viernes, 25 de diciembre de 2009

DIA 4 con LDN (Low Dose Naltrexone)

Desde que tomo LDN (4 dias) estas son las cosas recurrentes que me pasaron:

1. Insomnio
2. Dormir poco ( 3 a 6 hs)
3. Al despertar me siento bastante bien por 5 horas
4. Vuelven los dolores tipicos de la FM (15hs)
5. Tipo 16 hs necesito una siesta de 2 hs.
6. Los dolores persisten, quizas en menor medida

jueves, 24 de diciembre de 2009

DIA 3 con LDN (Low Dose Naltrexone)

Ayer empezé muy bien el día, pero ya a media tarde empezé a sentir dolores y rigidez en el cuerpo. O sea que me sentí bastante bien hasta el mediodía y después cedio el efecto un poco.
Hoy amanecí bastante bien. Siendo un día húmedo y lluvioso, me tendría que sentir bastante peor. Así que la LDN va funcionando.
Eso sí, el insomnio es una constante. Dormí muy poco. Me habré dormido a las 5 am y me desperté a las 8:30, pero increiblemente con pocos dolores.
Lo unico que me falta es la balanza para ponderar mejor la dosis.
veremos como sigo a la tarde.

miércoles, 23 de diciembre de 2009

INFO



La LDN no es cara. Es BARATA. Es barata porque se venció la licencia del laboratorio fabricante.
Ya no es negocio tratar enfermos con esta droga.
A la industria médica le conviene venderte antidepresivos u opioides de alto costo que solo buscan utilidades y no el beneficio del paciente. Esto es patético verdad?
Todavía no está aprobada esta droga en dosis bajas pero en USA y Europa ya hay más de 100.000 pacientes bajo este tratamiento.
LLevo solo 2 dias bajo LDN, si bien los dolores todavía están; he notado su efecto en mi cuerpo.

DIA 2 con LDN (Low Dose Naltrexone)

Iba a esperar una semana para volver a postear sobre mi evolución.
Por suerte no necesité tanto tiempo.
Putaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!! Me siento mejoooooooooooooooooooorrrrrrrr!!!!!!
Bastante mejor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Si bien el insomnio es evidente, ya que me dormí a las 6 am, ya estaba levantado a las 10:30 am y me sentí mucho mejor que días atrás.
Lo puedo jurar por los ojos de mi madre.
No puedo hablar de porcentajes de mejoría; ¿50%? ¿60%? ¿70%?, bueno no sé cuanto mejor, pero la mejora es evidente.

Todavía no me llegó la balanza, pero la dosis inicial es del tamaño de una miguita de pan de pequeña.
Ya iré posteando fotos y videos sobre las dosis.

martes, 22 de diciembre de 2009

DIA 1 con LDN (Low Dose Naltrexone)


Ya había adquirido la naltrexona hacía 15 días pero debía esperar unos días en tomarla para deshabituar al organismo de la droga opiácea Tramadol que venía tomando hace 5 meses.
Cerca de la 1:30 am de la madrugada del día 22-12-09 trituro una pastilla de 50 mg. de naltrexona (REVEZ, marca comercial en Argentina) con el triturador de pastillas y la fracciono como quien "peina" cocaina en 16 partes.
Ingerí la fracción y la bajé con sprite. ¿El gusto? Agrio, pero realmente es muy poquita cantidad.
Pero pensando que esto me va a ayudar en mi enfermedad, pude imaginar sin mucha dificultad que eso era un manjar.
La cuestión es que no pude dormir hasta las 7:00, no sé si fue por el efecto de la dósis o por la sugestión de haber leído en cientos de foros que las dosis provocan insomnio.
Dormí 5 horas al final. Ahora son las 13 hs. de este día, y ¿Como me siento? Por ahora, la respuesta es esperanza. Peor que antes no me siento, hasta diría que estoy tolerando bien el día. Tal vez sea el efecto esperanzador, que me haga sentir hoy de otra manera.
Por ahora esto.
Mas adelanto ire posteando fotos y videos de como preparo la "Pósima".

lunes, 7 de diciembre de 2009

Estudio de LDN en Fibromialgia de la Univ.Stanford USA (en Ingles)

Low-Dose Naltrexone Reduces the Symptoms of Fibromyalgia



Fibromyalgia Symptoms are reduced by low-dose naltrexone: A pilot study.

Pain Medicine (2009)

Jarred W. Younger and Sean C. Mackey

What is fibromyalgia?

People with fibromyalgia complain of chronic pain in the muscles of their body. They are also often profoundly fatigued, and have difficulty sleeping well. Headaches, stomach problems, and a number of other symptoms are frequently reported. Millions of people in the United States meet the criteria for fibromyalgia, and the condition seems to affect more women than men. The disorder can be debilitating, as the pain and fatigue prevent the individual from carrying out their normal activities. There are three FDA-approved medications for fibromyalgia, but not all individuals respond well to those treatments.

What is low-dose naltrexone?

We tested a medication called low-dose naltrexone (LDN). Naltrexone is a medication that has been used for many years to treat opioid addiction. When given at a smaller dose (usually 4.5mg), the drug may help to reduce pain associated with inflammatory and autoimmune conditions, such as multiple sclerosis and Crohn’s disease. LDN is not FDA-approved for the treatment of pain, and is still experimental. LDN capsules are typically taken once per day.


What was the study?
We ran a small study to see if individuals with fibromyalgia would receive benefit from taking LDN. Ten women were enrolled in the study – all of whom met the criteria for fibromyalgia. The participants were given a handheld computer to record their pain, fatigue, and other symptoms on a daily basis. They filled out the daily report for two weeks before receiving capsules. Then they received capsules to take once daily. The participants received placebo for two weeks, and then LDN for 8 weeks. The study was single-blind, so participants did not know when they were receiving placebo or LDN. Finally, participants stopped taking the capsules and continued to fill out the daily reports for two more weeks.

Did the drug work?
We were very encouraged by the results. In six out of ten participants, LDN was significantly better than placebo at reducing fibromyalgia symptoms. LDN reduced daily pain, the highest level of pain, fatigue, and stress. Other symptoms, such as sleep problems, gastrointestinal complaints, and headaches, also seemed to be helped.



Pain Medicine (2009). Overall, self-reported, daily fibromyalgia symptoms (scale 0 – 100, with 100 being most severe symptoms). Time periods are: baseline, placebo, LDN, and washout. The data are separated into drug responders (solid line, 6 people) and drug nonresponders (broken line, 4 people). Drug responders are individuals who had at least a 30% greater reduction of symptoms during LDN versus placebo.


What were the side-effects?

We did not observe any serious side-effects during the course of the study. The most commonly reported side-effect (reported by 2 participants) was more vivid dreams. All of the participants who started the study finished the entire 14-week protocol.

Who was involved?

This study was conducted by lead investigator Jarred Younger, PhD and Sean Mackey, MD, PhD. Both investigators are in the Department of Anesthesia, Division of Pain Management at the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, CA. The experiment was conducted at the school of Medicine. The capsules were prepared by Preuss Pharmacy in Menlo Park, CA.

How did you fund the study?

We were fortunate to have a number of donors that supported this work. Because naltrexone is a generic drug (in other words, not owned by a pharmaceutical company), it is difficult to secure funds to test the drug. We received critical financial support from a gift given by Jim and Connie Binns. We also received financial and logistical support from the American Fibromyalgia Syndrome Association (AFSA), a not-for-profit organization that specializes in funding studies of fibromyalgia treatments. The Oxnard Foundation provided additional support for the study.

We are currently seeking additional funding to support our continued investigation into the efficacy of low-dose naltrexone for fibromyalgia and other conditions. If you are interested in supporting our research please contact us at

snapl@stanford.edu

Are there any warnings?
We recognize that chronic pain hugely impacts not only patients but their families and friends as well. Often people seek out the newest research and treatments in the hopes of reducing their pain and suffering. While we are excited about the results of this study, we believe some cautions are in order in interpreting our results. This study was very small; only ten fibromyalgia patients were tested. Therefore, the results must be replicated on a larger scale, with more people. There are also a number of questions to be answered regarding proper dosing, interactions with other medications, and whether or not beneficial effects are maintained over a long period of time.

Consequently, this study should not be interpreted to suggest that LDN is a well-accepted treatment for fibromyalgia pain and fatigue. Although we are pleased with the results of this pilot trial, it is still too early to say how effective LDN will be for individuals not in this study.


What’s next?
We are currently running a double-blind trial and are enrolling participants for that study. We expect that study to be finished by the end of 2009. Individuals with fibromyalgia who are close to Stanford University can participate in the trial. More information can be found at: http://snapl.stanford.edu/ldn/


We will continue to test LDN and similar medications, as we seek to develop treatments for chronic pain that are highly effective, easily available, and have a low incidence of side-effects.

Who should I contact if I have additional quiestions or am interested in supporting your research?

General inquiries and inquiries regarding financial support of our research should be directed to
snapl@stanford.edu

viernes, 4 de diciembre de 2009

Qué dice Wikipedia sobre ldn? (en inglés)

Low dose naltrexone

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Low dose naltrexone (LDN), where naltrexone is used in doses approximately one-tenth those used for drug/alcohol rehabilitation purposes, is being used as an "off-label" treatment for certain immunologically-related disorders. The use of LDN for such diseases as cancer was first proposed by Ian Zagon, PhD, and LDN's broader clinical effects in humans were proposed by Bernard Bihari, MD[citation needed].

In Milan, Italy, a sixth month trial with a low dose of the opiate antagonist Naltrexone (LDN) was carried out in 40 patients with primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS). It reported that neurological disability progressed in only one patient, and that a significant reduction of spasticity was measured at the end of the trial. It also reported that BE concentration increased during the trial, but that no association was found between OPRM1 variants and improvement of spasticity. There were two "major adverse events" and five dropouts from the trial, resulting in an extremely small sample group. The two adverse events were not connected with LDN or MS. Multiple Sclerosis. 2008 Sep;14(8):1076-83. A pilot trial of low-dose naltrexone in primary progressive multiple sclerosis. http://msj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/14/8/1076

Low-dose naltrexone (LDN) may be useful in treating fibromyalgia, according to research by Jarred Younger, Ph.D., and Sean Mackey, M.D., of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, Calif. The authors of the report write: "We conclude that LDN is a drug that should be researched more thoroughly for the treatment of fibromyalgia, and perhaps more generally for conditions associated with elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate." The American Fibromyalgia Syndrome Association provided financial support for the study. http://snapl.stanford.edu/research/ldn.html

The results of an open-label pilot study at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine were reported to an international gastroenterology conference in Los Angeles in May 2006. The trial examined the safety and efficacy of LDN in a group of patients with Crohn's disease. Dr. Jill Smith, Professor of Gastroenterology at Pennsylvania State University's College of Medicine concluded that "LDN therapy appears effective and safe in subjects with active Crohn’s disease."[1] Smith and her colleagues have since received a NIH grant and are proceeding with a definitive Phase II placebo-controlled clinical trial.

There is some in vitro data that may suggest the potential benefits of LDN therapy[citation needed]. Many anecdotal accounts and case reports have also been cited in favor of LDN therapy Those Who Suffer Much Know Much, July 2009 is the first book to contain LDN patient testimony in detail, as case studies. It contains 47 low dose naltrexone patient case studies , researched over many years and produced by Cris Kerr of Case Health as a community service. Some of the many conditions for which LDN has been reported as beneficial include multiple sclerosis (in particular, the primary progressive variant[2]), Crohn's disease, HIV/AIDS, chronic fatigue syndrome, irritable bowel syndrome, psoriasis, fibromyalgia, ALS, autism in children, depersonalization disorder, and cancer. Several clinical trials have been planned and a few are currently taking place.

Various low doses of Naltrexone have also been used as part of the "NaProTECHNOLOGY" fertility treatment, a commercially trademarked and heavily marketed product aimed at religious adherents who may have moral objections to common birth control and fertility treatments. [1][2]

Contents

[hide]

[edit] Pharmacology

It has been theorized that LDN works in multiple modalities. Without formal studies, there is no formal conclusion as of yet, but the generally accepted theory posited originally by Dr. Bihari is as follows:

Beta-endorphins are important regulators of the immune system. Naltrexone, which is a pure antagonist to opiates, causes an artificial blockade of the endorphin/opioid receptors in the brain. However, unlike the normal (~50 mg) dose of naltrexone used to treat drug addiction, which maintains this blockade continuously for 24 hours (preventing any derived pleasure from taking the forbidden drugs), low dose naltrexone (~3 mg to 4.5 mg) blocks the endorphin receptors for only a couple of hours. During that time, endorphins fail to attach to the receptors and the body compensates by creating more endorphins. (Note that Dr. Bihari prescribes LDN to be taken at bedtime to take advantage of the body's pre-dawn boost in endorphin production.) Once the low dose naltrexone dose has been metabolized, the body is left with a "normal" amount of endorphins as compared to healthy controls, which consequently "normalizes" the immune function. The link between endorphins and immune system regulation is a good candidate for more research.

Since 2005, at least 3 separate scientific reports have described an underlying immunodeficiency as being characteristic of four different autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease and chronic fatigue syndrome.[3][4][5] In addition, recent scientific research has demonstrated abnormally low beta-endorphins in all forms of multiple sclerosis.[6]

In April 2006 an LDN conference was held at the National Cancer Institute. Several lecturers were present discussing the use of LDN in Crohn's disease, multiple sclerosis, general autoimmune disease, and cancer. One participant, Burton M. Berkson MD PhD of Las Cruces, New Mexico discussed his experience treating metastatic pancreatic cancer and B cell lymphoma with LDN at bedtime.

{Berkson, BM, Rubin D, and Berkson AJ (2006) "Long term survival of a 46 year old man with pancreatic cancer and liver metastases and treated with intravenous alpha lipoic acid and low dose naltrexone." Integrative Cancer Therapies 5:1,83-89. PMID: 16484716}{Berkson, BM, Rubin D, and Berkson AJ (2007) "Reversal of signs and symptoms of a B-cell lymphoma in a patient using only low-dose naltrexone."Integrative Cancer Therapies" Sep;6(3):293-6. PMID: 17761642} His images showing the reduction and elimination of tumours and metastaces are impressive.

[edit] Alleged Controversy

Some Doctors are reluctant to prescribe LDN for multiple sclerosis patients, as LDN boosts the immune system.[citation needed] More accurately, LDN is believed to restore normality to the immune system, which leads to correct immune system behavior. However, the large number (over 50,000) of people using it for MS without experiencing worsening of their condition suggests that the prevailing model is flawed. This is one of the most significant points of controversy in this debate.

It is a fact that some doctors prescribe LDN to MS patients via a telephone conversation, without even seeing the patients or their medical records. This practice has evolved out of desperation to get LDN. However, in trials, Naltrexone has been proven safe even for pregnant mothers. While it is strongly recommended to consult a doctor directly and one that requires you to provide medical records, there are now more and more doctors who will prescribe LDN.

Some who use LDN can experience vivid, memorable dreams for the first week or so and a very few with multiple sclerosis can also suffer increased stiffness in the beginning of use.[citation needed]

[edit] Conferences

The most recent LDN Conference was held on 19 October 2009 at the National Institutes of Health, near Washington D.C. [3]

Last year's Annual LDN Conference was held on 11 October 2008 at USC Health Sciences Campus, Los Angeles, California, USA.

The first European LDN Conference was held on 25 April 2009 at The Western Infirmary, Glasgow, Scotland, UK. The next is on 23-24 April 2010.

Bold text==References==

  1. ^ *Smith JP, Stock H, Bingaman S, Mauger D, Rogosnitzky M, Zagon IS (April 2007). "Low-dose naltrexone therapy improves active Crohn's disease.". Am J Gastroenterol 102 (4): 820–8. doi:10.1111/j.1572-0241.2007.01045.x. PMID 17222320.
  2. ^ Gironi M, Martinelli-Boneschi F, Sacerdote P, Solaro C, Zaffaroni M, Cavarretta R, Moiola L, Bucello S, Radaelli M, Pilato V, Rodegher M, Cursi M, Franchi S, Martinelli V, Nemni R, Comi G, Martino G (2008). "A pilot trial of low-dose naltrexone in primary progressive multiple sclerosis.". Multiple Sclerosis 14 (8): 1076–83. doi:10.1177/1352458508095828. PMID 18728058.
  3. ^ *Thewissen M, Linsen L, Somers V, Geusens P, Raus J, Stinissen P (June 2005). "Premature immunosenescence in rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis patients.". Ann N Y Acad Sci 1051: 255–62. doi:10.1196/annals.1361.066. PMID 16126966.
  4. ^ *Marks DJ, Harbord MW, MacAllister R, Rahman FZ, Young J, Al-Lazikani B, Lees W, Novelli M, Bloom S, Segal AW (25 February 2006). "Defective acute inflammation in Crohn's disease: a clinical investigation.". Lancet 367 (9511): 668–78. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(06)68265-2. PMID 16503465.
  5. ^ *Vernon SD, Reeves WC (April 2006). "The challenge of integrating disparate high-content data: epidemiological, clinical and laboratory data collected during an in-hospital study of chronic fatigue syndrome.". Pharmacogenomics 7 (3): 345–54. doi:10.2217/14622416.7.3.345. PMID 16610945.
  6. ^ *Gironi M, Furlan R, Rovaris M, Comi G, Filippi M, Panerai AE, Sacerdote P (2003). "Beta endorphin concentrations in PBMC of patients with different clinical phenotypes of multiple sclerosis.". J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 74 (4): 495–7. doi:10.1136/jnnp.74.4.495. PMID 12640071.

[edit] Further reading

  • Berkson, BM, Rubin D, and Berkson AJ (2006) "Long term survival of a 46 year old man with pancreatic cancer and liver metastases and treated with intravenous alpha lipoic acid and low dose naltrexone." Integrative Cancer Therapies 5:1,83-89. PMID: 16484716
  • Berkson, BM, Rubin D, and Berkson AJ (2007) "Reversal of signs and symptoms of a B-cell lymphoma in a patient using only low-dose naltrexone."Integrative Cancer Therapies" Sep;6(3):293-6. PMID: 17761642
  • Those Who Suffer Much Know Much, July 2009 is a free book containing 47 low dose naltrexone health success stories presented as case studies, produced by Cris Kerr of Case Health as a community service.
  • Wouk, Joseph (2009) "Google LDN ! : How an overlooked Drug Relieves Cancer, AIDS,MS, and Immune System Disorders for a Dollar a Day" Foreword by Bernard Bihari, M.D.
  • Moore, Elaine A. Author, Dr. Yash P. Agrawal (Foreword), Samantha Wilkinson (Collaborator)(2008) "The Promise Of Low Dose Naltrexone Therapy: Potential Benefits in Cancer, Autoimmune, Neurological and Infectious Disorders"
  • Bradley, Mary Boyle (2009) Up the Creek with a Paddle: Beat MS and All Autoimmune Disorders with Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN)

[edit] External links

jueves, 3 de diciembre de 2009

Testimonio sobre Beneficios de LDN (en Inglés) del Sr Wouk



Testimonio Paciente sobre LDN (en Inglés)

QUE NECESITAMOS PARA TOMAR LDN?





Una Eminencia de Inglaterra habla sobre LDN (en Inglés)

Entrevista al Dr Bihari sobre la historia de LDN

Si sabes inglés, no dejes de leer esta interesantísima entrevista

fuente:
http://www.lowdosenaltrexone.org/gazorpa/interview.html


______________________________

Dr. Kamau B. Kokayi Interviews Dr. Bihari
September 23, 2003
WBAI in New York City

"Global Medicine Review”


Dr. Kokayi: …the story about Low Dose Naltrexone is really fascinating. How did you
get the idea?

Dr. Bihari: Well, we were treating heroin addicts, and in 1984 a new drug for the
treatment of addiction came out. It was called Naltrexone, and it was designed to
block the heroin “high”and it was a flop. I used it for a lot of patients, as did most
addiction doctors across the country. At 50 milligrams a day, it made people feel
terrible. Not that it blocked the heroin so much as it blocked their own endorphins,
which is a source of our sense of well-being, so that people couldn't sleep.

Dr. Kokayi: Your own opium, basically.

Dr. Bihari: Right. Your own equivalent. That's what heroin is. And I knew from
work that had been done by the National Institute on Drug Abuse in developing the
drug that it had the ability to trigger the body into making more endorphins, but at the
high 50 milligram dosage, the dose was too high. It blocks those endorphins.

About six months later our addicts began dying in large numbers of AIDS. I ran HIV
tests on about a hundred addicts, and fifty percent were already HIV positive. This
was in 1985; currently it’s eighty eighty-five percent around the country. And we
began looking for some way to approach this new disease, with a view to the idea that
this disease was likely to turn into a worldwide epidemic.

Dr. Kokayi: That was about the time where people were just being blasted with AZT
with horrific results.

Dr. Bihari: Right. There was nothing else available. When I discovered that people
with HIV had less than twenty percent of the normal levels of endorphins, that meant
that the virus not only kills the immune system cells, it also weakens the whole
immune system, so that it’s not as able to fight the virus.

We began looking for ways to use this drug to raise endorphins without blocking
them. We hired a laboratory scientist to measure endorphin levels. We’d measure in
the afternoon, then we'd give the first dose at bedtime that night. Then we’d measure
again at the same time the next day; then again at one week, and again at one month.

We found that doses in the range of 1.75 to 4.5 milligrams (which is just a fraction of
the recommended dosage to addicts) would trigger or jumpstart endorphin production
during the night.

Except with exercise, endorphins are made only between two and four in the
morning. The brain sends a message out to the adrenal and pituitary glands and tells
them to make endorphins. Giving a dose three, four, five hours before that, at
bedtime, is enough to make that message from the brain much stronger.

Dr. Kokayi: Were you able to document that the levels of endorphins were then
actually raised?

Dr. Bihari: The level of endorphins went up by two hundred to three hundred
percent. We then started a little foundation and did a placebo-controlled trial in which
half the patients got the drug and half got sugar pills. A year later when we broke the
code, we discovered that people with HIV who took the drug had only an eight percent
death rate in the year, while people who were on the placebo had a thirty-three percent
death rate. And of course they had many more infections and their immune system
declined. That was a startling discovery.

Dr. Kokayi: Now let me jump ahead, because I'm always curious about why this
therapy hasn't gotten the kind of publicity specifically for this disease.

Dr. Bihari: Well, at that time there was very little treatment. AZT came out about ’
87, and as you mentioned, it was not only a flop but made some people sicker. At the
time we did the study, there was nothing available.

So I met with doctors in New York and in San Francisco (where the largest number
of HIV doctors were at that time) and described this drug and how it worked, and
about forty to fifty doctors on the east and west coast began using it. Unfortunately,
they measured effectiveness by whether or not the numbers of the immune system
cells that are crucial in AIDS -- the CD4 cells -- were rising. On this drug, CD4 cells
don't rise in people with AIDS. As I knew from the study, and have known since,
they simply stop dropping. That means you can freeze the disease wherever it is. And
if somebody is only mildly immune-suppressed, they stay that way.

Dr. Kokayi: That's so important…

Dr. Bihari: It stops progression. It stops the count from growing. I have patients
going back as much as seventeen years who haven't lost an immune system cell in that
time. They're very healthy.

Dr. Kokayi: Wow, that needs to be on the evening news.

Dr. Bihari: The trouble was, we wrote a paper, but couldn’t get it published. Nobody
understood the concept.

Dr. Kokayi: You’re using the dose homeopathically. You’re using it not for the effect
that the medicine has on the person, but for the body’s reaction to the medicine.

Dr. Bihari: It strengthens the body’s own defenses. Rather than directly attacking,
the way antibiotics attack bacteria, or the way chemotherapy tries to attack cancer
cells, or the way anti-viral drugs attack viruses, the purpose of this is to take a weak
defense (which people with AIDS or cancer have), and strengthen it so that the body
can fight the disease more effectively.

Dr. Kokayi: I've often made the point that therapies like acupuncture, therapies that
are foreign to the cultural mindset of doctors and the American public, these therapies
can be effective, but they won’t be included or in mainstream medicine because the
concept is so foreign.

Dr. Bihari: It's a different model of understanding the body -- how it works and how
disease works. I think eventually there will be changes in the paradigm of the way we
think about diseases, and it's going to be a struggle. But I think oncologists in
particular are getting more and more frustrated with the failure of chemotherapy.

Dr. Kokayi: Well, about time.

Dr. Bihari: The people I talk to at the National Cancer Institute, and the Food and
Drug Administration, are very negative. All they get from drug companies are
proposals to test new, more toxic chemotherapies, and they’re really looking very hard
for non-toxic ways of modifying the behavior of the cancer cells so that they stop the
cancer from growing.

Dr. Kokayi: Over the years have you had to modify what you were actually doing
with Naltrexone? Or is the initial model impetus pretty much on point?

Dr. Bihari: The initial model was pretty much on point. A small dose at bedtime
increases endorphin production during the night. In somebody who has a disease
which is related to low endorphins, the endorphins go back up to normal by the next
day.

… [station break] ….

Dr. Kokayi: … can you tell us about some of the work with Naltrexone and cancer?

Dr. Bihari: During that year, when we were doing our first AIDS trial, an old friend
of mine called. Five years earlier, she’d had Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. It had
initially responded to chemotherapy, but it had grown back after her husband died.
Her oncologist refused to treat her, saying it would be resistant to chemo the second
time.

She knew what I’d been doing, and she called me and said, “Bernie, do you think your
AIDS drug would help my cancer?”

So I dug around and I found a large body of literature showing that when you give
endorphins, metenkephalins, beta endorphins and even low dose Naltrexone to mice
that had human cancer transplanted, that there is about an 80 percent recovery rate. I
gave her the drug in the same dose we were using in the AIDS trial. She had large
masses in her groin, her neck, her chest, and her abdomen, and they all slowly shrank
and disappeared over a (inaudible) period. (Inaudible) taking the drug every night.

Dr. Kokayi: Wow! You know, even if that's just an anecdote….

Dr. Bihari: Yes.

Dr. Kokay: I mean, everyone who has that disease deserves a chance to see if they’re
going to be an anecdote as well.

Dr. Bihari: It was actually her idea. She stayed on the drug, and died about eight
years later, in her late seventies, of her third heart attack, which was unrelated.

Then I was in Paris the following summer, presenting a paper at an AIDS conference,
and I met a woman who had a cancer called malignant melanoma. It starts in the skin,
and in her case it had spread to the brain. She had four large brain tumors. The
oncologist told her family that she had perhaps three months to live. When I got back
to New York, I shipped her the drug from a pharmacy that was making it for our
study. She started on it, and her neurological symptoms from the tumors in her brain
slowly disappeared. Seven or eight months later she went back to the oncologist, had
a cat scan of the brain done, and the tumors were gone.

Dr. Kokayi: Fantastic.

Dr. Bihari: That was eighteen years ago, and she stayed on it.

Dr. Kokayi: This is such a non-toxic, simple [inaudible].

Dr. Bihari: There are absolutely no side effects. I continued doing a lot of the AIDS
work, but the last four or five years I've gotten much more interested in other uses.
We stumbled on the fact, also by chance, that the drug works very well for almost all,
if not all, of the autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis,
lupus, sarcoidosis, and --

Dr. Kokayi: When you say “it works”, what actually happens? What's been your
experience?

Dr. Bihari: Well, what happens is that the disease activity stops, as long as people
stay on it. If they have damage to the brain and spinal cord with multiple sclerosis,
that doesn't disappear, because that’s due to scarring, but they stop getting new
attacks.

I've had people on Low Dose Naltrexone for years. The longest is a friend of my
daughter, who’s been on it for eighteen years and has not had an attack as long as she
stayed on it.

Dr. Kokayi: So it’s almost as if it’s up-regulating the endorphin production but
somehow the endorphins actually block or inhibit the effect of the antibodies from
attacking the tissue.

Dr. Bihari: Not directly. It's more that the autoimmune diseases are beginning to
look more and more like they’re diseases of endorphin deficiency. [Inaudible] models
of all the diseases I mention that can be bred in mice, the endorphin levels are always
fifteen to twenty percent of normal compared with normal mice.

[Female Voice] How can you naturally increase endorphin levels?

Dr. Bihari: There's only three or four ways that I know. First, Naltrexone increases
them substantially, two to three hundred percent in people with low levels. Second,
aerobic exercise increases them, but not as much. If you do an hour of exercise four
or five times a week it will last three, four hours, and that's one of the reasons that
exercise helps prevent cancer. A third way, oddly, is acupuncture. Acupuncture,
especially when used in treating addicts, increases endorphin levels in the blood and the
spinal fluid. And chocolate increases it.

Dr. Kokayi: [Inaudible] will be glad to hear that.

Female Voice: [inaudible] It actually works out, because you’re going to eat your
chocolate and then run to the gym.

Dr. Bihari: Chocolate has a substance in it called Phenylalanine, which slows
endorphins from being broken down in the body.

Dr. Kokayi: And that's basically an amino acid that we find….

Dr. Bihari: Yes, that's the food that has it in the largest amount. And only people with
a rare disease called [inaudible] can't eat chocolate.

Dr. Kokayi: So some people will run to the health food store and get Phenylalanine.

Dr. Bihari: Well, Phenylalanine is helpful if you’re raising your endorphins by other
means. Then it keeps them from decaying. They last much longer. But the crucial
thing still seems to me to be the Naltrexone. Over the last five or six years, I’ve
treated about 420 patients who have various kinds of cancer with low dose
Naltrexone. Occasionally, for people who come to me with very advanced cancer, I
add intravenous metenkephalin, which is an endorphin... intravenously, three times a
week. It improved immune function substantially, and had no side effects, but that's
generally not needed.

Among the people I’ve treated with Naltrexone for various kinds of cancer, on the
average the cancer stops growing in about two-thirds. For half of that group, it
eventually -- after six, seven, eight months -- goes on to slowly shrink and disappear.

Dr. Kokayi: And that's about forty percent.

Dr. Bihari: Higher.

Dr. Kokayi: Well, it's about forty percent of the total number.

Dr. Bihari: Sixty-five percent actually benefit and don't go on to
develop [inaudible]. Thirty percent go into remission.

Dr. Kokayi: That's phenomenal. I don't think there’s any chemo or radiating
oncologist with numbers like that.

Dr. Bihari: There's no downside. One of the reasons that the war on cancer failed is
that the oncologists doing the research failed to take into account that chemotherapy
really wipes out the immune system, which the body needs to fight cancer cells. So
they are giving drugs that kill cancer cells, but at the same time weakening the body's
defense against cancer. Naltrexone strengthens the body's defense, and the increased
endorphins kill cancer cells directly. Also, the immune system when it's strengthened
kills cancer cells through its natural killer cells.

Dr. Kokayi: What you’re saying is, that a boost in endorphin levels also activates
other components of the immune system.

Dr. Bihari: The endorphins are the hormones centrally involved in regulating the
immune system. About 95% of the regulation or orchestration comes from
endorphins. People with cancer -- especially adults – have very low natural killer
cells. They have a weakened immune system. I’ve discovered, after seeing such a
large number of people, that the vast majority of them have experienced major life
stresses lasting weeks, months to years – anywhere from two to six years before they
get the cancer.

Dr. Kokayi: That was one of my other questions. What really can keep those
endorphin levels down in the body?

Dr. Bihari: If a child gets sick -- children are supposed to outlive us -- so if a child
gets sick and dies, or if you have a very bad marital break-up, or if you discover a
business partner is embezzling money and it takes a couple of years to straighten
out… If you wake up every morning under stress -- really serious stress, not
everyday stress -- really serious stress, this can lower your endorphin production, and
it never returns to normal. So the person then walks around with low endorphins.
The body makes cancer cells all the time, but usually the immune system kills them as
they are forming. But if your endorphin levels are low, then your immune system is
weak, the cancers grow and you become much more vulnerable. The same thing
with exposure to really toxic substances.

Dr. Kokayi: Right. I'm wondering, I'm sure the listening audience would like to get
an idea. If you could just run down a list of some of the cancers that you have
successfully treated, types of cancers that have seemed to respond where the opiate
levels play a prominent role.

Dr. Bihari: Well, first one of the things we discovered was that almost all cancers
have a lot of receptors for endorphins on the cell surface, and that seems to be
necessary for it to work. Some of the cancers that respond most dramatically are
Multiple Myeloma, Lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease, breast cancer, all the cancers of the
gastrointestinal tract, like pancreatic cancer, non small-cell cancer of the lung, the kind
associated with smoking. I've got several patients with tumors that have stopped
growing; they have no symptoms, and then after a year, year and a half, in about half
of that group, the tumors start shrinking and disappear.

Dr. Kokayi: This is lung cancer?

Dr. Bihari: These are lung cancers due to smoking.

Dr. Kokayi: Because there's really --

Dr. Bihari: Very common.

Dr. Kokayi: It’s very common, but therapeutic effectiveness --

Dr. Bihari: There's nothing --

Dr. Kokayi: There's nothing, right --

Dr. Bihari: My own attitude about chemotherapy in patients I see with cancer, is if
they have one of those rare cancers that's very sensitive to chemotherapy, like cancer
of the testicle, I encourage them to do that, to take it, and take Naltrexone afterwards
to prevent recurrence. These drugs are licensed to treat cancer. Naltrexone is not yet
licensed to treat cancer, although it's a licensed drug. It's been on the market for
nineteen years. It's use in these low doses is called an “off-label” use. Any doctor
can prescribe it. And growing numbers of oncologists and neurologists in the country
are prescribing it.

Dr. Kokayi: I think it would be interesting you know just to talk a little bit about the
process … a lot of physicians don't really know about it and it's not talked about. This
is a big deal.

Dr. Bihari: Well, I think it could turn out to be a big deal when it’s picked up, if it’s
picked up. We set up a web site, www.ldninfo.org, which brings up about thirty
pages of written material describing all the diseases, and how they respond, and how
many cases we have of them. There's some small trials going on, there's two trials in
people with Crohn's Disease, which is an autoimmune disease of the small intestine,
one in Jerusalem, and one in New York. There's a trial in Israel for multiple
sclerosis. The national cancer institute has copies of twenty charts of my patients
who have agreed to share their charts. These are people who have done well on
Naltrexone when nothing else could explain how well they've done. They intend to
present them to a committee for recommendations as to whether to invest and test it in
the network of cancer research.

Dr. Kokayi: You know, when I think about Africa and AIDS, this is exactly the kind
of medicine there needs to be there….

Dr. Bihari: This is perfect. In fact, we've been working with the largest
pharmaceutical company in the developing world called (inaudible) in India to get a trial
going, probably in Africa, in the Republic of South Africa, in which half the HIV
patients get the drug, half get a placebo, and they should be able to show in about nine
months, using two to three hundred patients, that this drug stops progression.

Once it does, it will be manufacturable at less than ten dollars per year per person.
That's been the big problem -- the anti-HIV drugs are so expensive. The average
income in Africa is about eighty dollars per year.

Dr. Kokayi: I can only imagine just the financial stress that you've had to go through
just to keep this whole project alive. It's one thing to prescribe things as an individual
doctor, but to get recognition within the scientific community is a bit difficult.

Dr. Bihari: It really bothers me when doctors say, “Oh, I can't prescribe that,
because he hasn't done a placebo-controlled trial.” That’s a full-time job, for two,
three years involving eight or nine centers around the country. I’m working with a
number of diseases in my office, and a lot of money goes out paying for the website,
for patents to cover low dose naltexone, and (inaudible) things like that. It's very
veryexpensive. But I can't stop doing it. My wife and I would love to do some
traveling -- I think we've earned it -- but I really can't stop until the drug is out there.
It's as much of a burden as it does a pleasure.

Dr. Kokayi: I really hope that at least your sharing with our listening audience today
helps to make people more aware. People should be clamoring for it. We’re running
out of time, but I wanted to go back to the treatment of autoimmune diseases. I
always pictured them as the body is attacking its own tissues. I pictured these
antibodies actually honing in there. But you’re saying that, in large measure it’s an
actual endorphin deficiency.

Dr. Bihari: It’s an endorphin deficiency which weakens the immune system, so that
certain cells in the body forget to distinguish between the body tissues and bacteria or
viruses, so when these cells are activated by an infection they attack the bacteria and
they attack you. Restoring the immune function to normal stops that. So far, the drug
works dramatically in all the diseases that are labeled autoimmune diseases.

Dr. Kokayi: And you've treated lupus with this.

Dr. Bihari: I've treated -- I have two dozen cases of lupus. I have about the same
number of people with rheumatoid arthritis. I have about twenty people with Crohn's
Disease. A number of rheumatologists who specialize in these diseases in New York
are now beginning to use it, because we have cases in common, and they see.

Dr. Kokayi: Right

Dr. Bihari: Because they're using cancer drugs

Female Voice: Dr. Bihari, is this being used with children with ADD?

Dr. Bihari: I doubt that it would work, knowing the nature of ADD. I doubt that it
would work. It doesn't do everything for everybody. I don't think it would.

Dr. Kokayi: Again, going back to the idea of giving a medicine that at a
higher dose actually blocks the chemical system, but a lower dose actually augments
it.

Dr. Bihari: And enhances the body’s defenses -- that's essential.

Dr. Koyayi: This idea gives the pharmaceutical industry something to do, rather than
giving people high doses of medication.

Dr. Bihari: It certainly would. It will take this drug to be licensed, picked up by a
pharmaceutical company and tested, licensed, and once it's widely used, then this
approach to medicine -- every medical researcher will start thinking about it. It's an
entirely different approach to the body and illness.

Dr. Kokayi: What is the next step? Is there anything that the listening audience can
do that might be helpful for to make this more -- not even make it more available,
because it's just a prescription any doctor can write. I guess it's the information --

Dr. Bihari: The information, getting it from the website, getting doctors to prescribe
it. I'm always happy to take calls from doctors and spend as much time as I need,
because the more doctors prescribe it, the more widely used it will be. Currently, as
far as we can calculate it, over eighty thousand people in the U.S. and western Europe
are on the drug, and the numbers are increasing rapidly.

Dr. Kokayi: I'd like you to give your website one more time and the number where
people can reach you …



Well with that, thank you again and I'm sure we will be talking to you again soon.

Me embarco en la LDN

Decidí crear este blog para que nos sirva a todos los enfermos de fibromialgia como referencia de como evoluciona la terapia de LDN (Low Dose Naltrexone) en un paciente.
Ese paciente soy yo. Me llamo Pablo y hasta aca llego con mis datos personales. No soy ególatra, simplemente me ofrezco como un caso de referencia para quienes no saben para donde disparar cuando tienen esta enfermedad sobre los hombros y que pesa, y duele, y mucho.
Hace 5 anos que deambulo con mis dolores por todo tipo de medicos y terapeutas, me uní a varios grupos de yahoo de pacientes que mas adelante iré nombrando, pero prefiero ir de a poco.
Bayamos a la Naltrexona.
Sabido es que esta terapia no está aprobada por ningún ente estatal en ningún lugar del mundo, pero hay cientos, o miles, o cientos de miles, mejor dicho, que se abrazaron a esta terapia.
Empiezo este blog hoy, 4 de dic. de 2009, porque es hoy cuando conseguí la naltrexona, la cual todavía ni probé; pero la conseguí, y no es poco.
También conseguí el triturador de pastillas, y pronto tendré la balanza de precisión para ponderar las dosis..
Pero, aún teniendo lo basico para empezar a medicarme, debo esperar 2 semanas para que se retire de mi organismo la droga en gotas Tramadol (calmador), que según he leído anula los efectos de la LDN.
Se preguntará el lector: Estará bien de la cabeza este tipo que se mete a probar un medicamento como conejillo de Indias?
Bueno, eso de estar loco o cuerdo no lo podré responder, pero que me duele el cuerpo todos los dias de mi vida, es un hecho.
Cuando te duele una muela o el cuello, sabés que en un par de dias se va a ir el dolor. Pero, los dolores del fibromialgico son todos los dias. Todos. No con la misma intensidad. Pero está siempre.
Que carajo! Viví tomando lo que los médicos querían que tome y no dan en la tecla. Ahora, en todo caso, en la peor de las hipotesis, el que fallará soy yo, pero me hago cargo, yo pongo las "fichas en juego" (Yo pongo el cuerpo, por si no se entendió la metáfora).

Esta es la introducción que quiero dar. Ahora esperaré los días de desintoxicación y me subiré al barco de la LDN (LOW DOSE NALTREXONE).
Por lo que leí en los foros, esta es una terapía sin solución de fin. La dosis debe ir entre 2 mg y 4,5 mg después de la cena. Es decir, debes triturar una pastilla de Naltrexona en 12 0 14 dosis, e ir consumiendolas una por día.
Como funcionaría esta terapia de LDN?
Supuestamente, los enfermos autoinmunes tenemos niveles bajos de endorfinas, que justamente torna debil a nuestras defensas. Se supone que La Naltrexona a dosis bajas reestablece el nivel de endorfinas, poniendo en guardia a nuestras defensas.