About Low Dose Naltrexone

Updated: Nov 6, 2022




LDN: A New Paradigm for Western Medicine


“Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) may well be the most important therapeutic breakthrough in over fifty years. It provides a new, safe and inexpensive method of medical treatment by mobilizing the natural defenses of one’s own immune system.”

— David Gluck, MD

The drug naltrexone was approved by the FDA in 1984 in a 50mg dose for the purpose of helping patients with heroin or opium addiction, by inhibiting the effect of such drugs. By blocking opioid receptors, naltrexone also blocks the reception of the opioid hormones that our brain and adrenal glands produce: beta-endorphin and metenkephalin. Many body tissues have receptors for these endorphins and enkephalins, including virtually every cell of the body's immune system.

In 1981, Dr. Patricia McLaughlin and Dr. Ian Zagon of Penn State began researching and later published results on the use of small doses of naltrexone to retard tumor growth in animals.

In 1985, Bernard Bihari, MD, a physician with a clinical practice in New York City, discovered the effects of a low dose of naltrexone (approximately 3mg once a day) on the immune system of the human body. He found that this low dose, taken at bedtime, was able to enhance a patient's response to infection by HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. (Subsequently, he found the optimal adult dosage of LDN to be 4.5mg.)

In the mid-1990's, Dr. Bihari saw that patients in his practice with cancer (such as lymphoma or pancreatic cancer) could benefit, in some cases dramatically, from LDN. In addition, people who had an autoimmune disease (such as lupus) often showed prompt control of disease activity while taking LDN.

“LDN substantially reduces health care costs and improves treatment of a wide array of diseases. Unfortunately, because naltrexone has been without patent protection for many years, no pharmaceutical company will bear the expense of the large clinical trials necessary for FDA approval of LDN’s new special uses. It is now up to public institutions to seize the opportunity that LDN offers.”

— David Gluck, MD

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About This Website

This website is sponsored by Advocates For Therapeutic Immunology. The purpose of this website is to provide information to patients and physicians about important therapeutic breakthroughs in advanced medical immunology. The authors of this site do not profit from the sale of low dose naltrexone or from website traffic, and are in no way associated with any pharmaceutical manufacturer or pharmacy.

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