Kamala Harris’ stepdaughter Ella Emhoff has pushed for ketamine infusion therapy and shorter work days after revealing she suffers from a debilitating spinal condition.
Emhoff, 25, suggested using the drug as a solution to his “chronic back pain” that he said he has suffered from all his life, in Instagram stories to his 345,000 followers this week.
“I was born with a tethered spine (iykyk), which caused my back to not lengthen properly when I was growing and led to a kyphosis (hunchback),” she wrote.
His promotion of ketamine as a solution to his pain comes as the medical industry debates its effectiveness, and the issue came into focus this week when five people, including two doctors, were arrested in connection with Matthew Perry’s overdose.
Ella Emhoff, 25, Kamala Harris’s stepdaughter, revealed this week that she suffers from chronic pain caused by a spinal problem and promoted ketamine infusion as a possible 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, who appears with filtered Hello Kitty stickers on her face, said her back pain left her “in and out of doctors and physical therapy for most of (her) teenage years.”
She added that after undergoing lower back surgery, she “grew a million inches,” which she said did not stop her from now suffering from chronic pain.
In particular, your tethered spine is a problem that can lead to paralysis and trapped nerves, and is caused by the spinal cord becoming trapped inside the spinal canal.
Emhoff, an activist, fashion designer and IMG-signed model, then asked her fellow “chronic pain sufferers” for their tips on managing pain and asked them what they did “to stay comfortable.”
She shared a Google spreadsheet titled “Big Pain Management Checklist,” which included a number of possible solutions, including ketamine infusions.
Other suggestions included getting 14 hours of sleep, not “feeling guilty about the pain,” hypnosis, and cutting out sugar and alcohol.
Emhoff shared a Google spreadsheet titled “Big Pain Management Checklist,” which included a number of possible solutions, including ketamine infusions.
The 25-year-old fashion designer, artist and model said her debilitating back pain kept her “in and out of doctors and physical therapy for most of (her) teenage years.”
The 25-year-old cautioned that she was only sharing tips to help her followers and that “they should not be taken as medical advice. I’m just a girl trying to feel less pain.”
But the promotion of ketamine infusion therapy comes at a time when the drug’s effectiveness is still debated within the medical industry.
While it is still a controlled substance and banned for recreational purposes, it is legal when prescribed by doctors (the FDA also approved a nasal spray version in 2019 that is used to treat patients with treatment-resistant depression).
It is often prescribed for pain treatment, but some doctors question whether the drug is suitable for regular consumption.
Dr. Michael Harbison, a Las Vegas chiropractor, told the The New York Post that in these circumstances, “there are much better options for dealing with the pain.”
He added that some of the suggestions on Emhoff’s list “are not for back pain; they’re basically just for getting high.”
The use of ketamine infusions came to light 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 came to light this week after five people were arrested in connection with the October 2023 overdose of Friends star Matthew Perry, who was photographed shortly before his death.
The suspects were arrested Thursday on charges of being part of a “large clandestine 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 assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, 59, have all been charged.
Prosecutors say the group took advantage of the vulnerable star’s addiction problems and that doctors even referred to him as a “jerk” in cruel texts discussing how to exploit him further.
On October 28, Iwamasa found Perry unconscious in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home. The cause of death was later determined to be “acute effects of ketamine.”