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A Better Treatment for Overdose Is Coming

There&amp;#39;s a reason that naloxone, 
better known as Narcan,

is celebrated as the best 
treatment for opioid overdose.

According to the organizations that distribute it,

naloxone has saved over 
twenty-six thousand lives in

the United States alone between 1996 and 2014.

It’s only been as publically accessible 
as it is today for a few decades.

But in that time, it’s been an increasingly

Mainly because naloxone is really good at getting

overdose patients breathing normally again.

With the advent of opioid with 
more potency in recent years,

So here’s why the next generation of treatments

for opioid overdose may look completely different.

we need to talk about the thing 
it treats: opioid overdose.

When you were feeling the worst pain of your life,

you got a prescription, it made you feel better,

Opioids work really well! 
If you’re in a lot of pain,

For example, morphine is an 
opioid we get from plants

that’s known for relieving severe pain.

We’re talking excruciating end-of-life 
pain or cancer treatment pain.

But it’s not some otherworldly 
substance like anti-kryptonite.

Endorphins are opioids that help you respond

to stress and other obstacles 
that pop up throughout the day.

They bind to opioid receptors 
embedded in the surface

of your cells to signal your pain relief response.

But not all opioid receptors are created equal.

There are a few different 
kinds of opioid receptors,

all of which have slightly 
different nooks and crannies

Each type of opioid has a unique shape that

sets off different processes in the body.
 

So opioids don’t just take 
away your pain and stress.

They also affect your metabolism, 
breathing, and heart function.

And that’s why too much of a good 
thing can be life-threatening.

An overdose happens when these 
substances enter your body

and activate too many opioid receptors in regions

of the brainstem that control your breathing.

This causes your breathing to slow down and

become so shallow that things 
can quickly get very dangerous.

more potent opioids like 
fentanyl, which is so efficient

at activating these receptors 
that just a minuscule bit

Researchers have a strong hunch 
as to why these super-potent

opioids create such a concentrated response:

fentanyl and similar high-potency 
opioids can insert themselves

more deeply into the receptors and 
attach themselves more strongly.

That means that the tiniest increase in dose

can be the difference between life and death.

This means that their specific shape helps them

not only bind to the receptors but 
also set off their domino chain

of events that make you breathe more shallowly,

or whatever that receptor is in charge of.

They can throw off the processes 
responsible for maintaining

the body’s natural ventilatory responses.

Which means they keep the nervous system from

recognizing that it needs to 
keep the lungs breathing on pace.

So when people overdose, 
breathing slows down dangerously,

Enter opioid antagonists 
like the lifesaver naloxone.

They also bind to opioid receptors, 
but instead of setting pain relief

in motion, they neutralize the 
effects of opioids in the system.

In pharmacology, an antagonist 
is not a villain but a drug

that binds to a specific receptor 
while not triggering any of the

cellular responses that those receptors 
are responsible for activating.

Opioid antagonists jump in 
and bind to the receptors,

Instead, sticking with the 
superhero theme that advocates use,

they act like shields to block the agonists

See, morphine largely works 
against pain by binding to

and activating a specific type of opioid receptor.

And naloxone is shaped a lot like morphine.

allowing it to block the receptors 
that morphine usually binds to.

But it doesn&amp;#39;t bind as tightly and therefore

And it replaces any opioids that 
are bound to the opioid receptors,

quickly reversing any of the effects 
that the opioid might be causing.

The superhero comparisons aren’t an exaggeration.

When it became widely available, 
it was viewed as kind of

Article by AI based on youtube video transcript: A Better Treatment for Overdose Is Coming

Summary by AI based on youtube video transcript

Article by AI based on youtube video transcript

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