low dose naltrexone

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Hi All
has anyone taken or heard of low dose Naitrexone in the treatment of RA?
i have been reading about it and would be very interested to hear of anyone's experience with it, although it seems in is not widely prescribed.
from what i have read it seems it could help with many immune diseases such as RA and MS.
it boost your immune system to try to make it normal rather than surpressing it.
anyone know anything about it???

skezier

Hi Page,

I had it suggested as a treatment for my brain's thing by the pain clinic but it never was taken up so I can't say how good/not good it might be. She said it worked well in Fibro and she thought its other uses (I guess the M/S link) might help with some of my brains stuff but the consultants said I take enough and since mine remained as probable or something unknown they would wait and see. Good luck though cus from what she said it can be very effective. Luv, Bubbles and more bubbles ((( ))) Cris xx

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Thanx cris
yes it seems it can work well for alot of stuff even cancer.
i am just reading about it at the mo, no one has surgested i take it, but when i see the rhuemy i will have lots of questions for her but i dont think many doctors seem to prescribe it, its a cheep drug so they prob cant make money out of it like all the other expensive drugs they get us to take.
take care
xx

annie_mial

Hi there, I do know quite a bit about LDN and the reason it isn't prescribed much is because it is not licenced for use in this country in the lower doses needed for auto-immune conditions.

If you can find a doctor or a Rheumy willing to prescribe it on the NHS - and it can be done - it does seem to be of great benefit to many. It is used elsewhere for various conditions such as Crohn's Disease and MS.

It can also be made available on a private prescription but I don't know what the costs would be.

There was a petition out some time ago to bring this before the Government, but it seems you are right - because it is cheap there is no push to get it licenced. There is an LDN website you can look at.

Annie

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Hi Annie
thank you for that info, have or do you take it?
i can only seem to find good things about it, well some side effects but nothing compared to most drugs used for RA.
dosent it seem crazy that if its good for so much and cheap that it isnt being used.

annie_mial

Hi Colly, I gather it's a different kind of thinking behind it - that is that the immune system is not overdoing it and attacking itself, but rather it is a weakened system which requires support.

I don't take it - yet - but will be doing some jumping up and down and having tantrums if the MTX doesn't work. It seems to be rather more OK if you get a younger and more progressive Rheumy willing to give you a private prescription. There are half-a-dozen doctors in the UK (might be more now, it's some time since I looked) who will provide it via a private prescription...........it's not something we're going to find in the local pharmacy.
My problem is that I need aproven steroid-sparing agent which MTX is, so I agreed to try that first.

Annie

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Thanx annie and lynn for your replies
i take MXT and it works pretty well for me at the mo, but i dont really fancy taking it forever but dont want to be crippled with huge amounts of pain even more so, so am looking into other things that may help and LDN looks good so far.
it seems you can also take it in pregnancy which could help so many who wish to have kids and have immune illnesses.
well i will keep looking into it
anyone else got any more info or experience with LDN i would love to hear good or bad.
Thanks

wibberley

I'm seeing my rheumy on Thurs so will ask him about it.

If it's only the younger, pro-active rheumy's that are giving out prescriptions for it, I don't hold out much hope!

Lois x

annie_mial

Please do ask, Wibs; the more people we can get asking about it, the more power we have!

Annie

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like your thinking annie

wibberley

Sorry.......

.........I've had to cancel tomorrow's appointment with rheumy, so won't be able to ask about LDN. I will ask him about it next time though, whenever that is!

Lois x

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Hi Lois
sorry you have had to cancel your appointment i hope you wont have to wait to long to get another one.
take care