New Cancer and Autoimmune disease treatment

In my last issue of Real Health, I discussed how important vitamin D is to your health and having a strong immune system. New information is now out showing that by tracking vitamin D levels combined with a treatment of low-dose Naltrexone (LDN) at bedtime, a very high success rate is being achieved on some of the most aggressive and dangerous cancers and autoimmune diseases afflicting mankind today.

The drug Naltrexone (generic name) was approved by the FDA in 1984 in a 50mg dose for the purpose of helping heroin or opium addicts, by blocking 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 1985, Bernard Bihari, MD, a physician with a clinical practice in New York City, discovered the effects of a much smaller dose of Naltrexone (approximately 3mg once a day) on the body's immune system. 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. [Note: Subsequently, the optimal adult dosage of LDN has been found to be 4.5mg.]

Impressive success rates of 50-60% or higher are being achieved with people who are the sickest and have exhausted all normal treatments on some of the most aggressive cancers like Pancreatic, Breast, Lung, Neuroblastoma and Lymphoma cancer. But even better results are being achieved on autoimmune diseases like HIV/AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Crohn’s, Lupus, Hepetitus C and Rheumatoid Arthritis. Success rates as high as 95% are being seen with MS patients and 85% with HIV/AIDS patients. These are exceptional results with diseases that are very difficult to treat and often have severe side effects with the current treatments used today.

Treatment results showing great promise for this low cost and safe treatment with Naltrexone by innovative medical doctors such as Burton M. Berkson, MD, Jacquelyn McCandless, MD, Bernard Bihari, MD and David Gluck, MD have now begun to be published in leading science and medical journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine. By working to strengthen the body’s immune system, Naltrexone allows the body to heal itself. This is the best and only way that we will beat these diseases is if we can build up our healthy immune systems and allow the body to do what it is designed to do. This type of approach will be the best path forward to finding solutions to some of our most dangerous health issues.

You can go to http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/05/26/Powerful-Breakthrough-Beats-Cancer-and-AutoImmune-Diseases.aspx to hear an interview by Dr. Mercola with Dr. Burton M. Berkson who has been one of the leaders in an effort to utilize Naltrexone in the treatment of deadly diseases. For more in depth information on Naltrexone you can go to the low-dose Naltrexone website at http://www.lowdosenaltrexone.org/ . I highly recommend that you visit these two sites and gain more knowledge about Naltrexone. It might save yours or someone you know’s life. The low-dose Naltrexone website also has information on where and how you can purchase Naltrexone. Remember that you will need a prescription to buy it, so speak with your doctor first and request that they look into Naltrexone if they haven’t heard of it yet. Give them the low-dose Naltrexone website as a starting point. And send this information to anyone you know who might be battling cancer or one of these terrible diseases.

Unfortunately, as with many other promising treatments, since Naltrexone is already FDA approved and being sold as a generic drug, there is no monetary benefit for the large pharmaceutical companies to expand further studies into the benefits of using low-dose Naltrexone for treating cancer and autoimmune diseases. So for now, doctors will have to prescribe it for off-label use.

The FDA approved Naltrexone (LDN) at the 50mg dosage in 1984. LDN (in the 3mg or 4.5mg dosage) has not yet been submitted for approval because the prospective clinical trials that are required for FDA approval need to be funded at a cost of many millions of dollars.

The successful results of the first US medical center research on LDN, an open-label trial that tested the use of LDN in Crohn’s disease was presented in May 2006 by Professor Jill Smith of the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine. The National Institutes of Health has granted $500,000 for Dr. Smith's group to continue the study as a larger placebo-controlled scientific trial of LDN in Crohn's disease.

All physicians understand that appropriate off-label use of an already FDA-approved medication such as Naltrexone is perfectly ethical and legal. Because Naltrexone itself has already passed animal toxicity studies, one could expect that once testing is able to begin, LDN could complete its clinical trials in humans and receive FDA approval for one or more new uses within two to four years.

But until then, you will need to educate yourself and be aware of your “other” options when speaking to your doctor. Don’t be afraid to ask them to allow you to do something different if it is applicable to your situation. You need to be assertive, because it is your life that may hang in the balance.

Until next time, stay healthy and happy

JD Roma