Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) is used for a wise variety of illnesses by some practitioners.
The general principle is to use LDN to trick the body into thinking there are not enough endorphins in the system while you sleep by blocking the ability of the body to detect them. This should make the body produce more during that sleep, allowing them to repair the damaged cells.
Cancer. As of mid-2004, Dr. Bihari reported having treated over 300 patients who had a cancer that had failed to respond to standard treatments. Of that group, some 50%, after four to six months treatment with LDN, began to demonstrate a halt in cancer growth and, of those, over one-third have shown objective signs of tumor shrinkage.
Autoimmune diseases. Within the group of patients who presented with an autoimmune disease, all have to responded to LDN; all have experienced a halt in progression of their illness. In many patients there was a marked remission in signs and symptoms of the disease. The greatest number of patients within the autoimmune group are people with multiple sclerosis, of whom there were some 400 in Dr. Bihari’s practice. Less than 1% of these patients has ever experienced a fresh attack of MS while they maintained their regular LDN nightly therapy.
How does it work:
Typically, LDN is taken at bedtime, which blocks your opioid receptors, as well as the reception of endorphins, for a few hours in the middle of the night. This is believed to up-regulate vital elements of your immune system by increasing your body’s production of metenkephalin and endorphins (your natural opioids), hence improving your immune function.
In addition to cancer, LDN has shown promise for the treatment of the following diseases:
| Hepatitis C | Diabetic neuropathies |
| Lupus | Dermatomyositis (an inflammatory muscle disease) |
| Ulcerative colitis | Multiple sclerosis |
| Autism | Crohn’s disease |
| Chronic fatigue syndrome | Alzheimer’s disease |
| HIV/AIDS | Hasimoto’s thyroiditis |
| Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) | Parkinson’s disease |
www.markdrugs.com/autoimmune.html How does it work
one-of-the-rare-drugs-that-actually-helps-your-body-to-heal-itself
Bernard Bihari, MD, as well as other physicians and researchers, have described beneficial effects of LDN on a variety of diseases:
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Autoimmune
Neurodegenerative:
Other Autoimmune Diseases:
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LDN.Org Site
- What is low-dose naltrexone and why is it important?
- How does LDN work?
- What diseases has it been useful for and how effective is it?
- What dosage and frequency should my physician prescribe?
- Are there any side effects or cautionary warnings?
What dosage and frequency should my physician prescribe?
The usual adult dosage is 4.5mg taken once daily at night. Because of the rhythms of the body’s production of master hormones, LDN is best taken between 9pm and 3am. Most patients take it at bedtime.
Notable exceptions:
- People who have multiple sclerosis that has led to muscle spasms are advised to use only 3mg daily and to maintain that dosage.
- For initial dosage of LDN in those patients who have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis with hypothyroidism and who are taking thyroid hormone replacement medication, please read Cautionary Warnings.
Rarely, the naltrexone may need to be purchased as a solution — in distilled water — with 1mg per ml dispensed with a 5ml medicine dropper. If LDN is used in a liquid form, it is important to keep it refrigerated.
The therapeutic dosage range for LDN is from 1.5mg to 4.5mg every night. Dosages below this range are likely to have no effect at all, and dosages above this range are likely to block endorphins for too long a period of time and interfere with its effectiveness.
IMPORTANT: Make sure to specify that you do NOT want LDN in a slow-release form
LDN has been taken with ALA in some trials
Plant oils that contain ALA include flaxseed (linseed), soybean, and canola oils.
Chia seeds and black walnuts also contain ALA.
Research Trials
www.markdrugs.com/LDN-research
Articles about LDN
What others are saying about LDN
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Studies:
Naltrexone at low doses upregulates a unique gene expression not seen with normal doses
Abstract
It has been reported that lower doses of the opioid antagonist naltrexone are able to reduce tumour growth by interfering with cell signalling as well as by modifying the immune system. We have evaluated the gene expression profile of a cancer cell line after treatment with low-dose naltrexone (LDN), and assessed the effect that adapting treatment schedules with LDN may have on enhancing efficacy. LDN had a selective impact on genes involved with cell cycle regulation and immune modulation.
Similarly, the pro-apoptotic genes BAD and BIK1 were increased only after LDN.
Continuous treatment with LDN had little effect on growth in different cell lines; however, altering the treatment schedule to include a phase of culture in the absence of drug following an initial round of LDN treatment, resulted in enhanced cell killing.
Furthermore, cells pre-treated with LDN were more sensitive to the cytotoxic effects of a number of common chemotherapy agents. For example, priming HCT116 with LDN before treatment with oxaliplatin significantly increased cell killing to 49±7.0 vs. 14±2.4% in cultures where priming was not used. Interestingly, priming with NTX before oxaliplatin resulted in just 32±1.8% cell killing.
Our data support further the idea that LDN possesses anticancer activity, which can be improved by modifying the treatment schedule.
Abstract
The authors describe the long-term survival of a patient with pancreatic cancer without any toxic adverse effects.
The treatment regimen includes the intravenous alpha-lipoic acid and low-dose naltrexone (ALA-N) protocol and a healthy lifestyle program.
The patient was told by a reputable university oncology center in October 2002 that there was little hope for his survival.
Today, January 2006, however, he is back at work, free from symptoms, and without appreciable progression of his malignancy.
The integrative protocol described in this article may have the possibility of extending the life of a patient who would be customarily considered to be terminal.
The authors believe that life scientists will one day develop a cure for metastatic pancreatic cancer, perhaps via gene therapy or another biological platform. But until such protocols come to market, the ALA-N protocol should be studied and considered, given its lack of toxicity at levels reported. Several other patients are on this treatment protocol and appear to be doing well at this time.
Abstract
Ovarian cancer is the leading cause of death from gynecological malignancies. Although initial therapeutic modalities are successful, 65% of these women relapse with only palliative treatments available thereafter. Endogenous opioids repress the proliferation of human ovarian cancer cells in vitro, and do so in a receptor-mediated manner.
The present study examined whether modulation of opioid systems by the opioid antagonist naltrexone (NTX), alone or in combination with standard of care therapies (taxol/paclitaxel, cisplatin), alters human ovarian cancer cell proliferation in tissue culture and tumor progression in mice.
Administration of NTX for six hours every two days, but not continuously, reduced DNA synthesis and cell replication from vehicle-treated controls in tissue culture. Moreover, brief exposure to NTX in combination with taxol or cisplatin had an enhanced anticancer action.
Mice with established ovarian tumors and treated with a low dosage of NTX (LDN), which invokes a short period of opioid receptor blockade, repressed tumor progression in a non-toxic fashion by reducing DNA synthesis and angiogenesis but not altering cell survival.
The combination of LDN with cisplatin, but not taxol, resulted in an additive inhibitory effect on tumorigenesis with enhanced depression of DNA synthesis and angiogenesis.
LDN combined with cisplatin alleviated the toxicity (e.g. weight loss) associated with cisplatin.
LDN treatment upregulated the expression of the opioid growth factor (OGF, chemical term ([Met(5)]-enkephalin) and its receptor, OGFr.
Previous tissue culture studies have reported that OGF is the only opioid peptide with antiproliferative activity on ovarian cancer cells, with OGF action mediated by OGFr. Thus, the common denominator of intermittent opioid receptor blockade by short-term NTX or LDN on ovarian cancer proliferation and tumorigenesis recorded herein appears to be related to the OGF-OGFr axis.
These preclinical data may offer a non-toxic and efficacious pathway-related treatment that can benefit patients with ovarian cancer
The first peer-reviewed medical journal article on LDN has been published in Medical Hypotheses.
The full citation is as follows: Agrawal YP. Low dose naltrexone therapy in multiple sclerosis. Med Hypotheses. 2005;64(4):721-4.
titled “Naltrexone in tiny doses shows promise in treating autoimmune diseases”, tells the story of Bentley Lyon, whose Parkinson’s disease of many years had been worsening. His wife and daughter persuaded him to try LDN back in 2004 and positive results appeared promptly. “It was like a miracle,” his daughter recalled. The article also quotes Dr. Ian Zagon, a professor of neural and behavioral sciences at Pennsylvania State University, “Naltrexone apparently works by stimulating the body’s own immune system….It’s very simple,” he said, “but it took a while to figure out.”
Autoimmune Disease
Niles Bauer, PhD candidate, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, supplied a copy of a presentation to his department in March 2007. He observed “profound” improvements within a month after the start of LDN treatment in people with a wide variety of autoimmune disorders.
Who deals with LDN in Australia
LDN on line http://compoundinglab.com.au/naltrexone-1.5mg-caps-100.html
http://custommedicine.com.au/information/low-dose-naltrexone/
Melbourne http://www.whatclinic.ie/holistic-health/australia/victoria/melbourne/fitzroy/wellness-medicine (according to one review, they prescribe LDN) https://www.brunswickintegrativecare.com.au/contact/ (not clear whether they use LDN, Dr. Joe Nastasi – General Practitioner) http://www.melbournewellness.com.au/practitioners/lina_capovilla.html (this practitioner seems to be thyroid specialist)
http://jabebrown.com/jabe/ (plenty of positive reviews, thyroid, adrenal, auto-immune specialist. Knows about LDN but cant prescribe- need GP)
MP3 link http://jabebrown.com/vh53-the-metabolism-master/
Doctors who prescribe LDN in Australia
New South Wales Dr Adrian Hekel – Coffs Harbour Dr. Soney Jacob – Engadine Doctor at Stenlake Compounding Chemist – Bondi Junction/Sydney Dr Jennifer Bromberger – Sydney
Roper & Parry’s Chemworld Chemist Michael Smith B.
Pharm & Graham Parry B. Pharm 89 Keen St Lismore NSW 2480 Ph: 02 6621 4000 Fax: 02 6621 4020
Email: fordpill@ozemail.com.au (Contact person is listed as Michael Smith, B. Pharm, M. Sc)
Cost: 4.5mg capsules – $90(AUD) for 100 capsules
1.5mg and 3.0mg – $80 (AUD) for 100 capsules Plus postage (express post) $8.50(AUD)
Also, specific note is made that these capsules are made from pure naltrexone (not crushed 50mg tablets).
Duration of therapy should be a minimum of 3 months to a maximum of 6 months to assess clinical changes.
Side effects: leg twitching at night and trouble sleeping (should subside after 7 days).
Queensland Dr Greg Emerson – Logan Central Dr Colin Holloway – Morayfield
https://drcolinholloway.com/low-dose-naltrexone/ (this doctor uses LDN but is located in QLD)
LDN in NEW Zealand
Doctor Tye in Blockhouse Bay
www.overcomingmultiplesclerosis.org/forum
they talk about Dr Frances Pitsilis (located in Milford)