National Chiropractic Health Month 2015: Pain Free Nation!

Hosted by the American Chiropractic Association (ACA), National Chiropractic Health Month (NCHM) is a national public awareness and education campaign held each October. NCHM strives to teach health care consumers about the benefits of chiropractic services and to promote the expertise of doctors of chiropractic (DCs) in helping their patients reach optimal levels of health and wellness.

Numerous recent studies have shown the dangerous overreliance in the United States on prescription painkillers that simply mask pain, but do not cure it. This has tremendously increased Americans’ risk for overuse, and abuse of these drugs if taken for long periods. According to the Centers for Diease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were 16,235 deaths involving prescription opioids in 2013, an increase of 1% from 2012. Total drug overdose deaths in 2013 hit 43,982, up 6% from 2012.¹ The problem is so severe that the CDC has declared the abuse of prescription pain medications an “epidemic.”

In honor of National Chiropractic Health Month (NCHM) 2015 this October, the American Chiropractic Association (ACA) will bring attention to the public health crisis caused by pain, and in particular the overuse of prescription painkillers, with #PainFreeNation.

Learn more about the Prescription Painkiller Epidemic at www.acatoday.org/NCHM

Get the NCHM Toolkit, with samples social media posts here.