"I'm an Advil guy" says one TV commercial, or in a series of unlikely scenarios, one depicts a couple of men fly-fishing and as soon as a man winces with 'arthritic pain' in his shoulder, his friend, in the middle of the wilderness, magically takes a new pack of Aleve from his pocket and offers it to his friend. Similar situations are shown where it appears as though everyone walks around with a new box of analgesics in their pocket in case they or someone they are with complains of an ache or needs some form of pain relief.

The acceptance of these unlikely scenes has a subliminal effect on TV viewers for as some politician once said "tell people something often enough and they will believe anything." It is bad enough we are inundated with commercials for heavily controlled drugs that we should "ask our doctor about" but analgesics are readily available without prescription on supermarket and pharmacy shelves and as a result, many teenagers who succumb to advertising hype, end up as pain killer drug addicts.

"Don't underestimate the analgesic drug problem amongst teens it is escalating fast and has reached frightening proportions," said Judy Cutler, a well-known nutritionist in Southern California and developer of 'Naturally Painless,' a Natural Pain Relieving spray.

"As a nutritionist I have often come across damage inadvertently caused to kidney and stomach function that can be directly assigned to irresponsible overuse of analgesics for the slightest ache or pain. These heavy commercial campaigns have created a generation of hypochondriacs more commonly known as addicts. Just this morning on NPR radio it was announced that teen use of "Oxycontin" (a strong narcotic pain reliever) has risen since the last survey was done."

These dire consequences have created deep concern among our leaders for the future generation of citizens of our country. Stricter control of both the advertising and distribution of prescription and over the counter drugs would be of some benefit but a switch to natural pain remedies with no side effects or addictive properties would be an even better alternative.