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Playing through pain is one of the
hallmarks of the greatest sporting
champions. Take Dean Jones’ epic
innings against India in 1987, where
he played on through a paralyzing bout
of dysentery. This was perhaps his
greatest moment as a test international,
but it was not his stroke play or the runs
he made that made it such an iconic
innings. It was his persistence, his grit,
his bravery.
The short term risks of putting the body
through such extreme punishment
are manifest, but the sports science
community is becoming increasingly
concerned about the ways sports
people are breaking through the pain
barrier.
The most recent study on pain was
produced in conjunction with FIFA
ahead of the Euro 2012 Championship
of Football. It asserts that during
the 2010 World Cup in South Africa,
60.3% of all players took some form
of painkiller at some point, while 39%
medicated before each match.
Across the pond, things are little
different. In 2011, a wide-ranging
report found that 52% of professional
footballers had used painkillers in
the course of their careers. More
alarmingly, of those, 63% claim that
they were self-medicating. They
obtained opiates through coaches,
teammates and off the internet without
any professional medical advice.
Painkillers come in a variety of forms,
from over-the-counter pills like aspirin,
to the stronger types such as naproxen.
They help to reduce feelings of pain
by soothing the inflammation in soft
tissue. Generally, these drugs have a
positive reputation and many people
feel comfortable taking them when
they encounter pain.
However, there are many dangers
associated with the misuse of
painkillers, especially for professional
sports people. Painkillers mask pain,
but they do not treat it. The potential for
increasing the severity of the injury is
exacerbated by the fact that the players
cannot feel their body warning them to
rest and heal.
Hans Geyer, the deputy director of the
World Anti-Doping Agency said that this
trend could lead to long-term damage.
“If you switch off alarm systems that
protect your tissues, you can have
irreversible destruction of tissue,” he
said.
Moreover, painkillers are highly
addictive. Many abusers start using
the drugs to ease their pain, and this
later becomes a pre-match tradition.
The other side to painkillers is that the
Opioids - including morphine, vicodine,
codeine and oxycodone - can relax or
PAINKILLERS
THE LONG-TERM DANGERS OF MASKING PAIN
By Timothy Mottram
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