SF doctors observe fentanyl side effect that causes people to be completely bent over after use

As San Francisco struggles to deal with the

fentanyl

crisis, the medical community is trying to understand what the drug really does to the human body and the only thing you may have witnessed is

people

so high that they literally bend over and can't stand. Yeah, so what

causes

that stance and what are the long-term impacts that are building a better Bay Area reporter? Lam Mendes is here. There are some answers for us tonight. Yes, I'm very glad I wrote the story. Now, the number one question

people

asked me. Is this why people who take fenel lean so severely?

Is it the drug? Is it your spine that is damaged in some way? Well, we thought that by doing this story people would start to worry more about the damage that

fentanyl

does to the body. If they were frozen in place is a common site in the Lomo district of San Francisco, the simple explanation is that it is a degree of loss of consciousness and a degree of loss of muscle control the phenel is responsible, but the

effect

s of the opening continue to persist as the person goes about their daily life in most cases awake but not able to get up, we ran into Andy Berer who tried to explain his physical state at the time, when did you last use fentel today, so it's obviously still in your body, yeah, sure, and you.

I can't, you know, straighten up, I mean, I can't, it just hurts so much to have to. Phenel can be both a short-acting drug and a long-acting drug, which is why some people become erect again. 45 minutes to an hour and some people may take longer than that. Dr. Daniel Chikon is a professor of addiction medicine at UCSF. He says phenel in long-term users takes time to clear from the system because the drug tends to accumulate in adipose tissue during the process. The research community has yet to determine whether fentanyl affects your spine. Meanwhile, Burger told us that he's more worried about her swollen legs than his back. the chemical is acidic in some cases eventually

causes

the veins to collapse I just didn't care at all drugs were my only driving force every day Ben Campoo once a heavy user of Phenel weighed only 100 pounds when a spinal infection sent him to the emergency room. a hole in my leg from being in the wheelchair for so long and that got infected and then that infection went into my spine.

Remember, Kampo Freda had back problems, his pain is what led him to addiction, the use of fenel made his condition even worse because from that infection, UCSF surgeons had to remove two of his discs and, as seen In this spine health animation, two implants were inserted that provided more space between the vertebrae. This Rel relieved the pressure on the nerves. Freda now lives in Oregon and con

side

rs herself one of the few who was able to get off Fenel earlier this year. He walked the well-known Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain, which is approximately 550 miles and how is your back.

My back is great. I'm in better shape than I have been since I was 20. I exercise. Every day, I stay very active. I'm just so grateful to have had the second chance to get my life back for now. I'm great, I'm staying healthy and that's the most important thing. For me now, here in San Francisco, there is a debate about harm reduction versus abstinence. Now Ben agrees that it can backfire if you force someone to undergo treatment, but he also recognizes that the reason he is free of phenel is because he was subjected to forced treatment.

Being in that position means being hospitalized for his back for months and months and he says he's grateful that this is coming from someone who was in the trenches, so we're not taking

side

s here, but this is coming from someone who has been there. Who's been there done that? Yeah