Does this paper explain opioid / opiate benefits?

[Skippa]

Myself, and I understand a bunch of others around here, get considerable symptom remission from opiates/opioids.

I've often wondered why, there are 2 obvious effects: analgesia, and euphoric mood lifting. Of course, those 2 themselves would explain some kind of improvement, but the benefits go far beyond that, including the staving off of PEM.

Furthermore, the downside is that tolerance and dependance are always waiting in the wings.

I've been wondering why I got 2 1/2 days remission from a cold/sinusitis this week, and have seen the popular Th1/Th2 imbalance theory.

So in my studies, I wondered if opiates are affecting similar systems, an lo and behold I found this paper:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4916179/

So, does that contain some clue about the immune modulating effects of opiates that is possibly mirrored by actually catching a virus/fever? (Eg, some parts of immune system are enhanced, others are subdued).

Also, of interest in particular, I would be so bold as to imagine that those who also experience remission during or before a viral infection would ALSO be those who report benefits from taking (decent doses of) opiates or opioids?

Anyone else out there fit that mould?

 

[bombsh3ll]

This is really interesting for me as I have recently been looking into low dose naltrexone to boost endogenous opioids.

I hardly ever get infections though and have always felt my immune system must be pretty good - maybe too much so if immune overactivity/imbalance is implicated in our problems. As there is no consistent viral marker in ME, I like the "hit and run" theory where there is an initiating insult of some kind, possibly infective and not necessarily the same in everyone, which then goes away but inappropriate immune and other physiological responses have been triggered and cannot then be reversed.

The study seems to be indicating opioids may not be so helpful if you are prone to infections or have an active or chronic infection, (although a lot of lifestyle factors will be involved in the in vivo studies concerning people addicted to opioids) but may show promise where the immune system is misbehaving.

 

[Skippa]

@bombsh3ll yes, I also suspect that, quite paradoxically, those that respond positively to opiates would ALSO respond well to LDN. ("Well" being simply "not negatively").

Suggesting that it's not a simple case of raising/lowering immunity, erm, levels, but rather one of mediating/rebalancing.

 

[Prefect]

Opioids suppress breathing. I wonder if some of the benefits come from the fact that they may reduce CFS overbreathing and improve cerebral perfusion.