November 27, 2011
Hello, everyone.
This post returns to the main subject of the blog: LDN. The concentration so far has been pretty much on autoimmune diseases where low dose naltrexone has helped, in some cases dramatically, those who suffer (including this author) from a wide range of diseases associated with the immune system. Today I want to provide a brief suggestive description of how LDN can help in the treatment of cancer because this part of the story is not widely understood. In addition, you’ll find some links that will take you to other sites with more detailed information and bibliographies that lead to still more. In future posts I’ll definitely be returning to antidepressants, antipsychotics and related industries including psychiatry and the pharmaceutical manufacturers.
At bottom, cancer is cell division out of control. If untreated, cancer cell masses – tumors – can choke off vital bodily processes and can lead to death. Without a constant supply of nutrients, however, tumors would be self-limiting. But cancer cells can generate blood vessels that will carry the necessary nutrients to the cell masses, a process known as angiogenesis. These basic facts suggest targets where the vulnerability of cancer can be exploited in treatment. It happens that LDN is well suited to exploit these vulnerabilities.
First, a reminder: LDN is not a direct therapeutic agent. It is not like, say, antibacterial agents that treat infection directly by making it impossible for bacteria to reproduce. LDN works indirectly. It precipitates changes in the body, the microbiology, of the patient. These changes are what produce the therapeutic effect. As one article recently put it, low dose naltrexone tricks the body into healing itself, bringing the body back into balance, into homeostasis. LDN, then does not treat cancer directly: it produces effects that allow the body to better defeat an attack by cancer cells.
The effects of low dose naltrexone can fight cancer on a number of fronts: by interfering with cell division, by killing individual cancer cells and by inhibiting the process through which cancer cells receive the nutrients they need.
The theory: basically (and my microbiology is primitive), cancer cells have been shown to have Opioid Growth Factor receptors (OGFr). When these receptors are coupled with an Opioid Growth Factor (OGF) peptide molecule, this sends a "don't divide" signal to the cancer cell. When the receptor is uncovered or blocked, that sends a "divide" signal to the cancer cell. Low dose naltrexone causes a 200-300% increase in endorphin production (endorphin = endogenous morphine – one kind of endogenous morphine is Opioid Growth Factor, also known as met-enkephalin). By making additional OGF available to be coupled with OGFr, cancer cell division is inhibited.
In a related process that is not well understood, the natural killer (NK) cell production is enhanced by OGF. These are the cells that hunt and kill foreign cells, including cancer cells, in the body.
Third, the increased supply of OGF will inhibit the process of angiogenesis, by which cancer cells generate blood vessels to carry nutrients to the tumor.
These three processes working together may slow or entirely reverse the multiplication of cancer cells. So LDN, by increasing the supply of OGF in the body, could be very promising in the fight against cancer. This value is further enhanced because LDN has no negative side effects, unlike the cell-destroying consequence of more common treatments for cancer.
Worthy of special note, Dr. Burt Berkson uses LDN in combination with intravenous alpha lipoic acid to treat cancer, especially pancreatic cancer with metastaces to the liver: one of the toughest cancers to treat successfully. His keynote address with reviews of several case histories at the 2009 Low Dose Naltrexone Conference at the NIH has been compiled into a single video and can be found here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=o48MgBi44XM
The largest source of information for all applications of low dose naltrexone (LDN) to be found on the web is at www.lowdosenaltrexone.org and at www.ldnscience.org . There are several applications against cancer that you will find there. I found a summary to be of particular value in preparing this post: http://www.medvision.org/mihpf/medinsight%20-%20ogf%20review.pdf . Other information is available mostly on non-cancer applications of LDN and some theory, elsewhere on this blog. I invite you to give it a browse.
