Low Dose Naltrexone

FDA-approved naltrexone, in a low dose, can normalize the immune system — helping those with HIV/AIDS, cancer, autoimmune diseases, and central nervous system disorders.

Welcome to the Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) Home Page

The authors of this website do not profit from the sale of low-dose naltrexone or from website traffic, and are in no way associated with any pharmaceutical manufacturer or pharmacy.

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For Announcements and Discussion about Low Dose Naltrexone,

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Click on this link: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/ldngrp

(You may then be asked to log in to your Google account—please do so.) Click on "Apply for membership" Fill out the short form and click the button "Apply to join this group"

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The LDN Google Group is an announcement and discussion group for those interested in LDN, and who wish to be notified about updates to this website. We expect that official announcements to the group will be fairly infrequent, typically not more than one per month. Group members may set their message delivery options by logging onto the LDN Google Group site.

“Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) may well be the most important therapeutic breakthrough in over fifty years. It provides a new, safe and inexpensive method of medical treatment by mobilizing the natural defenses of one’s own immune system.



“LDN substantially reduces health care costs and improves treatment of a wide array of diseases. Unfortunately, because naltrexone has been without patent protection for many years, no pharmaceutical company will bear the expense of the large clinical trials necessary for FDA approval of LDN’s new special uses. It is now up to public institutions to seize the opportunity that LDN offers.”

— David Gluck, MD

LDN Website Contents

> On this page you can find answers to these questions:

> You can go to more detailed information on these linked pages:

CBS News Reports:

"Wonder drug" LDN Could Help Treat Cancer, Multiple Sclerosis

JACKSONVILLE, FLA (CBS) — February, 2008 — This report features an interview with Lori Miles, an MS sufferer who can now walk again, thanks to LDN. Also quoted in the piece is Dr. Daniel Kantor, neurologist and director of the Comprehensive Multiple Sclerosis Program at the Shands Jacksonville Neuroscience Institute: "I would like all of us to write to our congressmen, ask the FDA and NIH—National Institutes of Health—to fund more research about LDN."

What is low-dose naltrexone and why is it important?

> Low-dose naltrexone holds great promise for the millions of people worldwide with autoimmune diseases or central nervous system disorders or who face a deadly cancer.

> In the developing world, LDN could provide the first low-cost, easy to administer, and side-effect-free therapy for HIV/AIDS.

Naltrexone itself was approved by the FDA in 1984 in a 50mg dose for the purpose of helping heroin or opium addicts, by blocking the effect of such drugs. By blocking opioid receptors, naltrexone also blocks the reception of the opioid hormones that our brain and adrenal glands produce: beta-endorphin and metenkephalin. Many body tissues have receptors for these endorphins and enkephalins, including virtually every cell of the body's immune system.

In 1985, Bernard Bihari, MD, a physician with a clinical practice in New York City, discovered the effects of a much smaller dose of naltrexone (approximately 3mg once a day) on the body's immune system. He found that this low dose, taken at bedtime, was able to enhance a patient's response to infection by HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. [Note: Subsequently, the optimal adult dosage of LDN has been found to be 4.5mg.]

In the mid-1990's, Dr. Bihari found that patients in his practice with cancer (such as lymphoma or pancreatic cancer) could benefit, in some cases dramatically, from LDN. In addition, people who had an autoimmune disease (such as lupus) often showed prompt control of disease activity while taking LDN.

First Study of LDN Published

in US Medical Journal Dr. Jill Smith’s original article, "Low-Dose Naltrexone Therapy Improves Active Crohn’s Disease," in the January issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology (2007;102(4):820-8), officially presents LDN to the world of scientific medicine. Smith, Professor of Gastroenterology at Pennsylvania State University's College of Medicine, found that two-thirds of the patients in her pilot study went into remission and fully 89% of the group responded to treatment to some degree. She concluded that “LDN therapy appears effective and safe in subjects with active Crohn’s disease.” (For further information on Smith's study, please see the linked Clinical Trials page.) Endoscopic Improvement in Crohn’s Colitis with Naltrexone

Figure A: Shown is the rectum of a subject with active Crohn’s Disease before starting therapy with naltrexone 4.5 mg/day. The mucosa is ulcerated, edematous, and inflamed.

Figure B: Shows the same area of the rectum in the same patient four weeks after naltrexone therapy. The lining is now healed, ulcers resolved, and the mucosa is healthy.

Copyrights: do not reproduce the above images and captions without written permission from Jill P. Smith, MD, Professor of Medicine, H-045 GI Division, Penn State College of Medicine, 500 University Drive, Hershey, PA 17033

How does LDN work?

> LDN boosts the immune system, activating the body's own natural defenses.

Up to the present time, the question of "What controls the immune system?" has not been present in the curricula of medical colleges and the issue has not formed a part of the received wisdom of practicing physicians. Nonetheless, a body of research over the past two decades has pointed repeatedly to one's own endorphin secretions (our internal opioids) as playing the central role in the beneficial orchestration of the immune system, and recognition of the facts is growing.

Witness these statements from a review article of medical progress in the November 13, 2003 issue of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine: "Opioid-Induced Immune Modulation: .... Preclinical evidence indicates overwhelmingly that opioids alter the development, differentiation, and function of immune cells, and that both innate and adaptive systems are affected.1,2 Bone marrow progenitor cells, macrophages, natural killer cells, immature thymocytes and T cells, and B cells are all involved. The relatively recent identification of opioid-related receptors on immune cells makes it even more likely that opioids have direct effects on the immune system.3"

The brief blockade of opioid receptors between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. that is caused by taking LDN at bedtime each night is believed to produce a prolonged up-regulation of vital elements of the immune system by causing an increase in endorphin and enkephalin production. Normal volunteers who have taken LDN in this fashion have been found to have much higher levels of beta-endorphins circulating in their blood in the following days. Animal research by I. Zagon, PhD, and his colleagues has shown a marked increase in metenkephalin levels as well. [Note: Additional information for Dr. Zagon can be found at the end of this page.]

Bihari says that his patients with HIV/AIDS who regularly took LDN before the availability of HAART were generally spared any deterioration of their important helper T cells (CD4+).

In human cancer, research by Zagon over many years has demonstrated inhibition of a number of different human tumors in laboratory studies by using endorphins and low dose naltrexone. It is suggested that the increased endorphin and enkephalin levels, induced by LDN, work directly on the tumors' opioid receptors — and, perhaps, induce cancer cell death (apoptosis). In addition, it is believed that they act to increase natural killer cells and other healthy immune defenses against cancer.

In general, in people with diseases that are partially or largely triggered by a deficiency of endorphins (including cancer and autoimmune diseases), or are accelerated by a deficiency of endorphins (such as HIV/AIDS), restoration of the body's normal production of endorphins is the major therapeutic action of LDN.

ABC News Reports:

LDN a "Wonder Drug?" By Ali Gorman Hershey, Pa. - May 21, 2008 (WPVI) -- It's a drug already helping thousands of people battle addiction, but many people believe it also has the potential to help tens-of-thousands of patients with diseases like Crohn's, multiple sclerosis, Lupus, Parkinson's and even HIV. It's called low dose naltrexone or LDN. Many patients who've tried it said it works and doesn't have bad side effects. But getting it to a pharmacy near you could be difficult. [Please click to read more. Video no longer available.]

What diseases has it been useful for and how effective is it?

> Bernard Bihari, MD, as well as other physicians and researchers, have described beneficial effects of LDN on a variety of diseases:

Cancers Bladder Cancer

Breast Cancer

Carcinoid

Colon & Rectal Cancer

Glioblastoma

Liver Cancer

Lung Cancer (Non-Small Cell)

Lymphocytic Leukemia (chronic)

Lymphoma (Hodgkin's and Non-Hodgkin's)

Malignant Melanoma

Multiple Myeloma

Neuroblastoma

Ovarian Cancer

Pancreatic Cancer

Prostate Cancer (untreated)

Renal Cell Carcinoma

Throat Cancer

Uterine Cancer Other Diseases Common Colds (URI’s)

Emphysema (COPD)

HIV/AIDS

Depression (Major; and Bipolar)

Lyme Disease (LATE Stage) Autoimmune

Neurodegenerative: ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease)

Alzheimer's Disease

Autism Spectrum Disorders

Hereditary Spastic Paraparesis

Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

Parkinson's Disease

Post-Polio Syndrome

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) ⇒

Primary Lateral Sclerosis (PLS)

Progressive Supranuclear Palsy

Transverse Myelitis

Other Autoimmune Diseases: Ankylosing Spondylitis

Behcet's Disease

Celiac Disease

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

CREST syndrome

Crohn's Disease

Dermatomyositis

Dystonia

Endometriosis

Fibromyalgia

Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis

Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

Myasthenia Gravis (MG)

Nephrotic Syndrome

Pemphigoid

Primary Biliary Cirrhosis

Psoriasis

Rheumatoid Arthritis

Sarcoidosis

Scleroderma

Sjogren’s Syndrome

Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS)

Systemic Lupus (SLE)

Ulcerative Colitis

Wegener's Granulomatosis

LDN Documentary Returns October 2017 Norway TV2 Documentary: "Unknown Medicine LDN Gives Hope to Thousands of Patients." Although the English language translation was lost to us for some time, we again have the great pleasure of being able to see the most absorbing video about LDN, now on YouTube. This Norwegian video (with English subtitles)—broadcast in 2013—tells an evenhanded and compelling story about the difficulties the population experienced in learning about LDN. It also highlights the success stories of several people with different diseases who were restored to good health through the use of LDN in Norway and in Ireland. By 2015, LDN users in Norway had increased from a mere 300 to about 15,000 people.

Video • Article