What Is Opioid Tolerance?

0:00What is opioid tolerance?

0:03I'm going to tell you.

0:04I'm Dr. Rodriguez from Healing Sky.

0:07I'm also the medical director of the Delray Center for Healing and today we're going to

0:10talk about what is opioid tolerance.

0:15Tolerance in general refers to the body's ability to habituate to a substance or medication

0:23being administered into the body so that the effect of the substance or medication

0:28is diminished.

0:31This typically happens as a natural protective mechanism of the body to handle natural contaminants

0:38in the environment.

0:40Contrary to popular belief, the natural environment, the earth, has a lot of toxic substances even

0:47before countries became industrialized and use fossil fuels and all these different chemicals.

0:54The natural world has a lot of things that are poisonous to humans and other animals.

0:59Now without the mechanisms of developing tolerance or habituating to different toxic elements

1:07in the environment, we would not be able to survive on this earth.

1:12So the body and the brain in this case has multiple mechanisms to do this.

1:19Without these mechanisms, anything that was poisonous to the body or the brain would either

1:24kill or intoxicate the human and then make them vulnerable to attack by a predator or

1:32by another human.

1:33So this survival mechanism is key in a big part of evolution.

1:39Other animals have this as well.

1:42Again, it is part of survival.

1:44So tolerance is one aspect of that so that if for whatever reason, if there is some kind

1:51of contamination in the food or water supply, the body can get used to that contamination

1:59and diminish the effect of that contaminant on the body or brain.

2:04It can do this by blunting the effect it has on the body or brain.

2:09It can also do it by increasing the metabolism of this contaminant or usually both.

2:16And the net effect of this is that whatever the contaminant is, it has less of an effect

2:21on the body and the brain.

2:23Now in the case of opioids, opioids are definitely viewed as a contaminant.

2:29Even if you take it willingly, even if you take it because you want to get high or taking

2:33it as prescribed for pain, the body still sees it as a form of a contaminant.

2:39So it does its best to prevent you from overdosing and dying from it or from being sedated or

2:46uptended by it so that a predator does not come and kill you or attack you.

2:52So that is how and why tolerance develops.

2:56The effects of the opioids will be less and less when taken over time, which is the big

3:02reason why people with chronic pain syndromes often end up taking more medication over the

3:08course of time because their body gets used to it.

3:11They develop opioid tolerance and the same dose that used to work before does not work

3:18anymore.

3:19The person getting high on opioids will also experience tolerance only faster because they

3:26are taking high doses of opioids to become intoxicated.

3:30And when the body is experiencing intoxication, it has a greater urgency to develop tolerance.

3:37So it will develop tolerance more quickly and more intensely.

3:41That is why the person trying to get high needs to take more and more drug to get high

3:45because the body is quickly becoming tolerant.

3:50That is one of the big mechanisms of addiction.

3:53So that is opioid tolerance, why and how it happens.

3:56It is unavoidable.

3:58It is something that often will factor into chronic pain management regimens and will

4:03factor into the course of developing addiction and it's something that cannot be ignored.

4:09I hope you find this information helpful.

4:11Please like, follow and subscribe to me here on Healing Sky.

4:15If you would like to see me as a client, you can find me at DelrayCenter.com.

4:20Please look for my podcast starting in the fall of 2026.

4:23Thank you.