Low Dose Naltrexone and Why YOU Should Take It!

Low Dose Naltrexone is taken in the form of 3mg to 4.5mg respectively speaking. It derives from the drug, Naltrexone which is taken in higher doses, generally around 50mg but can go up to 300mg. Though LDN comes from Naltrexone itself, it works in a completely different way, boosting the immune system. How does this non toxic drug work? When taken at bedtime, the body mistakes the low dose of Naltrexone as a brief blockade of opioid receptors. What this means is, your body thinks that something is trying to block it’s endorphins and thus, overcompensates, producing more.

“Naltrexone itself was approved by the FDA in 1984 in a 50mg dose for the purpose of helping heroin or opium addicts, by blocking the effect of such drugs. By blocking opioid receptors, naltrexone also blocks the reception of the opioid hormones that our brain and adrenal glands produce: beta-endorphin and metenkephalin. Many body tissues have receptors for these endorphins and enkephalins, including virtually every cell of the body’s immune system”-www.lowdosenaltrexone.org

A doctor named Dr.Bihari who graduated from Harvard had been working with patients who were taking heroin. Naltrexone prooved to be very successful in stopping heroin’s effects, basically in its tracks. Naltrexone is considered an “opioid receptor antagonist.” As time went on, Bihari’s research evolved. Some of his patients who had taken heroin had contracted HIV and so Bihari’s focus took a turn to help his suffering patients.

In 1985, Bihari discovered that a much smaller dose of naltrexone (approximately 3mg once a day) improved the immune system of a person with the virus HIV. As a neurologist, this discovery soon led to other findings. Not only did LDN help with AIDS patients, but has been said to help with Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s, Cancer and other autoimmune diseases as well as Autism.

“LDN at bedtime each night is believed to produce a prolonged up-regulation of vital elements of the immune system by causing an increase in endorphin and enkephalin production.”-www.lowdosenaltrexone.org

I have been on LDN for 376 days now. I have greatly benefited from its effects. It did reduce an enormous amount of swelling. My blurry vision and chronic sore throat went away, along with my most painful symptom, Pleurisy. I survived on just LDN for almost a year, but decided to add Serracor-NK to the mix which has improved me to a point of near remission. I know several other people with Rheumatoid Arthritis that LDN has helped tremendously as well as a couple of people with Parkinson’s and many people with Multiple Sclerosis. Luckily the Internet provides the resources needed to learn about a drug and it’s effects, when otherwise I would have never known about it.

Because our bodies are so vastly different, it’s impossible to know for sure if LDN will work for you. But because LDN is virtually non toxic with side effects that are so minimal you may not even notice them, and they are likely to be gone within a week, such as insomnia, LDN is a great choice if you’re trying to reduce inflammation, boost the immune system, and stop or slow the progression of disease like Parkinson’s.

If LDN is such a low cost drug, ranging around $1 a day, why isn’t the information of LDN more widely spread? The reality is, pharmaceutical companies are big business. Autoimmune diseases have some of the most costly drugs offered as options. People spend thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars on their health. Sick people keep pharmaceutical companies in business. It’s no surprise as well that a lot of drugs like methotrexate for example, can lead to horrible complications as well as injures your intestines. It makes perfect sense to me, to start with your least toxic options first and if they don’t work, then move onto other medications. Unfortunately, it’s not easy to get a doctor to prescribe LDN. Your best bet is to go through a neurologist because they are more likely to have heard of LDN or to seek out a naturopathic doctor.

Clinical trials are being studied at Universities, but most clinical trials are funded by big pharmaceutical companies. Because Naltrexone was already approved in 1984, a pharmaceutical company can’t reserve a patent on LDN and therefore can’t make big money. If money didn’t make the world go round and people’s health and wellness were really at the top of our priorities, I honestly don’t think so many people would be sick and there would be a cure for cancer.