Cleaning opiate/opioid receptors

[ARC2100]

Hey guys... My question is how is it possible to "clean" opiate/opioid receptors (besides letting them naturally re-uptake)? I've heard of a Chinese herb called polygala and I've heard that there does exist medications designed to clean these receptors. I also heard DXM can help this. Has any body tried any of these or knows for sure what does the trick or worked for them?

 

[ErgicMergic]

Umm, what the hell is a "clean receptor?"

Opioid receptors are either occupied (drug/endorphins are bound to them like a key to a lock), or unoccupied (sober/withdrawal).

Don't waste your money with that crap.

 

[gaktattack]

Yeah, definitely sounds like some holistic bullshit. Just like taking laxatives and calling it a detox program.

Ive taken more than my share of biology courses. The only thing I know of that can "clean" your opi receptors is narcan. It will get you squeaky clean.

 

[SPC123]

Naloxone will make your receptors squeaky clean like a lock with a key super glued and broken off in it.

 

[nAON]

Are you just wanting to decrease your tolerance? DXM, Magnesium supplements, and potentiators like GABAs can help, but at the end of the day, if tolerance is building up, the most you can do is just stop taking opis for a while.

 

[ErgicMergic]

^This is the truth. If you can't stand to totally take a break, another way to reduce tolerance is to taper to a low, maintenance dosage, while taking NMDA antagonists like Magnesium, Zinc, and DXM, like nAON mentioned. This way it is less painful to reduce tolerance since you can maintain for a week or two without problems if you are opiate dependent.

 

[qwe]

NMDA antagonists like dxm or ketamine only work to lower the rate of tolerance increase, which means if you're not using any opiates, they're not going to lower the tolerance at all, and even when using opiates they only lower the amount of increase of tolerance.

 

[pema]

Naloxone will make your receptors squeaky clean like a lock with a key super glued and broken off in it.

No. That is not true. Naloxone is an opioid antagonist. It is able to "remove" other opioids from the receptors because it has a higher affinity.
But it will not "clean" the receptors. Naloxone also is an opioid ligand. Ligands are the substances that will connect with a specific receptor. This could be an agonist which connects to a receptor and is responsible for a specific effect or an antagonist which also binds to that receptor but is not responsible for an effect.
But the receptors are not "clean" because naloxone itself binds to this receptors. It just does not activate the receptor and blocks it for other ligands/agonists.

Are you just wanting to decrease your tolerance?

I would guess that the reduction of tolerance is meant with the "receptor cleaning".

DXM, Magnesium supplements, and potentiators like GABAs can help, but at the end of the day, if tolerance is building up, the most you can do is just stop taking opis for a while.

DXM is well known as NDMA antagonist that is capable of reducing tolerance.
There was a clinical study where patients got DXM plus methadone instead of methadone alone in order to reduce to methadone dose. It worked a little. But it probably was not effective enough.
I once took high dosed magnesium for more than a month. It did not work for tolerance reduction. Maybe it worked a little but I could not feel that my heroin had a stronger effect or that I needed less heroin.
In what way GABA could help? I think that GABA is not able to pass the blood brain barrier. So taking GABA capsules probably would not do anything. But there are some GABA drugs that pass the BBB, e.g. phenibut or picamilon. The GABA molecule is connected to another molecule and then the new molecule becomes able to cross the bbb. (In case of picamilon it is niacine. In case of phenibut it is an added phenyl ring.)
But I tried phenibut in order to see if it would help to reduce opioid cravings. It did not work and it also did not work for to reduce tolerance. I still needed the same amount of heroin in order to get high. I did not feel a difference.
But there are some other GABA drugs: baclofen, pregabalin and gabapentin which are said to reduce opioid withdrawal symptoms. But I never took that stuff and have no idea it could reduce tolerance. (And it is not really known how this stuff actually works.)

I've heard of a Chinese herb called polygala

I know nearly nothing about polygala. I think it is milkwort. There is a herbal withdrawal remedy pill with milkwort in it. I think it is a Traditional Chinese Medicine pill. Maybe it was "Chinese Formula". I am not sure about this right now but I could look it up. The stuff is said to work. It shall not stop heroin withdrawal but it shall be able to alleviate withdrawal symptoms. It contains 8 or 10 different herbs and only one of them is milkwort. I don't know how much this plant can do...

 

[Mercc96]

Doesn't milk thistle do something to the liver in relation to opiates?

 

[ErgicMergic]

NMDA antagonists like dxm or ketamine only work to lower the rate of tolerance increase, which means if you're not using any opiates, they're not going to lower the tolerance at all, and even when using opiates they only lower the amount of increase of tolerance.

My reasoning behind that is that NMDA antagonists have been shown to potentiate opioid analgesia, and to people who use it for pain, they can get by on a lower dose of their opiates with NMDA antagonists, so their brains can slowly adjust to a lower dose of opioids.

 

[SPC123]

No. That is not true. Naloxone is an opioid antagonist. It is able to "remove" other opioids from the receptors because it has a higher affinity.
But it will not "clean" the receptors. Naloxone also is an opioid ligand. Ligands are the substances that will connect with a specific receptor. This could be an agonist which connects to a receptor and is responsible for a specific effect or an antagonist which also binds to that receptor but is not responsible for an effect.
But the receptors are not "clean" because naloxone itself binds to this receptors.

I am guessing English is not your first language. My original post was entirely sarcastic. In other words, there is nothing squeaky clean about a lock with a key super glued and then broken off in it. Just as there is nothing squeaky clean about your receptors when you saturate them with naloxone in order to get rid of opiates.

 

[ss2brandon]

gene therapy