Low Dose Naltrexone

[Foreigner]

Just an update. I went up to 4.5mg and it was too much. Started having headaches, nausea and it was impossible to sleep. Back down to 3mg and I'm staying there. The personal dose for each person is highly subjective. Most people go up by 0.5mg at a time, but I made larger jumps. I am still experiencing great daytime energy and strong immunity. My friends say that I look different, in a good way. The sleep side effects continue, my dreams have been kind of crazy. A daytime nap often helps.

I caught a head cold last week and it was gone in 1 day -- unprecedented in my life.

Some people prefer to take LDN in the morning so that they can avoid the sleep effects, but some of the top experts in LDN I've researched say that endorphin maximization can only occur at night time. One thing that has changed that I need to keep my eye on is that I have been developing increasing anxiety. It may be related to long-term poor quality sleep, I'm not sure yet.

I'm over the hump of winter time which is normally my "danger zone" for my condition acting up. I am feeling relieved. It's the first time in 3 years that I have not been battling IBD hell during the cold season.

An improvement that may or may not be related to LDN is that my body now seems to be absorbing iron, so I no longer need iron IVs. That means my gut lining must be recovering.

Discussions with other LDN users online informs me that it probably takes a long time to change opioid receptors on the cell surfaces everywhere in the body. If there is a Mu Opioid Receptor up-regulation then it probably also takes a while too. Because my original health condition was brought on by extreme stress, I can't help but wonder if somehow my endogenous opioid system got down-regulated, resulting in immune collapse. There seems to be an as of unyet discovered correlation between resilience to disease and the function of the endogenous opioids.

 

[Diandra]

Hi Foreigner, You mentioned talking to other LDN users online. Do you have other forums you frequent that you could share with me?

I just started LDN 6 days ago for chronic pain (and I just got off of ten yrs of Norco use, now not taking any opiates, was taking pain meds for Lyme Disease diagnosed too late many years ago and it did major damage. I have been left with neurpothy and pain, headaches,etc)
My pain mgmt doc started me at LDN .5mg for a week, then 1mg for 2 weeks.
I have been experiencing sleep disturbance but last night, night 6, I awoke with a bizarre feeling under my skin, all over, it felt like stingy alka seltzer going off. I got out of bed and started massaging my arms and legs. Very weird. I had to take an Ambien to get any sleep at all and still only got 3 hrs with a 10mg Ambien. I dont use it often but it used to give me a good 5-6 hrs.

The good news is, I am experiencing alot of day time energy. I am a bit perplexed as to why I have major sleep disturbances yet have energy during the day. I feel like, when am I gonna crash.
Anyway, I appreciate you sharing your experiences. Not alot of people on LDN and the experiences are all over the place.
Diandra

 

[asecin]

you went to 4mg and you experienced such severe side effects??? i thought the instructions say take up to 20mg and i havent seen negative reports of that. very strange

 

[Diandra]

you went to 4mg and you experienced such severe side effects??? i thought the instructions say take up to 20mg and i havent seen negative reports of that. very strange

I haven't had time to read through this entire thread but I think you are mixing up regular use Naltrexone, for use in alcholism, with what we are discussing here, LDN, "Low Dose Naltrexone", which is a very small dose, 1-5mg Naltrexone used for very different purposes than regular Naltrexone. Here is a site that explains the uses for LDN.
http://www.lowdosenaltrexone.org

 

[asecin]

its a talk about naltrexone in general, i thought if people can handle doses up high as 20mg + up to 50, why would 1-2 mgs cause such problems? it doesnt make sense to me

 

[Cotcha Yankinov]

People with physical illness are probably going to be much more sensitive to opioid receptor blockade.

That being said, people do get all sorts of side effects from the doses used for alcohol abstinence and such (ie 50mg)

 

[asecin]

i was wondering, could this be a replacement for the expensive naltrexone; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akuammine

 

[Epilepsia]

I've already UTFSE and have had limited info about my question -- plus the threads were old.

I'm considering asking my doctor for an RX for low dose naltrexone, probably in the 2-4mg range. My intention is to see if it would help my auto-immune condition. People with autoimmune have a dysfunctional ratio of the different kinds of T lymphocytes, and the endorphin up-regulation may help stabilize the immune system along with the inflammatory response.

What I'm researching intensely is the dosage ratio. Most people report success in the 1-4mg range. A lot of people start at 1mg and then upgrade to a max of 4mg. Apparently beyond 4mg it doesn't work the same. The immuno-modulatory effect is at 4mg and below. Some people talk about ultra low dose regimens, like below 0.5mg, but this seems a bit preposterous to me. Any thoughts on dosage?

Could I please get some correction on this from anyone with expertise? ---> My understanding is that the low dose antagonizes opiate receptors, in turn causing them to upregulate / increase growth. (I am thinking this could be similar to how low dose ketamine acts on pre-frontal synapses.) The body responds by increasing endorphin release, which has an immuno-modulatory effect. There is a correlation (causation not yet understood though) between people with low endorphin output and dysregulated immune systems. Am I correct in my understanding?

My other question is... if you're doing LDN and suddenly stop, are one's opiate receptors going to suddenly get flooded by endorphins, causing down-regulation again? What I'm wondering is, IF the drug works for my intended purposes, would I have to be on it forever?

Low doses are cheap and non-toxic so it's worth a try. I am just having a hard time finding definitive research. Big Pharma doesn't care about it anymore because it's off-patent, so most of the reporting is anecdotal from individuals who post their stories online. Some stories are miraculous, frankly.

Any experience or theoretical insight would be GREATLY appreciated as I am about to become my own guinea pig. Wanting to gather as much info as possible before the attempt, and I may post an experience report later.

Thanks!!

May I ask what your condition is? PM me if it's better. I have Fibro, CFS, Epilepsy, extreme IBS, ...and, physically, that's all I can think of. But a lot of pain. I did oxy for two years (prescribed) bc of it, but, as I suspected, I couldn't handle the drug long term.

I'm currently on Naltrexone for the reasons you are suggesting. I don't currently drink or use opiates, that's not why I'm on it. But it seems like the 25mg is making the pain worse, not better.

 

[Nagelfar]

By the second page of such an interesting thread, people almost always come in just browsing who have piqued serious questions / responses without care of reading the bulk of the (IMO engagingly informative) first section (of much value, again IMO) probably W/O having very much interest piqued except that something out of context doesn't make sense with where they're head is at in their terse over-view of the content; or perhaps they just aren't being clear on what (in what context) they are asking with how they've generally posed their question:

I am just amused that this is the case, for instance; talking about severe reaction in smaller than tolerated generally populations, i.e. for people with specific conditions already; you can similarly ask "what's wrong with eating bread" about someone with celiac's disease. (I remember a no wheat diet, gluten sensitivity, rejecting a piece of bread mentioning wheat, and the response received was "that's not wheat bread, it's white bread; not wheat")

I don't think quinic acid itself was shown to have this effect, but rather cinnamoyl esters of quinic acid.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15088081

I read this before, but coming across it again, it's interesting how much de-caff coffee can potentially have an effect in its contents from other sources. I detest the whole "only CNS active ingredient" of, whatever, being claimed (THC for cannabis, nicotine for pure tobacco; even cocaine for coca leaf, or morphine, codeine for the opium poppy), other alkaloids, terpenoids etc. = molecular fragments of matter period - the very fact that they are something entering your body, *have* an effect; esp. a synergistic one.