation but led to overdoes and addiction, providing a look at the multi-billion-dollar pain managment business, its excesses and its abuses.

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning New York Times reporter who first exposed the roots of the opioid epidemic and the secretive world of the Sackler family behind Purdue Pharma, Pain Killer is the celebrated landmark story of corporate greed and government negligence that inspired an upcoming Netflix series. “This is the book that started it all. Barry Meier is a heroic reporter and Pain Killer is a muckraking classic.”—Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Empire of Pain Between 1999 and 2017, an estimated 250,000 Americans died from overdoses involving prescription painkillers, a plague ignited by Purdue Pharma’s aggressive marketing of OxyContin. Families, working class and wealthy, have been torn apart, businesses destroyed, and public officials pushed to the brink. Meanwhile, the drugmaker’s owners, Raymond and Mortimer Sackler, whose names adorn museums worldwide, made enormous fortunes from the commercial success of OxyContin. In Pain Killer, Barry Meier tells the story of how Purdue turned OxyContin into a billion-dollar blockbuster. Powerful narcotic painkillers, or opioids, were once used as drugs of last resort for pain sufferers. But Purdue launched an unprecedented marketing campaign claiming that the drug’s long-acting formulation made it safer to use than traditional painkillers for many types of pain. That illusion was quickly shattered as drug abusers learned that crushing an Oxy could release its narcotic payload all at once. Even in its prescribed form, Oxy proved fiercely addictive. As OxyContin’s use and abuse grew, Purdue concealed what it knew from regulators, doctors, and patients. Here are the people who profited from the crisis and those who paid the price, those who plotted in boardrooms and those who tried to sound alarm bells. A country doctor in rural Virginia, Art Van Zee, took on Purdue and warned officials about OxyContin abuse. An ebullient high school cheerleader, Lindsey Myers, was reduced to stealing from her parents to feed her escalating Oxy habit. A hard-charging DEA official, Laura Nagel, tried to hold Purdue executives to account. In Pain Killer, Barry Meier breaks new ground in his decades-long investigation into the opioid epidemic. He takes readers inside Purdue to show how long the company withheld information about the abuse of OxyContin and gives a shocking account of the Justice Department’s failure to alter the trajectory of the opioid epidemic and protect thousands of lives. Equal parts crime thriller, medical detective story, and business exposé, Pain Killer is a hard-hitting look at how a supposed wonder drug became the gateway drug to a national tragedy.

This book follows Dr Hopkins in her journey from physician to healer. After spending the first 20 years of her career providing excellent diagnostic acumen, she realized that the drugs had limited longterm efficacy. As a rheumatologist, challenging patients filled her day however her scientific mind started to look at why so many people were suffering. why in a country of such wealth people were so sick. the data started supporting what she was seeing everyday. Chronically ill patients, autoimmune diseases increasing, and patients spending much of their life and resources trying to get better. in 1988, a pregnancy was complicated by severe Spina Bifida. After losing the child, she began her journey into the land of wellness without drugs. How could the medical community in 1988 not know about the importance of folic acid, a simple vitamin easily accessible. Were our foods no longer adequate sources of nutrition. Why was knowledge of any vitamin or mineral not part of the armamentarium used to bridge people to wellness. Were we just relying on a corrupted food change, watching morbid obesity in our country reach 36%, and liver disease start affecting our adolescent population with many of them having adult diseases in their teen years. Liver transplants from fatty liver, gallbladder disease and type 2 diabetes now plague our population under the age of 20. Chronic diseases that reflect our diet and life styles will be over 50% in the next decade. Like global warming, we can no longer afford to practice medicine the old way, namely, if you have a symptom, I have a drug that will cover up that symptom. We must now teach our your physicians to question WHY would anyone have these symptoms. This is my journey. In 1916, just over 100 years ago, the Flexnor report demanded the closing of most medical schools in the country. The US was facing a world war, starvation and the beginning of the flu season. Infections such has small pox, cholera, the plague, measles, influenza consumed the attention of the medical community. Scientific method was the cornerstone of learning in Paris and Germany. In order to bring our standards up to those in Europe, all naturopathic schools were closed in the USA. Simon FLexnor, MD felt that the USA should take the lead in the world for solving these problems. With the HOPKINS university, and Dr John Welsh, they established the blueprint for research of vaccines and medications. The AMA and the Rockfeller family backed the change from naturopathy to allopathy. Now a century later, we need a new paradigm to address the pandemic of chronic disease that plague people with access to food, clean water, waste management and vaccines. Why is everyone so sick. The pandemic of 2020 has highlighted the dire health of so many in the USA with obesity rates at 40% of the population and vitamin D deficiency, which I will say is a level below 50, is probably close to 90%. It is time that the educators restructure the medical school curriculum to introduce nutrition and lifestyle medicine into the curriculum. Like global warming, we can no longer wait.

Are you tired of working all day and night without having anything to show for it? Would you like to be able to afford a vacation, or just be your own boss? This book will do just that by teaching you How to be a Drug Dealer! Are you already a drug dealer, but want to expand your business? Look no further than this book to help you increase your profits and grow your empire!

From a leading addiction expert, a desperately needed medical guide to understanding, treating, and finally defeating opioid use disorder Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50, claiming more lives than the AIDs epidemic did at its peak. Opioid abuse accounts for two-thirds of these overdoses, with over 100 Americans dying from opioid overdoses every day. Now Overcoming Opioid Addiction provides a comprehensive medical guide for opioid use disorder (OUD) sufferers, their loved ones, clinicians, and other professionals. Here is expertly presented, urgently needed information and guidance, including: Why treating OUD is unlike treating any other form of drug dependency The science that underlies addiction to opioids, and a clear analysis of why this epidemic has become so deadly The different stages and effective methods of treatment, including detoxification vs. maintenance medications, as well as behavioral therapies How to deal with relapses and how to thrive despite OUD Plus a chapter tailored to families with crucial, potentially life-saving information, such as how to select the best treatment program, manage medications, and reverse an overdose.