Almost 15 million people around the world are addicted to opioid painkillers. While much attention is being paid to the dangers of overdoses and weaning people off of these medications, it also is important for patients to protect themselves from these drugs before they ever start taking them. In this video, Dr. David Sherer, anesthesiologist and author of Bottom Line’s What Your Doctor Isn’t Telling You blog, discusses opioid painkillers…why they are used and abused…and what people can do to avoid getting in trouble with these drugs. To this end, Dr. Sherer suggests that doctors and patients both need to be made aware of the dangers of opioid painkillers and physicians need to continue to explore other, multimodal methods of pain management.

David Sherer, MD, is an American physician, inventor and author. He currently practices anesthesiology in the suburbs of Washington DC and is a tireless advocate for hospitalized patients. For more great tips from Dr. Sherer, check out his other videos and Bottom Line blog “What Your Doctor Isn’t Telling You.”

For more with Dr. Sherer, click here for his podcast and video interviews, or purchase his memoir, The House of Black and White: My Life with and Search for Louise Johnson Morris.

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