OT: LDN (was RE: Re: Need Advice)

[Guest guest]

LDN is low-dose naltrexone. (Naltrexone in high doses is used to

treat drug and alcohol addiction.) Taken at bedtime, it blocks the body’s

opioid receptors for three or four hours (all your cells, as I understand it,

contain opioid receptors, or should). In response, the body produces

endorphins, and over time, the body even grows new endorphin receptors.

Endorphins don’t just give you a “rush.” They play a key role in maintaining a

healthy immune system. And it has been known for a while now that people with

auto-immune diseases – including the inflammatory bowel diseases – have low

endorphin levels. So essentially LDN is a catalyst that gets your body doing

what it needs to do to start to heal the immune system. That may result in

reduced inflammation, much higher energy levels, reduced allergies/asthma

(related to inflammation response) and a whole bunch of positive stuff. The

only negative thing about it for me was when I started it I woke up every night

when my endorphins started to kick in, and it kept me awake for two or three or

four hours. But that gradually subsided; and when you do sleep, you normally

sleep much more soundly, you get much more REM sleep – so you also tend to

dream more, and vividly (that’s the fun part, in my view!, though I’ve always

dreamt pretty vividly).

The top adult dose is just 4.5 mg; children would obviously take

less, and many of us adults started at really low doses, say 1.5 mg and worked

up to 4.5; some people find a maintenance dose of lower than 4.5 mg works best

for them, and for others 4.5 mg works just fine. Doses of regular naltrexone

used for addiction are 50 or 100 mg or even higher – and provide a permanent

opioid receptor blockade (permanent as long as the person is on the drug).

It’s a generic drug, so it’s cheap (which is also why

pharmaceutical companies aren’t interested in conducting more studies on it;

there’s no money in it). But it needs to be compounded; i.e., pharmacies who do

compounding buy straight naltrexone powder and make capsules for you, with a

small amount of non-allergenic filler, at whatever amount your doctor

prescribes. That’s because this use of LDN is off-label. It normally comes in

50 mg tablets. Doctors prescribe drugs off-label all the time; even so, some

doctors won’t prescribe it – especially is they aren’t familiar with LDN and it’s

amazing benefits for a whole range of diseases. My gastroenterologist hadn’t

heard of it – I told him about it – but he was very open to prescribing for me,

as was my personal physician. Not everybody is so fortunte.

To read a lot more about it, start with this website: www.lowdosenaltrexone.org

n

From:

BTVC-SCD [mailto:BTVC-SCD ] On Behalf Of noles0809

Sent: Saturday, August 29, 2009 2:32 PM

To: BTVC-SCD

Subject: Re: Need Advice

Thank you both for your thoughtful responses. I

really appreciate it. This is all new to me and I am trying to take everything

in. What exactly is LDN? He has been taking Pentasa for the last week and a

half, which seems to help the gasiness and stools. But he has now had stomach

pains off and on for the last couple of days. We took sugars and grains out of

his diet three days ago and offically started the intro phase today. We will

see how it goes. Thanks for the help!