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Low Dose Naltrexone

Thanks Mysterie. Like I said I have read some stuff about it being used as a novel anti-depressant, but I'm more interested in it as an anti-inflammatory. Under that category, it seems like IBD (which I have) has had the most positive results among those with auto-immune. Sorry it didn't work for you as you had hoped. I have given up on finding "miracle" anything. In my first year of dealing with this hell condition I kept coming across novel treatments and I'd put all my hope into them, only to be let down. I've learned to be more realistic about it now. The reality is that it's probably going to be a combo of things plus a lot of patience before I am a lot better, BUT I do believe it's possible for me to return to a more or less normal life. That hope will never fade!

Last night my sleep was pretty perfect. Fell asleep at 12:30am and woke up at 7am, and it was a deep sleep. I also have more energy this morning.

Based on what you just told me and some other stuff I read, I'm going to shorten the 1.5mg course to 2 weeks before upgrading to 3mg. You may be right that 4mg is ideal but I'm just going soft on myself. It may be that 1.5mg doesn't provide a long enough blockade during the night to make things optimal.
 
i thought naltrexone is very expensive and hard to find, but finally a source at alldaychemist offers it quite cheap as generic. i havent used it yet to know if its reliable, but it makes sense to get it cheaper as generic from india
 
I paid $60 Canadian for a 2 month supply.

It's not expensive in North America... or at least it shouldn't be. It's off patent and any compounding pharmacy can make it.
 
Just wanted to post an update. I'm almost 2 weeks in and I'm noticing positive changes. I have 3-4 times more daytime energy. In December I caught the common cold and had a sore throat for two weeks before my body sort of fought it off, but I don't believe it ever fully did. I also had internal bleeding.

I recently contracted influenza, which normally devastates my body and causes major complications with my auto-immune condition. Instead, I was acutely ill for 2 days and then it passed on. I was also able to work and be active rather than bed ridden.

This drug really works. The only side effect so far is vivid dreams, but I still wake up feeling rested.

I've also been communicating in LDN networks online to find out other people's experiences and there are a lot of positive stories. I would recommend the LDN protocol to anyone dealing with chronic pain, inflammation, or auto-immune disease of any kind.
 
SORRY to hear about the flu and internal bleeding. I hope those are in your rearview mirror now. Compromised immune systems...sometimes seem "non-existent"...leave us fragile and vulnerable.

Does your doctor even allow you to take the flu shot? Mine advises against it (for me). Both my husband and I were severely ill with flu throughout the holiday season. I'm sorry that you were, too.

=D Super excited that you feel LDN is helping you! That is good to hear, Foreigner.

Keep us posted, okay?
 
hi, i wish to know more about the effects experienced by using naltrexone regarding addictions. for example, if you take it do you actually feel satisfied and comfortable without the need for using any alcohol or opiates or other drugs OR it kind of sedates you and numbs you like a sedative or antipsychotic therefore losing interest in getting high or how exactly does it feel and work, im confused!?
 
iirc people use naltrexone at 50mg + to counter opiate cravings.

low dose naltrexone (.5-4.5mg) may block most of the effect of an opiate while in ur system but will only have a subtle effect on addictive behaviour.
 
Thanks for the recommendation and history. I'm going to try NLD because of reports by people using The Sinclair Method for reducing alcohol use. Alcohol provides immediate pain relief, but I have inflammation and increased phantom limb pain the next day. I've read on Bluelight about the problems folks have with opiate addictions and NLD. I take 10mg oxy each night to sleep through the chronic pain, and to suppress the acute episodes. Naltrexone's half-life is reported to be 4-10 hours with a slow terminal elimination-phase half-life of 96 hours. If the Naltrexone competes with the Oxy and the pain is problematic then I'm not sure I'll stay with it even if it reduces the alcohol cravings. Any advice on what to expect?
 
Naltrexone at doses that promote abstinence from alcohol I think you're guaranteed to be put into opioid withdrawal, I think doses like 50mg are used for alcohol abstinence and I would expect some insomnia at those doses as well. The ultra low doses shouldn't put you into opioid withdrawal and they probably won't help with alcohol sobriety but they can help with peripheral nerve sensitization. That is to say that I'm not sure whether phantom limb pain is a disease of the peripheral nerves or brain (or a combination).

If we suppose that mirror therapy is effective for phantom limb pain then we may suppose that that particular pain has more to do with the brain, and thus naltrexone may have less of an effect on the phantom limb pain component of your pain.
 
asecin said:
hi, i wish to know more about the effects experienced by using naltrexone regarding addictions. for example, if you take it do you actually feel satisfied and comfortable without the need for using any alcohol or opiates or other drugs OR it kind of sedates you and numbs you like a sedative or antipsychotic therefore losing interest in getting high or how exactly does it feel and work, im confused!?
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Naltrexone completely blocks the effects of opioids and some of the pleasurable effects produced by other drugs of abuse (such as alcohol). That is all it does. It doesn't make you feel better or counteract craving for opioids.
 
well thats stupid. i dont need to take shit like antabuse for example making me sick when i drink. i was hoping for alternative to keep me cool without using alcohol. i was confused i guess, i thought naltrexone kind of helps normalize some imbalances when you abuse drugs or alcohol and kind of keeps you stable but i guess not. for such hard to get drug that costs so much, kind of disappointing. and if it really has not much of an effect, why would it cause insomnia though, interesting
 
asecin said:
well thats stupid. i dont need to take shit like antabuse for example making me sick when i drink. i was hoping for alternative to keep me cool without using alcohol. i was confused i guess, i thought naltrexone kind of helps normalize some imbalances when you abuse drugs or alcohol and kind of keeps you stable but i guess not. for such hard to get drug that costs so much, kind of disappointing. and if it really has not much of an effect, why would it cause insomnia though, interesting
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It isn't intended to make people sick. In fact, the intent is that patients wouldn't even notice they are taking it. However, naltrexone acts as an inverse agonist, so it can apparently produce subjective effects in some patients.

In terms of the use of naltrexone in alcoholism, it appears that to some extent the euphoria produced by ethanol is a consequence of endogenous opioid activity. So alcoholics who take naltrexone and then drink alcohol will get drunk, but it won't be as enjoyable. Hence, they may have better control over their drinking.
 
Naltrexone blocks opiate receptors and has somewhat of a restorative effect on them. The length of time the receptors are blocked for is dose dependent. Doses of 50mg or higher cause a 24 hour blockade. LDN causes a blockade of a few hours, to trick your body into thinking no endogenous endorphins are being released, so it releases more. When the blockade wears off in a few hours, the receptors then get flooded with the excess endorphins, and it up-regulates the immune system of the body. This method mainly enhances Opioid Growth Factor (OGF) and Enkephalin.

Naltrexone doses of 50mg+ should only be started after you have already stopped opiates, otherwise you'll have rapid withdrawal. So you still need to go through the acute WD phase before starting it. However, once you start Naltrexone, it does help to reverse opiate dependence on a receptor level.

I hope this answers your question. I'd appreciate if you created another thread for regular Naltrexone use because this one is about LDN, which is an off-label use of the drug.
 
My experience so far has been positive. I've been doing heaps of research and communicating with other users of LDN and it turns out that the dosing range for positive effects is variable and subjective, depending on the individual. For instance some people find positive results at 4.5mg (the max dose for LDN) but others need to go lower. I had very negative impacts on my sleep at 1.5mg, so much so that I was considering stopping LDN completely. I was having major daytime grogginess and sleep was so dream disturbed that I was only getting 5-6 hours of sleep per day.

Then someone online told me to try going to 3mg. When I did so, I paradoxically started having better sleep and all the effects switched to being more benign. There are people online who can only increase their dose by 0.5mg without suffering intense effects, but so far I have been able to double the dose without major incident.

Apparently the ideal dose for my specific type of auto-immune disease is 4.5mg. I'm going to try that in 1 month and see how it works. A woman I talked to whose condition and personal story closely match mine said that her magic dose is 2.5mg. She has been on it for 13 months and her disease is completely in remission. She also no longer has any food allergies.
 
not sure if thats of any relevance, but saw this recently; Quinic acid is also thought to displace binding of the mu opioid receptor antagonist Naltrexone, even though this acid was originally thought to be pharmacologically inactive whatever will that do
 
asecin said:
not sure if thats of any relevance, but saw this recently; Quinic acid is also thought to displace binding of the mu opioid receptor antagonist Naltrexone, even though this acid was originally thought to be pharmacologically inactive whatever will that do
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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
 
ok before i move on from this one last questions regarding naltrexone. does anyone know if regular use of naltrexone long term and then stopping it will cause opiates and alcohol to not feel pleasurable at all for long periods of time or just for a while? i read that it might help with tolerance and it upregulates opioid receptors, how does that work, it might enhance opiates effects long term or no?
 
asecin said:
ok before i move on from this one last questions regarding naltrexone. does anyone know if regular use of naltrexone long term and then stopping it will cause opiates and alcohol to not feel pleasurable at all for long periods of time or just for a while? i read that it might help with tolerance and it upregulates opioid receptors, how does that work, it might enhance opiates effects long term or no?
Click to expand...
Naltrexone can only influence the response to those drugs while it is actively bound to opioid receptors. There is reason to suspect that naltrexone will upregulate MOR in humans but I don't think studies have confirmed such speculation.
 
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