Kamala Harris’ stepdaughter Ella Emhoff pushed ketamine infusion therapy and short working days as she revealed she suffers from a debilitating spinal condition.
Emhoff, 25, suggested using the drug as a solution to her ‘bad chronic back pain’ that she said she has suffered from all her life, in Instagram stories to her 345,000 followers this week.
‘I was born with a tethered spine (iykyk) which caused my back to not properly lengthen when I was growing and caused a kyphosis (hunchback)’ she wrote.
Her promotion of ketamine as a solution to her pain comes as the medical industry debates its effectiveness, with the issue thrust into the spotlight this week as five people, including two doctors, were arrested in connection with the overdose of Matthew Perry.
Ella Emhoff, 25, the stepdaughter of Kamala Harris, revealed this week that she suffers chronic pain caused by a spinal issue – and promoted ketamine infusion as a potential solution
Emhoff is the daughter of Harris’ husband and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, and would become the ‘First Daughter’ if Kamala is elected in November
In her Instagram stories this week, Emhoff – appearing with filtered Hello Kitty stickers on her face – said her back pain left her ‘in and out of doctors and PT for most of (her) adolescence.’
She added that after getting surgery on her lower back, she ‘grew a million inches’, which she said did not stop her suffering chronic pain now.
In particular, her tethered spine is an issue that can lead to paralysis and trapped nerves, and is caused by the spinal cord becoming stuck to the inside of the spinal canal.
Emhoff, an activist, fashion designer and model signed with IMG, then asked her fellow ‘chronic pain people’ their pain management tips, asking them what they do ‘to feel comf.’
She shared a Google Sheet titled the ‘Big Pain Management List’, which included a number of potential solutions including ketamine infusions.
Other suggestions included sleeping for 14 hours, not ‘feeling guilty about the pain’, hypnosis, and eliminating sugar and alcohol.
Emhoff shared a Google Sheet titled the ‘Big Pain Management List’, which included a number of potential solutions including ketamine infusions
The 25-year-old fashion designer, artist and model said her debilitating back pain left her ‘in and out of doctors and PT for most of (her) adolescence’
The 25-year-old caveated that she was only sharing the tips to help her followers, and ‘should not be taken as medical advice I am just a girl trynna feel less pain.’
But the promotion of ketamine infusion therapy comes at a time when the drug’s efficacy is still being debated within the medical industry.
While it is still a controlled substance and is banned recreationally, it is legal when prescribed by doctors – with the FDA also approving a nasal spray version in 2019 used to treat patients with treatment-resistant depression.
Often prescribed for pain management, some medics question whether the drug is suitable for regular consumption.
Dr Michael Harbison, a Las Vegas chiropractor, told the New York Post that in these circumstances, there are ‘far better options out there to deal with pain.’
He added that some suggestions on Emhoff’s list ‘are not for back pain – they are basically just to get you high.’
The use of ketamine infusions was thrust into the spotlight this week after five people, including two doctors, were arrested in connection with the October 2023 overdose of Friends star Matthew Perry.
The use of ketamine infusions was thrust into the spotlight this week after five people were arrested in connection with the October 2023 overdose of Friends star Matthew Perry – pictured shortly before his death
The suspects were apprehended on Thursday over claims they are part of a ‘broad underground criminal network’ that supplied Pery with the ketamine that killed him.
Doctors Salvador Plasencia, 42, and Mark Chavez, 54, alleged drug dealers Jasveen ‘Ketamine Queen’ Sangha, 41, and Eric Fleming, 54, and Perry’s live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, 59, have all been charged.
Prosecutors say the group preyed on the vulnerable star’s addiction issues, with the doctors even referring to him as a ‘moron’ in cruel texts where they discussed how to further exploit him.
Perry was found unresponsive in the hot tub of his LA home on October 28 by Iwamasa. His cause of death later determined to be ‘the acute effects of ketamine’.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk