How Narcan Saves Lives in Opioid Overdoses

Voices for Voices® · Sep 16, 2026 · 34m · transcript

Opioid overdose doesn’t happen because someone “falls asleep.” It happens because a flood of opioid molecules flips the body’s breathing drive toward zero. We take you inside the brainstem, where mu opioid receptors act like locks and opioids act like keys, dimming the nerve signals that keep air moving in and out of the lungs until breathing stops and hypoxia takes over.

Then we follow the counterattack: naloxone, best known as Narcan. We tell the story of how naloxone was discovered as a pure opioid antagonist, how it moved from injections in ambulances to an easy nasal spray, and how…