The Toradol Thread

[Alphadawg7]

NoSaint and I and a few others have been kicking around a discussion about Toradol (brand name) for several months now.

 

The discussion has taken place in this thread about Junior Seau and CTE but as the story develops, it definitely needs its own thread.

 

Toradol is an anti-inflammatory analgesic commonly used by NFL players to manage severe pain. As many of you know, there are many NFL players who have become addicted to narcotic, opiate-type painkillers so Toradol is attractive in that it's not physically addicting like for instance, hydrocodone.

 

The downsides are several. Toradol has side effects like most medications and overuse of Toradol has been linked with gastrointestinal bleeding, kidney and liver bleeding and failure, as well as other significant health risks.

 

Also, while not physically addicting, Toradol is mentally addicting because many NFL players endure so much pain that without pain medications, it's difficult for them to function normally. They need Toradol to act like normal human beings off the field and also to practice and play football on it.

 

Another problem is that Pain is part of the body's defense system. Pain is feedback and allows us to modify our behavior so that we don't harm ourselves. When you desensitize the body from pain, it becomes possible to inflict more damage to your body than your body would normally allow itself to endure. So by killing pain, an individual can more easily endure pain which can be and become acute, traumatic, chronic, and long term.

 

Many NFL players endure pain from the time they play till the time they die.

 

There are many interesting facets to the Toradol story:

 

1) The NFL is starting to take steps away from Toradol use. Several clubs have banned the use of Toradol while others are requiring players to sign a waiver of legal claims in order to have it administered. In response to the waiver of liability, the NFLPA filed a grievance seeking to eliminate the waiver.

 

2) NFL sources have told ProFootballTalk that some players now are getting Toradol on their own.

 

So like with the head trauma issue, you have a situation where the league is now trying to take action to legally protect itself (and medically protect its players?) while some of the players are trying to resort to fairly extreme means to keep their careers alive and chase the money while they can at the risk of their own health.

 

Unlike the head trauma issue, there is no question that these players know all the risks associated with Toradol. The fact that they take these risks is similar in some respects to the risks some people take in their occupations (corrections, law enforcement, military, coal mining, deep sea fishing, etc).

 

It makes me think a few things.

 

NFL football players with their non-guaranteed contracts, shorter careers, and higher incidences of long-term injuries as well as their higher risk of catastrophic injuries are not like baseball and basketball players. In every way they are much more like the gladiators of ancient history.

 

I also think about the issue of pain management.

 

PFT sums it up pretty well:

 

It therefore becomes imperative for the league and the union to find the safest strategies available for helping a player deal with pain.

 

Recently, there has been a quiet push to drop marijuana from the substance-abuse policy, since plenty of players use it after games as a pain-management device.

 

With marijuana recently legalized in Washington and Colorado for recreational use, it’s about time the NFL realizes that letting guys smoke pot may be the most effective way to help them deal with the wear and tear of playing football — especially if Toradol and other potent medications should be used sparingly or not at all.

 

As a medical marijuana dispensary owner, I can say without a shadow of a doubt 2 concrete and 100% accurate statements in regards to the cannabis comments in your original thread.

 

1) Cannabis, without a shadow of a doubt and 100% certainty, provides significant medical benefits, including significant pain management and relief benefits.

2) Cannabis in no way what so ever should be considered on any level as a performance enhancing substance as it provides no benefits that would be considered a boost to performance in games.

 

I have 3 former NFL players who regularly come here as a solution to many of their pain management needs, and one current NFL all-pro recovering from surgery. All 4 of them are not cannabis users outside of those circumstances and literally come here for my high CBD products to help mitigate pain to avoid other harmful prescription pain killers. 2 of them do not smoke the product, they use our high CBD edibles and candies. The other 2 utilize both the plant and the consumables, all of which are CBD dominant.

 

The media mostly talks about THC, however, that is an incredible disservice to the plant as its only 1 of MANY types cannabinoids found in the plant. CBD (Cannibidiol) for instance, is an incredibly important one and is at the forefront of many types of medical research, including prevention and cures of various types of cancer. Its non-psychoactive compared to THC, and provides a much more clear headed experience while still benefiting things like nausea, pain relief, headaches, anxiety disorders, epilepsy, multiple scroliosis, cancer, seizures, etc.

 

In the history of the world, there is exactly ZERO recorded deaths on record from the use of cannabis. Not one person in the history of the world has ever died from the use of the plant in any form. Yet, people experience serious medical benefits from the use of cannabis with no damaging side effects.

 

I can tell you first hand that people who have moved away from harmful pain mangement things like pills, shots, etc. into cannabis have experienced a more effective form of pain relief and better all around health. One of my patients whose medication took her from 140lbs to 90lbs and made her weak and frail gained all the weight back and lives a healthy and fullfilled life now that she ditched all the prescriptions and switched to cannabis. And this was a woman who had previously been against cannabis until her daughter convinced her to try it once she reached a point where she did not want to live anymore and attempted suicide to get away from the pain. She stood in the center of my shop hugging me and crying for 15 minutes just over the relief she has had and the immense improvement of quality of life where she can play with her grandkids again.

 

The NFL should make a massive statement to the rest of the country and show that this product is SUBSTANTIALLY less dangerous than alcohol and prescription drugs that are allowable to be used by players however they see fit. It wont happen, but it should as its true.

[San Jose Bills Fan]

Like I said, I'm for legalizing Marijuana (which has already been done in Colorado and Washington as mentioned in your original post). I don't have any problem with drinking OR smoking. However I've always thought it was ridiculous to compare the two as equals, they are not the same. Alcohol is generally described as a depressant, while marijuana is generally described as either a narcotic or hallucinogen depending on the source. As someone who has used marijuana extensively, and enjoyed it...I've always thought the "medical" aspect of it was always a little bogus, and more of a type of propaganda for legalization. Opiates are used medically, that doesn't mean we should allow our athletes to abuse mophine (legal) or heroin to deal with their pain...

 

Whether it is legal or not is irrelevant when determining whether it is a banned substance for athletes. There are many substances legal and otherwise, that are on the banned substances list. Despite it's "medical benefits", pot is still overwhelmingly a recreational drug, and an addicting one. Suggesting that we should allow/encourage athletes to use pain management as an excuse to use recreational drugs seems counter productive to me.

 

As far as the "role model" argument goes, I hate taking this stance because I usually hate that argument...However the fact is many young athletes look up to professional athletes and emulate their behavior. If Peyton Manning starts advocating how he loves sparking up a joint after a tough game, it isn't going to go over well with schools and parents when they start citing that as their reason for doing it.

 

As a side note, I'm skeptical that a majority of states will ever legalize pot. That creates another issue, of this treatment only being legal in certain areas. That creates inequalities for teams trying to sign players, and for players seeking treatment.

 

Various rebuttals and thoughts about your post in the order that you mentioned them:

 

1) In small amounts alcohol can be a central nervous system stimulant.

 

2) You mischaracterize marijuana by describing it "as either a narcotic or a hallucinogen."

 

THC, the primary component of marijuana is considered a psychoactive. It is absolutely not a narcotic and while it has some similar effects to some hallucinogens it is no closer to being a hallucinogen than it is a stimulant or a depressant.

 

I started smoking pot when I was 14 years old and while I don't smoke much anymore I still occasionally have a puff or two just to get a light buzz. I am 52 years old.

 

I completely disagree with you on the "medical aspects being bogus." I've worked physical labor my entire life including the last 15 years in construction and the previous 10 years as a hazardous tree climber/arborist/tree surgeon. I have found occasional marijuana use after work to significantly reduce muscle and joint soreness and increase the body's awareness of the causes and effects of different movements and stresses. This increased sensitivity helps me to regulate my effort and modify my biomechanics and ergonomics when performing physical tasks. I am more physically in tune with my body than during long spells when I don't partake. I strongly believe that my moderate/occasional pot use has helped me maintain and increase my career longevity in the building trades.

 

In moderation I believe that marijuana also has psychological and spiritual benefits regarding one's temperament and disposition.

 

You continue to characterize marijuana as addicting however pot is not a physically addictive drug such as alcohol, nicotine, heroin, opiates and narcotics. Can it become psychologically addicting? For some people it can be but that is more a problem of the individual than the drug. There are many successful, highly-functioning people who use marijuana in moderation just as there are who use alcohol.

 

Again with the role model thing, it seems to me that in spite of your own marijuana use that you have bought into the early baby boomer conventionalized stigma of the drug. Your comments about role models, schools, and parents all indicate that your own use is at odds with some of your social beliefs regarding pot.

 

Again, Peyton Manning would probably never use pot but if he did, it would probably be as a topical cream or ingested in a pill or tablet form. So your imagery of "sparking up a joint after a tough game" isn't where medical marijuana is heading, nor what anyone is condoning.