Opioids: The pendulum has swung too far in the wrong direction
I’m a 43-year-old physician who retired due to illness at the age of 39. I have a rare genetic disease called acute intermittent porphyria (AIP). It’s an extremely painful and disabling illness. Due to an enzyme deficiency in the heme biosynthesis pathway in the liver, porphyrin precursors accumulate and are neurotoxic causing visceral neuropathy. The symptoms of the disease are neurological with the most notable being abdominal pain. It is …