Guest guest Posted February 3, 2004 Report Share Posted February 3, 2004 The debate on whether to take LDN continuosly or with breaks, really centers on your philosophy. When taking it continuosly, one believes in a " receptor blockade " approach. When taking it intermittently, one believes in periodically giving rest to the endorphin receptors. The principle can be better appreciated by most, when applied to alcohol, opiates etc. Regular dosing (receptor blockade), dulls the response and builds tolerance after some time. You need to take higher doses to get the same response. Dr.Bihari possibly proposes the continuos dose regimen, because the half-life of LDN is quite short, 4 hrs for naltrexone. In effect it is an intermmitent dose, since most of the drug is excreted in 5-6 half lives, i.e. 4x6=24 hrs, therefore by the next dose 24 hrs later, the receptors would be empty. i.e. even Dr.Bihari's regime is intermittent !. Dr.Lawrence's alternative point of view could be that one also needs to consider the important, metabolite of naltrexone (6-beta- naltrexol) with a half life of 13 hrs. i.e.in 6 half lives (6x 13 hrs= 3 days approx), the patient will have attained steady state levels. In other words, after 3 doses, LDN is present in your body the whole time. One would like to block the endorphin receptors for a few days more, and then empty the receptors to refresh them (i.e. after 10 days of LDN). Therefore when you wish to refresh the receptors, you need to take a 3 day break (6 half lives) to rid the body of LDN and refresh the receptors. I believe the intermittent approach is theoretically superior, but who am I to know :-) Yash P.S. I have never contacted Drs.Bihari/Lawrence,so the above is really my speculation as to what may be their reasoning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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