Low-dose naltrexone: the hidden panacea?

In the last decade there has been increasing public interest in an opioid antagonist, naltrexone, which taken at low doses (LDN or Low Dose Naltrexone) has produced supposed beneficial effects in many diseasessomething that the medical corpus still views with suspicion.

There have been many occasions in which we have heard our elders say that Healing doesn’t always come in pill form.; that what doctors prescribe us and pharmacies sell us is, sometimes, more harmful than other more artificial ways of treating diseases.

This hypothetical maxim seems to have been fulfilled with the discovery – casual, at first, and formalized and academicized, later – of this new way of consuming the drug naltrexone, which is postulated helps the body defend itself against disease with its own weaponseven, it is claimed, cancer and HIV.

The story of rediscovery

Around 1985, the late Dr. Bernard Bihari (a New York psychiatrist who graduated from Harvard University), and according to a large number of publications about his work, realized that taking naltrexone at low doses improved the immune response to HIV -the virus that causes AIDS-.

A few years later, he discovered that this medication, which at therapeutic doses (those prescribed for official use as an aid to cessation of opiates) was being used in addiction to heroin and/or morphine, It also benefited patients with cancer and autoimmune diseases.

According to the records of Dr. Bihari’s therapeutic work, in almost a quarter of the approximately 500 cases of various types of cancer that he treated with the help of low-dose naltrexone, managed to reduce the tumor size by at least 75% of the starting size.

From the beginning of his administration, and during its subsequent development, Dr. Bihari formulated that The anticancer mechanism of LDN is probably due to its tendency to increase the number and density of opioid receptors. in the cell (and, specifically, endorphin receptors, the so-called “natural opioids” or “molecules of happiness”), which makes it more susceptible to the therapeutic benefit of these molecules. The number and degree of activity of the defense cells of our immune system, as he proposed, are also increased by the action of this drug.

For what ailments could this approach be useful?

Aside from its recognized use as an anti-addictive, There are many pathologies that could hypothetically benefit of this little-known therapeutic approach:

Cancer.Hepatitis C.Lupus.Diabetic Neuropathies.Ulcerative Colitis.Dermatomyositis.Autism.Multiple Sclerosis (MS).Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS).Crohn’s Disease.HIV/AIDS.Alzheimer’s Disease.Parkinson’s Disease.Intestine Syndrome Irritable.Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.Etc.

It is truly shocking that a single substance can cause an effect on so many and so disparate diseases, although in expert eyes a kind of connection can be intuited that threads all these pathologies together.: All of them are related to inflammatory processes, and almost all of them are associated, by one way or another, with autoimmune mechanisms. Mechanisms in which an immune dysfunction causes our own defense system to turn against our cells.

How does LDN really work?

The mechanism of action of this drug could not be simpler and more logical and at the same time more beautifully intricate. Year after year, greater scope of the biochemical pathways of which it is a part is discovered, as well as a growing number of benefits across multiple conditions; In fact, one of the most recent additions gives it the ability to improve the survival of neurons after brain damage thanks to influence of naltrexone on cytokines, which regulate inflammatory processes.

The cascade of events believed to underlie these effects is, in chronological order:

The LDN temporarily inhibits the release of endorphinsAs a result, the body reacts by increasing their production as well as the amount of cellular receptors that bind to these molecules. Once the inhibitory effect of LDN has passed, we find a increase in circulating endorphins which, in addition to promoting a feeling of well-being and even an increase in libido, causes a growth in the number of our powerful lymphocyte defenders T. The imbalance of T cells, characteristic of a wide range of diseases, is thus restored reducing the effects of the disease.

Is it safe to use? Why haven’t doctors in general heard of this therapy?

Many sources affirm that the use of LDN, with proper precautions, is relatively safe.. The amounts of naltrexone indicated vary between people and pathologies and should, in any case, be prescribed by a specialist who also supervised its intake.

At the beginning of the LDN regimen, symptoms such as weakness, dysesthesias, fatigue, pain, and especially sleep disturbances and nightmares may occur. These side effects should, in any case, disappear within one or two weeks.and are due to the unusual amounts of endorphins in the body.

Anyone interested in the potential use of this therapeutic variant should, as already indicated, consult a specialized doctor. It is more than likely that your doctor may be poorly familiar with this medication approach -there is little interest that its study and application arouses in the clinical field and in large pharmaceutical companies given the reduced economic return that its commercialization for these purposes would entail-, so it may be the patient themselves who offers the healthcare provider information about this matter.

As we well know, there is much more than what the eye can see. Likewise, There are more ways to approach health than official medicine is capable of offering.. Although it is the responsibility of each person, it may not be a bad idea to muster the courage to venture into exploring other ways, perhaps cheaper and more effective, to treat conditions for which there is often little hope.

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