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Low Dose Naltrexone and Neuropathy
Neuropathy | Last Active: Apr 30 8:05pm | Replies (129)Comment receiving replies
Hi @offthegrid
Can you please refer us to a study that substantiates your statement above about LDN and opiate withdrawl? I can't find one myself.
In fact, I have found several papers which conclude the opposite. Here's one:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006322304005943
In this short study (there are others) they conclude that LDN can reduce the symptoms of withdrawal.
Remember, the dose of naltrexone in LDN is very small (up to 4.5 mg daily) compared to it's use for opioid addiction (50 mg three times daily). It's difficult for me to imagine that the small dose can occupy all the opioid receptors, but, surprisingly, I have been wrong before.
Looking forward to your reply.
Stay well
Jeff
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I was asked whether someone should be regularly taking an opiate painkiller at the same time they take LDN and no one is going to recommend that. The study you cited doesn't deal with that either it deals with straight withdrawal vs reduced withdrawal w/LDN.
You would go through a short period of 'reduced' withdrawal every day if you were simultaneously using an opiate as a painkiller. No one would want to live like that.
LDN does what it does by blocking opioid receptors temporarily making the body believe that it needs to create more endorphins, create more opioid receptors to capture more endorphins, and make the opioid receptors more sensitive also to capture more endorphins. This is referred to as the rebound effect. It tricks the body by blocking opioid receptors.
It's not in dispute that the low dose blocks opioid receptors for what is commonly stated to be 3-5 hours after taking a dose though ldn also takes 1-2 hours to begin doing its job. I've never seen anywhere state that it only blocks 'some' receptors but maybe that is the case. However it has to block enough of them for long enough to trick the body into acting. This is likely part of the reason why the optimum dose is different for everyone.
I've seen LDN described at as high a dose as 10mg also and that the 'rebound effect' can be from 1-5 days. I wish more research was done into this.