Clarification of certain issues re: LDN

[Guest guest]

Dear Group Members,

The following excerpts from the website’s linked page, called “LDN and

MS”, may serve to clarify certain questions and misunderstandings

reflected in recent Group messages:

“In addition to the apparent ability of LDN to stop disease progression,

approximately two-thirds of MS patients starting LDN have some symptomatic

improvement generally apparent within the first few days. There are two

types of such improvement:

One is reduction in spasticity when this is present, sometimes allowing

easier ambulation when spasticity in the legs has been a prominent element

of a patient's difficulty in walking or standing. This is unlikely to

represent a direct effect of LDN on the disease process, but rather

reduction in the irritability in nervous tissue surrounding plaques.

Endorphins have been shown to reduce irritability of nervous tissue, e.g.,

by reducing seizures in patients with epilepsy.

The other area of symptomatic improvement in some patients is a reduction

in MS-related fatigue. This is, also, not likely due to a direct effect on

the MS disease process, but rather an indirect one caused by restoration

of normal endorphin levels improving energy.”

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“The apparent mechanism of action of LDN in this disease parallels that in

AIDS and other immune-related diseases. A small dose of the drug taken

nightly at bedtime triples the endorphin levels in the body all of the

next day restoring levels to normal. Since endorphin levels are low in

people with MS, immune function is poorly orchestrated with significant

impairment of the normal immune supervisory function of CD4 cells. In the

absence of normal orchestration of immune function, some of the immune

system cells " forget " their genetically determined ability to distinguish

between the body's 100,000 unique chemical structures (called " self " ) and

the chemical structures of bacteria, fungi, parasites and cancer cells

(called " non-self " ). With this loss of immunologic memory, some cells

begin to attack some of the body's unique chemical structures. In the case

of people with MS, the tissue attacked by immune cells (particularly

macrophages) is primarily the myelin that insulates nerve fibers. These

attacks result in scars in the brain and spinal cord called plaques. LDN

in such patients works by restoring endorphin levels to normal, thereby

allowing the immune system to resume its normal supervision and

orchestration.”

Website Editor

www.low dose naltrexone.org