Practical Pain Management: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Naltrexone as an Alternative Treatment

[godlovesatrier]

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Naltrexone as an Alternative Treatment
At low doses, naltrexone is thought to disrupt the inflammatory process and restore the impaired cation channel functioning associated with chronic fatigue. Inside the latest data.

Authors: Danielle Weitzer, DO
Date: 18th June 2020

Anti-inflammatory and Hyperalgesia Effects
At a much lower dosage of 3.0 mg to 4.5 mg per day, it is the non-opioid antagonist path that is more active, which is believed to exert the anti-inflammatory and hyperalgesia effects.2 In this path, naltrexone simultaneously has an antagonist effect on non-opioid receptors, including toll-like receptor 4 (TLR 4), that are found on macrophages such as microglia.2 Microglia are central nervous system immune cells that are activated by a wide range of triggers.3

Restoring TRPM3 Ion Channel Function
In addition to this perspective, and more recently, there has been an association found between abnormal cation channel functioning and chronic fatigue. Transient receptor potential melastatin 3 (TRPM3) is a calcium permeable nonselective channel that is activated by a vast array of stimuli in the environment, ranging from temperature, natural chemicals, and toxins or synthetic compounds. As it tightly controls the influx of calcium ions, this channel is essential in maintaining natural killer cell functioning and cytokine production. A significant reduction in both TRPM3 surface expression and intracellular calcium mobilization in natural killer cells has been found in chronic fatigue patients compared with healthy controls.7

I haven't been able to find this article on PR so thought I would post it here.

https://www.practicalpainmanagement...gue-syndrome-naltrexone-alternative-treatment

 

[SnappingTurtle]

LDN has been helping manage my pain. I feel less miserable with it. At the very least, it has enabled me to tolerate 1 extrs hour of exertion almost every other day.

 

[Wishful]

LDN worked great for me, blocking my ME-induced neuropathic pain, at 2.25 mg sublingually (~30% more effective that way). After a year or so on LDN, I no longer needed the LDN.

 

[godlovesatrier]

Has it really helped anyone with PEM I wonder. Now that my fatigue has gone (post astrazeneca jab) almost fully recovered. I'm back looking at potential treatments again. But the az Vax made me realise that my main issues are PEM and inflamation caused by PEM. Not to mention difficulty concentrating.

I'm intrigued if it works for these things. Dr chia says it works in 20% of patients. Some other doctors say it's great for neuropathic pain but not much else. One thing I do get is nerve pain and gland swelling when I hit PEM and I wonder if it might help with this too.

Will be an interesting experiment. I also wonder what else the ion channel effects in ME patients.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

Some other doctors say it's great for neuropathic pain but not much else. One thing I do get is nerve pain and gland swelling when I hit PEM and I wonder if it might help with this too.

For whatever reason, I find it hard to describe what it is doing, yet when I run out, a condition I don't like, it seems many many symptoms worsen and intensify. Unpleasant ones. Inflammatory, neurological. I ran out for 5 days...and my yucky inflaming got pretty bad. I also ran out for. 20 days, and had to spread my last 5 out over that time frame. And again, yucky symptoms worsened.

B ut I don't find that my 3.5 mg dose eliminates or cures- anything. Its just making it less intense. More tolerable.

So does it help wiht PEM? well, yes in that I'll have less intense negative symptoms.

 

[SnappingTurtle]

Its just making it less intense. More tolerable

I second the motion. It does not help me avoid PEM but helps lessen the severity of my symptoms.

 

[godlovesatrier]

Thanks both. I guess it must help with pain when crashing? I feel like my skin is being flayed off me when I crash these days. I used to get intense flu like symptoms upon crashing, now I seem to get nerve/peripheral pain under the skin, it feels like my skins been badly burnt (I guess). And this goes on for hours, and then it takes me a day or two to recover. I don't often crash but when I do this is what happens.

Will be interesting to see what effect it has.