latest thoughts

[Guest guest]

I have been puzzling why the wake up call which seems to be

a constant with new LDN use.

As usual I think it has to do with the timing of your dose.

The endorphin cycle is a 24 hour one (or should be). That means it

has a low point, and 12 hours later, a high point. About 6 hours

after these two you should have an average amount of endorphin (for

your system: we are trying to push up the average).

Naltrexone is bimodal: it acts on different receptors at a dose

somewhat lower than the 1.5 to 4.5 mg dose you are all used to. Let's

say 100 times lower but it might be thousands of times lower. At

these levels a completely different receptor is blockaded: the one

responsible for withdrawal, tolerance, dependance on morphine. But it

must have other non-addiction-related function or it wouldn't be

there. It has been called an excitatory receptor, and it seems to

have to do with feeling pain or unwellness. When it is blocked in

the presence of endorphin, you get a feeling of less pain, or

wellness.

Another factoid is that naltrexone eventually leaves your system. I

have seen Dr. Bihari (the old interview) say 3 hours, and also 6-6.5

hours (the 350 page government paper). The point is, sometime after

your dose of naltrexone the mode of the drug changes due to a lower

concentration. It starts to blockade these other receptors.

That, I believe, is the " blue flash " or sudden wake up time. At that

time the naltrexone is *nearly* all gone.

If the endorphin cycle has started its upswing, the wakeup may be more

sudden. What we are looking for is the " fooling your brain " effect,

that makes your body think it needs to produce more endorphin. Maybe

this happens more the closer you are to the endorphin peak while still

blockading endorphin. If it stays in your system for six hours then

taking it would need to happen 6 hours before the peak (6 hours after

the low point), if you were aiming for the peak. Maybe we are just

aiming for the time when endorphin production is increasing, and

is above average. This would be between 6 and 12 hours after you

endorphin low.

We have the information we need to test this. The wake-up time is the

time of interest (when it becomes too late to " fool the brain " , as

naltrexone level is too low). The low point I think for me is about

8:30 pm as that is when I get dizziest and am most likely to fall.

My wake-up time is about 3:30am. So LDN stays around in me about

6 hours since my dose is at 9:30.

If I time my dose for later on, say three hours later, I hit my

endorphin cycle at a higher point, but still on the way up. The

wakeup should also happen later.

So I am going to try 12pm (midnight). I should wake up at 6am, and

have a higher level of endorphin than the day before. If this doesn't

work I can always try even later, up to about 6 hours after

the endorphin low point. But let's see if it does work first.

Important to take it at as close as you can to the same time every

day because the sudden wakeup may be helping to entrain both your

endorphin and melatonin cycles.

-Sullivan