Posted by Elroy on January 8, 2010, at 16:56:18
In reply to Re: LDN Low Dose Naltrexone Questions » Elroy, posted by casse on January 4, 2010, at 18:12:06
> I agree that LDN is not a firstline treatment for depression or anxiety.
>
> I also don't care whether the way it makes me feel is placebo effect or not. I just wish that the "placebo effect" had been elevated mood instead of irritability and agitation. If that were the case I wouldn't care about the why, just about the results.
>
> And I'm extatic that my exaggerated immune response to poison ivy has been helped by it. For the first time in many years I didn't look like a piece of wrinkled red leather this summer.
>
> Thanks for posting all of those great links!
>
> BTW, if you don't mind me asking, what originally generated your interest in LDN? Are you using it yourself or just an advocate?
>I am using it myself. I have had Cushing's Disease (specifically a very rare form of Pseudo Cushing's caused by a malfunctioning feedback loop in the HPA Axis that led to extreme hypercortisolism). It is believed to have begun breaking down in the late 1990s and "went active" in mid 2002 and then exploded in mid 2004... Within 3 weeks I had developed severe anxiety, severe insomnia, severe tinnitius, very strong peripheral neuropathy pains, significant water retention and a moderately significant weight gain (although strangely BP, Pulse, and Blood Sugar levels were in the VG to Excellent range in BP/Pulse and Good in Blood Sugar), complete hypogonadism, etc., etc. (several other symptoms however strangely I didNOT have some of the normal MAJOR symptoms of the usual Cushing's patient... but at the same time had symptoms that were much more rare within the Cushing's population... there are several forms of Cushing's, with Pseduo Cushing's just being one of them)
After working extensively with a major metropolitan medical center (consistently ranked in the top 5 year after year), I got into NIH Hospital in Bethesda, MD in a special study due to the rareness / uniqueness of my condition.
I was led to "Dr. Bob's" due mainly to the severe anxiety problem. After trying all the various AD medications (why do Psych Docs seem so determined to treat anxiety - especially very severe anxiety with anti-depression meds??)... EVERY one of the AD meds that I was put on either (A) raised my anxiety levels even more severely or (B) had horrible unbearable side effects or (C) a combination of both. Finally I switched Psych Docs and the (new) female P-Doc gave me an Ativan during our first appointment (noting that my anxiety levels were so high... she fully grasped that I did NOT have a psychological issue type anxiety but a physiologically medical caused anxiety). For about 45 minutes I actually felt like about 70% of the anxiety had subsided (recall that by this time monmths and months have gone by where I have been sleeping consistently 2 - 3 hours a night... Ambien, double-dosed, was needed to just get that). She ended up putting me on 1 mg of Xanax XR twice a day and maximum doise of Restoril at night - which upped my sleep to around 5 hours a night). I was no where near "better"... but felt considerably better than before that (I was basically house bound and mainly bedbound - felt icy cold all the time - especially feet and hands, although they would feel normal to the touch, so always under covers).
Then about 5 - 6 months later I ended up at NIH (testing was done all day, every day that was there , plus had to go through 24 hour tests twice the first week and once the second week). They corroborated the Pseudo Cushing's and were the ones who discovered it was the malfunctioning feedback cycle within the HPA Axis... and, well, came up with a theoretical treatment regimen (none of them on any of the endocrinoligical teams there - and these are research-scientist-doctors!) had ever handled a case like this and only a couple had even read about similar ones. That was 12/2005.
When I returned home and met with my P-Doc again, I started their treatment regimen. 2mg of Xanax XR FOUR times a day. The theory being that my HPA Axis was operating - at least in that one segment - in a hyperactive functioning and that the HPA Axis needed to be slowed down, which should start bringing my highly elevated cortisol levels down and IF those levels ever normalized and stayed that way for several consecutive months, that the malfunctioning feedback loop "could" then re-set... and that part of the problem would be cleared.
Within a month of going onto the NIH regimen I was like a new person. NO anxiety, NO insomnia, other symptoms reduced from 40 - 70% (except for icy cold feet sensations and peripheral neuropathy pains). I was soon back to lifting weights, boxing workouts, long hikes and bike rides, out socializing, etc. (That later changed around mid 2008 when doctors improperly intervened in a Respiratrory Disorder that had developed - very, very low Immune System)with incorrect diagnosis for 7 months, having me on incorrect strong anti-fungal medication for WAY too long - which also negated my NIH regimen an actually caused the ONLY rise in tested cortisol that I have had between 12/2005 and 8/2009... every other one was a decrease from the one before it - other than that time period... but then that is a whole different story where one doctor's screw up led to another disorder which led to another doctor screwing that up which led to another disorder, etc., etc. --- so I still have a touch of the Respiratory Disorder - which won't heal up totally until my Immune System is re-built, problems with higher levels of BP & Pulse and now also severe kidney inflammation - they think - problems).
But that's an even longer story. But still aspects that I hope that a combination of LDN therapy and The Milk Cure (*)
However... that is just the start of a long and nasty recovery process.
Your body - or parts of it - have become accustomed to high cortisol levels as being the "norm: now, so when you get down into normal levels they interpret it as having excessively LOW cortisol levels. The biggest problem symptom is that every muscle and every joint in your body aches like crazy (and areas like joints, bones, etc. that had prior surgery actually hurt consistently). So you have months and months before your body becomes accustomed to the new "correct" normal levels.
In the meantime, the damage that your highly elevated cortisol did (nerve damage mainly - peripheral neuropathy pains, the icy cold sensations, etc.) ALL has to be slowly, gradually (and hopefully surely) repaired - if not completely, at least to as much a level as possible.
Then there IS the Immune System problem. Cortisol - whether natural or artificial like prednisone or cortisone - is an Immunosuppresent. Period. High levels of any of those - even )especially) natural cortisol that is in the hyper high ranges will simply hammer the Immune System (both "deplete it and compromise it severely" as I was told at NIH)...
And it can take up to 2 years for both the cortisol-induced damage to be repaired (or at least as much as it can be repaired) AND for the Immune System to fully re-build itself and (basically) "re-learn" what its job is!
SOOO.....
THAT is why that I am taking LDN.
It is hard to say if it is working as I am on the lowest (starting dose) level of 1.5 mg and then will in a couple weeks move up to the 3.0 mg LDN dosage and then about 2 - 3 weeks after that will move to the maximum 4.5 mg level.
AND... I have only been on it for about 8 or 9
days.My objectives with it are what its supposed strengths are... to help rebuild the Immune System much, much more faster than just allowing "nature take its course" (with the routine recovery from hypercortisolism-induced Immunosuppression"
My son - who got a very severe case of Hepatitis A (was hospitalized 3 times for it) about 2 years ago, finally got rid of the Hep A infection (over several months), but had several "branch off" disorders developed in the meantime... again due to Hep A - induced Immune System collapse.
He first mentioned LDN "just in passing" to me and I began some basic research and then some more advanced research - and mentioned my findings to my son who then also began his research (and we passed info back and forth). Just due to timing, he started his LDN Therapy about a week ahead of me. But also is still at the 1.5 mg level, not making the jump to 3.0 mg for a couple more days yet.
(*)
http://milk-diet.com/index.html
http://www.rawmilktruth.com/The-Raw-Milk-Cure.html
Book: Milk Diet as a Remedy for Chronic Disease
Quote:
In 1929, one of the founders of the Mayo Foundation (forerunner to the Mayo Clinic), J.E. Crew MD reported that he had been successfully using the raw milk treatment for the last 15 years. He said, "The results obtained in various types of disease have been so uniformly excellent that one's conception of disease and its alleviation is necessarily changed. When sick people are limited to a diet containing an excess of vitamins and all the elements necessary to growth and maintenance, they recover rapidly without the use of drugs and without bringing to bear all the complicated weapons of modern medicine."
End QuoteElroy Note: Use of homogenized, pasteurized WHOLE milk is perfectly acceptable if one takes steps to replace the heat-destroyed enzymes from the pasteurization process (which is simply exposing the milk to about 160-degree for 1 -2 minutes). I do that my pouring out 2/3rd a cup milk from a gallon of milk into a small glass and then adding 2/3rds of a cup of plain, unflavored full fat yogurt into a 2-cup container that has a long narrow spout and pour the yogurt into the gallon of milk. I shake it thoroughly then and before each use (plus after the first full glass is drank, I replace the 2/3rds cup of milk back into the gallon container). I am on my second week of that therapy. I plan on giving it an HONEST 4 - 6 week trial (note that while some people stay on their "nothing-but-milk" diet from recovery on for the rest of their lives, doctors back in its era --- 1840s to 1930s, when big Pharma Companies began really growing, MOST doctors expert and advanced in this therapy looked at it strictly as a 2-week to maybe several month MEDICAL TREATMENT and then a gradual return to a "regular diet" - granted, what they felt to be [and in my mind mostly accurate] "positive diet] with possibly an occasional return once a year or two to the strict milk cure diet for 1 or 2 weeks as a "preventative").
Quote from the Mayo Clinic founding doctor:
QUOTE:
Striking results are seen in diseases of the heart and kidneys and high blood pressure. In cases in which there is marked edema, the results obtained are surprisingly marked. This is especially striking because so-called dropsy has never been treated with large quantities of fluid. With all medication withdrawn, one case lost twenty-six pounds in six days, huge edema disappearing from the abdomen and legs, with great relief to the patient. No cathartics or diuretics were given. This property of milk in edema has been noted in both cardiac and renal cases... Patients with cardiac disease respond splendidly without medication. In patients who have been taking digitalis and other stimulants, the drugs are withdrawn. High blood pressure patients respond splendidly and the results in most instances are quite lasting. The treatment has been used successfully in obesity without other alimentation. One patient reduced from 325 pounds to 284 in two weeks, on four quarts of milk a day, while her blood pressure was reduced from 220 to 170."
End Quote
poster:Elroy
thread:919880
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100103/msgs/932942.html