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Michael Bierer, MD

Contributor

Since getting his MD at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Michael Bierer has been at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for over 30 years. Along the way he got an MPH in Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health and a participated in a Fellowship in Addiction Medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine and the Boston VA. Dr. Bierer is currently a physician on staff in Internal Medicine at MGH and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He has busy primary care and addictions practices. Dr. Bierer has been teaching staff and residents about the management of addictions for many years. He is currently part of the new hospital-wide effort to address substance use disorders in a comprehensive and innovative, multidisciplinary program. He is also one of the “voices” of the New England Journal of Medicine.”

Posts by Michael Bierer, MD

People who exercise more also tend to drink more (alcohol)

Michael Bierer, MD
Michael Bierer, MD, Contributor

A recent study that tracked healthy volunteers’ exercise and drinking habits found that they tended to drink more on days when they exercised more. But this study might have had drastically different results if conducted with different groups. For example, what results might we see if the volunteers were sedentary people looking to exercise more — or people with unhealthy drinking patterns who were working to cut back?

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Is addiction a “brain disease”?

Michael Bierer, MD
Michael Bierer, MD, Contributor
addiction-brain-disease

A look into the “brain science” behind substance use disorders highlights the fact that for many people with addictions, “just say no” just doesn’t work. The biological underpinnings of addiction teach the brain to react unusually strongly if deprived of drugs, which can make recovering from an addiction incredibly difficult. Fortunately, it’s possible to teach the brain to rediscover healthier sources of joy and reward.

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