hi nick, i don't believe this subject has come up too often on this list. i 
did approach my husband's doctor concerning a prescription and had the pills 
sent in from ny. he has not tried them yet, too many problems with his dbs. 
if he should take them in the future i will report back.
rgds
trauti
btw, after checking with my pharmacist i feel at the low-level dosage it is 
definitely worth a try

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nick" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, March 24, 2008 2:25 AM
Subject: Low Dose Naltrexone


>I sent this 2 days ago and got no response.  What's the deal?  Is it not 
>good, LDN?
> Nick
>
> Is anyone in Southern CA taking LDN?  I haven't been able to find an MD, 
> yet, who will prescribe LDN for PD.  Would like to talk to anyone in CA 
> who is taking LDN.
>
> Nick
> Caregiver for Oanh, 15 yrs pd
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>   Old drug, new use?  Naltrexone in tiny doses shows promise in treating 
> many diseases.
>
>  Mail Tribune       March 10, 2008 <!--6:00 AM-->
>
>   When Destiny Marquez finds a good thing, she wants other people to know 
> about it.
>
>   These days the Medford woman has been talking to anyone who will listen 
> about a drug called naltrexone. It's been widely used to treat opiate 
> addiction, but that's not what captured her interest.
>
>   Marquez came across naltrexone while she was trying to help her father, 
> Bentley Lyon, who's been struggling with Parkinson's disease for 18 years. 
> His symptoms had been increasing, and he started to decline rapidly after 
> suffering a stroke during surgery.
>
>   A friend had told Marquez that she'd heard some Parkinson's patients 
> were getting relief from their symptoms by taking extremely low doses of 
> naltrexone, or LDN. Marquez and her mother, Elizabeth, balked. Although 
> the drug had been tested and approved by the federal Food and Drug 
> Administration for addiction treatment, it had never been tested for 
> treating Parkinson's.
>
>   "We said 'No,' " Marquez recalled.
>
>   When Bentley's condition continued to deteriorate, mother and daughter 
> asked him to give LDN a try. By then they had done some research on their 
> own, and learned that the drug was gaining favor not only among 
> Parkinson's patients, but also as a treatment for other diseases, 
> including multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease.
>
>   Marquez said her father started taking 3 mg a day late in 2004, far less 
> than the 50 mg that's prescribed for addiction treatment.
>
>   "It was like a miracle," she recalled.
>
>   Marquez said the spasticity in her father's left leg disappeared over 
> several days, and his caregiver said he stopped complaining about back 
> pain.
>
>   Speech is difficult for Bentley, 78, a former Marine and marathon runner 
> who worked as a forester and wrote two mystery novels, but he said LDN 
> "stopped the progression" of his symptoms. Naltrexone apparently works by 
> stimulating the body's own immune system, said Dr. Ian Zagon, a professor 
> of neural and behavioral sciences at Pennsylvania State University.
>
>   "It's very simple," he said, "but it took a while to figure out."
>
>   Zagon said research over the past two decades indicates the body's 
> immune system is orchestrated by its own naturally produced internal 
> opioids. Large doses of naltrexone block the body's opioid receptors, 
> eliminating the high derived from drugs. In extremely small doses, 
> however, naltrexone seems to block the opioid receptors just long enough 
> to prompt the body's hormone system to produce more of its own natural 
> endorphins, which somehow encourages the immune system.
>
>   "We're working with the body's own chemistry," Zagon said. "This has 
> nothing to do with chemotherapy."
>
>   The drug's off-label use began to grow just as the Internet became a 
> major source of information exchange. There's now an LDN home page 
> (www.lowdosenaltrexone.org), a Wikipedia entry, and forum pages where 
> people exchange information and their own experiences with the drug.
>
>   Naltrexone's efficacy for Parkinson's or other autoimmune diseases could 
> be established by subjecting it to a new round of clinical trials, the 
> same rigorous, expensive, time-consuming studies that were performed when 
> it was approved for addiction treatment. Unfortunately, there's little 
> incentive for drug manufacturers to spend the money. Naltrexone has gone 
> generic, and lost the patent protections that would make it a profitable 
> drug for treating autoimmune diseases.
>
>   "It doesn't behoove the pharmaceutical companies to develop it," Zagon 
> said.
>
>   As a generic drug, it's also incredibly cheap. Most patients can get it 
> for about $1 a day.
>
>   Zagon would like to see someone provide the funding for new clinical 
> trials for LDN, but in the meantime, some studies are already under way. 
> The National Multiple Sclerosis Society has funded a study that will look 
> at high- and low-dose naltrexone treatments in mice with a disease much 
> like multiple sclerosis, and the National Institutes of Health has funded 
> a phase II trial using LDN in patients with Crohn's disease. Phase II 
> trials involve as many as several hundred people, but they fall short of 
> the randomized phase III trials in which some people get the drug and 
> others do not.
>
>   Marquez has seen how the drug has helped her father, and she hopes one 
> day someone will do the research that will determine its efficacy.
>   "We're not the only family talking about this," she said. "We're trying 
> to share this information because it buys you time.
>
>   "We've got to tell the world this drug is incredible."
>
>     Naltrexone is not suitable for all patients, even in extremely low 
> doses, said Dr. Ian Zagon, a professor at Pennsylvania State University. 
> People with liver problems, for example, should not take naltrexone, and 
> there are other caveats.
>
>   "People (who are considering naltrexone) should be under a physician's 
> care," he stressed.
>
>   If a physician rejects a request for low-dose naltrexone, the patient 
> may want to look for another physician who may be more aware of new 
> research, Zagon said.
>
>   Destiny Marquez can be reached by e-mail at: [log in to unmask]
>   Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492 or e-mail: 
> [log in to unmask]
>
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