Liz White's question:

[Guest guest]

>Message: 14

> Date: Sun, 24 Aug 2003 10:49:45 -0000

> From: " lizwhite65 " <lizwhite65@...>

>Subject: 1.5mg for how long?

>

>I had to reduce from 3mg to 1.5mg because of side effects which,

>after 2 weeks on 3mg, were still bad. After a month on 1.5mg I tried

>3mg again but have had to return to 1.5mg. Can anyone tell me how

>long it's likely to be before I can happily take 3mg or if I may

>never progress higher than 1.5mg. I am determined to stick with LDN

>but am eager to take a high enough dose to get the max benefits. I

>think I may be suffering less weakness in my worst side but it's too

>small an improvement to be sure it's real and not wishful thinking.

>Liz

The short answer is: I don't know (don't know your side effects,

don't know what is causing them, don't know your weight, don't know

if you even *need* more LDN).

From the LDN web site:

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The therapeutic dosage range for LDN is from 1.75mg 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 (see above).

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From a mail that I sent earlier:

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Concerning LDN and dosage: A lot of people here have written

about trying to increase their dose to 4 or 4.5 mg., etc. I

think it is important to understand that the action of this

stuff is not like other drugs where increasing the dose increases

the effect. The effect we are looking for is almost the *opposite*

of the action of this drug, and it is due to our bodies' reaction

to the very short-lived blocking, not of endorphin production

but of endorphin reception, that occurs when we give ourselves

a quick pulse of the drug. We fool the body into reacting to

what appears as a problem with production, and the reaction is

to *increase* production. This helps because we can't produce

enough natural endorphins anyway. ...the idea is to take a small dose

of this blocking drug every day just before it was going to start

its production cycle anyway.

This gives it time to start up at a higher rate of production, and

has to be soon enough that the small block does not affect any of

the " next day's " absorption of newly produced endorphins.

The bottom line being that more blocking/LDN may not help. The

dosage may be related to your weight, but more will not necessarily

give you more endorphins. You may end up producing more but

absorbing less.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

So: does the 1.5mg dose *work* for you? Why fix it if it ain't broke? The

bad-side weakness may take a very long time as it is a symptom of deeper

nerve damage, and exercise doesn't help as much either. My understanding

is that the upstream, sensation signals are in the outer part closer

to the myelin, and the downstream, control, movement, and strength signals

pass through more at the centre of the nerve fibre. But if it's stopping

progression, and allowing nerves to heal (which is *not* a fast process),

it sounds worth leaving alone to me, so's you don't mess up a good thing.

Some people may feel a lot better right away because they are having

a general low-health condition, which is fixed by having their endorphin

production tripled. That in itself is bound to start you feeling better.

Plus we don't know exactly why fhe fatigue happens but it may be that

that is one of the first things to react to more endorphins. I have no idea

why balance gets fixed (it's partly in the head area) but since that is one

of *my* worst problems I have great hopes for LDN. Maybe proprioception is

the main problem, not so much inner ear canal nerve damage, in which case it

*would* be one of the first things to improve, along with numbness.

-Sullivan