Re: immune system enhancement, clarification

[Guest guest]

In case my post left any confusion:

From the "LDN and Autoimmune Disease" page:

"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 doubles or 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.

There exists a common notion that the immune system in a person with an autoimmune disorder is too strong and, in its exuberance, targets a body tissue for attack. Rather, the evidence is more consistent with autoimmunity resulting from immunodeficiency.1 Kukreja et al have demonstrated that multiple immunoregulatory T cell defects lie behind Type 1 diabetes both in humans and in non-obese diabetic mice.2

Multiple scientific papers from various other research centers have demonstrated that an underlying immunodeficiency is characteristic of any tested autoimmune disease. Examples thus far reported include multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, and chronic fatigue syndrome.3, 4, 5

Sacerdote et al measured low beta-endorphin levels in two animal examples of autoimmune disease — a mouse strain with a lupus-like syndrome and a strain of chicken with an autoimmune thyroiditis.6 They had significantly lower hypothalamic concentrations of the opioid than normal controls. In each case, the low levels of beta-endorphin were found well before the expression of autoimmune disease. This adds to considerable evidence of a key role for endorphins in regulating immune responses and suggests a therapeutic pathway.

Bihari et al found that a low oral dose of the opioid antagonist naltrexone, when taken at bedtime, led to a doubling or tripling of low levels of circulating beta-endorphin.7 Bihari has since treated some 100 people with autoimmune disorders. None of them has progressed further while the patient continued taking low dose naltrexone each night at bedtime. Since no side effects are apparently associated with its use, this medication might well be studied as a possible preventive for Type I diabetes in those youngsters with beta-cell autoantibodies.

Footnotes

Buckley RH. Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases Due to Defects in Lymphocytes. N Engl J Med. 2000; 343:1313-1324. Kukreja A, Cost G, Marker J, et al. Multiple immuno-regulatory defects in type-1 diabetes. J Clin Invest. 2002;109(1):131-40. Thewissen M, Linsen L, Somers V, Geusens P, Raus J, Stinissen P. Premature immunosenescence in rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis patients. Ann N Y Acad Sci. Jun 2005;1051: 255-62. Marks DJ, Harbord MW, MacAllister R, Rahman FZ, Young J, Al-Lazikani B, Lees W, Novelli M, Bloom S, Segal AW. Defective acute inflammation in Crohn's disease: a clinical investigation. Lancet. Feb 2006;367 (9511): 668-78. Vernon SD, Reeves WC. The challenge of integrating disparate high-content data: epidemiological, clinical and laboratory data collected during an in-hospital study of chronic fatigue syndrome. Pharmacogenomics. Apr 2006;7 (3): 345-54. Sacerdote P, Lechner O, Sidman C, et al. Hypothalamic beta-endorphin concentrations are decreased in animals models of autoimmune disease. J Neuroimmunol. 1999;97(1-2):129-33. "

[low dose naltrexone] immune system enhancement

This has probably been discussed among board members, but I haven't kept up with all posts. Sorry. MS is thought to be an attack on myelin by the immune system. The immune system is not weak, just mis-directed. LDN enhances the immune system, i.e., it makes the immune system stronger.It seems to me that we would want to avoid strenghtening something that is causing us problems.Dan