To Your Health
To Your Health: How Naloxone stops overdoses
Oct 17, 2023 | 11:30 AM
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PRINCE GEORGE—October has seen many toxic drug alerts across the north. This has caused Naloxone to become an important part of anyone’s first aid kit, but how does it work?
Opioid drugs, such as fentanyl, affect the breathing receptors in your brain. When someone takes more than their body can handle, their breathing slows. This can lead to unconsciousness and even death.
When someone’s administered Naloxone, Naloxone goes into the body, and it goes into those breathing receptors and not knocks off fentanyl or another opioid from those receptors and restores breathing. So, that’s the only action it has. Which is really great because if you mistake a heart attack for an overdose and you give Naloxone, it will have no effect.
