4 Years Normal Liver Tests using Low Dose Naltrexone for HCV!

4 Years Normal Liver Tests using Low Dose Naltrexone for HCV!

I started using 3 mg. Low Dose Naltrexone in Feb/March 2009 and got back my first labs in  June of that year.   My Hepatitis C viral load had been at 1,400,000 and my ALT was at 174 - AST AT 90.   After 3-4 months of being on the LDN, my viral load dropped down to 49,000 and my ALT was at 23 and AST at 30.  That is when I started recording my lab results and progress.

Since that time, every lab test has shown liver enzymes within the normal range (maybe a point off of normal) and my viral load has remained low.

I consider myself as a human guinea pig - or that I have been conducting my own "clinical trial" using LDN to treat my Hep C.  I have more or less been using the same 3 mg. dosage - sometimes taking it every night or as now, taking it every other night.  I have been getting the same prescription from Skip's Pharmacy for the entire time, except at the beginning when I used the prescription that I got from Dr. Berkson - and that pharmacy used lactose as a filler, which did not work for me.  Skip's uses Avicel.

I had new labs done last week and saw my great integrative doctor, Dr. Kashi Rai at "For Better Health."  She has been my doctor since 2007 and is the one who steered me towards Dr. Berkson.  Since then, she has prescribed the LDN as well as ordered whatever labs that I needed for my "trial."  She is also a genius at reading lab work and how to correct any imbalances by using mostly supplements and diet - she will also prescribe medications if the situation warrants - but that is not the case for me. She also suggested that I change my ALA from Metabolic Maintenance (Dr. Berkson's recommendation - or a European sourced Lipoic Acid)  to Jarrow Alpha Lipoic Sustain - 300 with Biotin.   I fought her tooth and nail over this as it would be almost a sacrilege to go against Dr. Berkson!  But, she said that she had seen terrific results in other patients labwork - so I started taking it last November - during the last few months, was only doing 1 daily.  New customers to iHERB can use this code for a discount:  KOV896  -   All labs done since 2007 via Quest Diagnostics:

                                                New Labs June 2013

                                   
                                          06/2013                                01/2009


Alpha Fetoprotein -               3.8                                          5.2

White Blood Cell count        5.0                                           6.0

Red Blood Cell count         3.82                                          4.21

Platelet Count                     149                                          186

Urea Nitrogen - BUN           12                                            9

Sodium                              136                                          138

Potassium                         4.3                                            4.6

Chloride                           103                                           103

Calcium                           10.2                                          10.5 (H)

Protein total                      7.2                                           8.9 (H)
Albumin                           4.9                                           5.2 (H)                                                                                               
Globulin                          2.3                                            3.7
Bilirubin                         0.6                                            1.1
Alk Phospatase              54                                              72
AST                              30                                             99(H)
ALT                              31                                             174 (H)

Ferritin                          83  (not been taking IP6)             115

Iron, Total                    122                                            165 (H) 9/2009
Iron Binding Capacity  308                                             352  9/2009                
Saturation                     40                                              36 9/09

HCV RNA                13.393                                        1,280,00

Lymphocytes Subset Panel

                                      06/2013                                09/2009

%CD3 (mature T cells)     76                                       77
Absolute CD3+ cells       1552                                    1008
%CD4(helper cells)          58                                       52
Absolute CD4+cells         1162                                   720
%CD8 suppressor t cells  20                                      24
Absolute CD8 cells          396                                    333
Helper/suppressor ratio    2.94                                  2.17
%CD16+CD56 NK cells   10                                      10
Absolute NK cells 16+56  207                                   128
%CD19 (b cells)               12                                     11
Absolute CD19+             248                                    134
Absolute Lymphocytes   2033                                  1308


TO BE CONTINUED!  bear with me folks - dealing with cat with cancer dx - and trying to post complete labs

Low Dose Naltrexone website - Why HCV is not listed?

I recently wrote to the folks who have the Low Dose Naltrexone site and asked why Hep C is not among the conditions listed that improve with the use of LDN. And this is what I was told:

We were delighted to hear of your excellent control of Hep C using LDN alone.   The reason why Hep C is not on our list relates to Dr. Bihari's past experience in his active practice (Bihari was the discoverer of the human uses of LDN). He did not have your experience with dozens of his patients who were being seen for HIV (and thus were all on LDN) but who also had Hep C.

He did use LDN in the therapy of Hep C, BUT only as a secondary treatment.Hypericin and LDN for Hepatitis C.

Hypericin and LDN for Hepatitis C

"In a study of St. John's Wort in 15 patients with HIV in 1990, Dr.Bihari had accidentally discovered a significant benefit to liver function in two patients with hepatitis B (whereas there was no improvement in HIV markers). Bihari then began to use St. John's Wort in his private practice to treat hepatitis B and hepatitis C - patients with the latter responded well, the former not at all. Since 1995, Dr. Bihari has been able to use a very highly concentrated form of hypericin, the active ingredient found in St. John's Wort, called HY2 (manufactured by Pacific Biologic in Clayton, CA; 800-869-8783) in the treatment of people with hepatitis C. It is given along with LDN, to enhance the immune response, and in many cases with ribavirin, as an antiviral. Over 60 patients have been successfully treated for hepatitis C in Dr. Bihari's practice. (but what does this mean?)

Dr. Bernard Bihari has put out the results of an interesting observational study he conducted through his practice in New York. The study involved fifteen people with Hepatitis C, seven of whom are also HIV+. Each day, participants took between 2 and 7 capsules of HY2 (depending on each person's ability to tolerate the HY2) and 3mg of naltrexone (ReVia), an opiate blocker. HY2 is a form of St. John's Wort, a naturally occurring herb. Hypericin, a chemical derived from St. John's Wort, has shown strong anti-viral activity in the test tube against a wide variety of viruses. Each capsule of the HY2 used by Dr. Bihari's patients contains 750mg of St. John's Wort, with a 220% increase in hypericin content (2.25mg hypericin) over standard St. John's Wort preparations. This same HY2 is available at the PWA Health Group.

Dr. Bihari has followed his patients for up to two years. In almost all cases, Dr. Bihari's patients' latest lab reports show normal or close-to-normal AST and ALT results. These tests measure the levels of enzymes produced by the liver. The elevated enzymes which all of the participants had at the beginning of the study are usually an indication of liver inflammation or damage. Many study participants were using milk thistle and/or thioctic (lipoic) acid, popular supplements that enhance liver function. Four participants added ribavirin to their regimens.

With these additional, varied therapies, and even the naltrexone, many questions remain. How much the HY2 contributed to people's successful drop in liver enzymes isn't entirely clear.

One person who stopped taking HY2 and took regular St. John's Wort instead showed an increase in enzymes until he went back to the HY2. When two other study participants stopped their regimens for a while, their enzymes shot up, then decreased again after going back on the regimen. We know that taking ribavirin alone can sharply decrease liver enzymes; but when you stop ribavirin, enzymes pop back up. The same seems to be true of HY2 and the other treatments Dr. Bihari's patients are using. It may be helpful to give your liver a break for a period of time.(?) But we don't know yet what will happen once these folks stop their regimen completely or whether anyone's virus will clear.


The experience was interesting but half of his patients were also coinfected with HIV and there really isn't much of a followup - I wonder if any of them achieved SVR? It doesn't seem so.  I wrote back to the LDN website folks to let them know that I was disappointed that LDN for HCV was not listed as a condition treatable based on Bihari's study on 15 people.

On another note,  George Henderson recently posted about Spirulina and how it brought about SVR in some HCV folks who were using it - I love George!!!!!   He is so far ahead of the rest of us.

Spirulina Platensis versus Silymarin in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus infection. A pilot randomized, comparative clinical trial.

Among the 30 patients who had been treated with Spirulina and completed the 6 months protocol, 4 patients (13.3%) had a complete end of treatment virological response. While 2 patients (6.7%) had partial end of treatment response defined as significant decrease of virus load of at least 2-log₁₀ at the end of 6 months treatment. No virological response (non-ETR) (defined as no reduction of at least 2 logs₁₀ from the baseline virus load) was reported in the remaining 80% of Spirulina treated group.   The High-fat Hep C Diet  


  So perhaps some of you might want to try adding Hypericin (and not just "regular" St. John's wart to their regimen along with Spirulina and report back? If I had the bucks, maybe I would again be the guinea pig as I have been with LDN - hell, with over 4 years of NORMAL LIVER ENYZMES and over 4 years of LAB RESULTS via QUEST LABS - and over 4 years of using the same 3 mg  capsules of LDN provided by Skip's Pharmacy -  I should qualify for a "clinical trial?"

Low Dose Naltrexone for Pets

 
                           



There is a yahoo support group called "LDN for Pets" - It has much info on using LDN for cats, dogs and horses - and I imagine other critters as well.

Dr. Skip (Skip's Pharmacy - one of the best LDN compounding pharmacy!) is part of the community and knows much about proper dosing.  And some of the members have much experience with using LDN on their own pets.

For those who are interested, the proper dose of LDN is very small and the formula is this:

.03 mg. x weight

BTW - one can obtain Naltrexone 50mg without a prescription via:

NaltrexoneRx.com

I had tried using LDN on one of my cats a few years back - I am not sure that it helped because I did not use it regularly on Panda - I had just started using it myself.  Plus, she had carcinoma of the ear that had already spread to her brain so it was probably already too late.   And indeed, if one does a search on the web for "LDN for Cats" there are a few folks who did try using it on their own cats.  With not much success - however,  all of the cats were already close to end stage in the various disorders that they had.   Again, LDN as a "last ditch" resort to a crucial problem - so many people have turned to it for the same reason - traditional medicine no longer works for them or never did.

New Orleans has become a very expensive place to live - we have the highest car insurance rates in the country - perhaps the world.  Our utitlities are sky high as well as water bills.  Housing is through the roof - no wonder we have such a high homeless rate here.

I have been struggling for years to get by - lately things have been really bad - and of course the time that a few of my cats have become quite ill.  And are now 12-15 years old.  I was able to take one cat to the vet and am still paying on the $207.00 bill.  My heart is breaking because Mr. Magoo has hyperthesia - he is very sensitive to touch and has ripped a lot of his fur out.  He needs desperately to go to the vet for labwork to try and figure out what underlying condition(s) might have brought this on.  He has always been on a high quality diet - with no grains whatsoever. And he was always a cat who loved the slicker brush and zoom groom - not anymore.   My holistic vet is trying to help - Magoo is currently on antibiotics (as are two other cats in the house) as well as homeopathic remedies - nux vomic and hypericum, which do seem to help him.

I made the decision to start him on LDN the other night -  I only gave him .01 mg the first night and upped it to .02 the next night - he is a big guy @14 pounds so his goal dosage will be 0.39 mg.  We will see how it goes. He seems a bit more nervous today so I will try every other night dosing at 02 for a time - see how it goes and then work our way up.  Hopefully, he will be able to have labs sometime soon.

Of course, I would recommend to everyone who wants to start their own pet on  LDN, to have labs done first and to let their vet know what you plan to do.   As I do not have enough money for toilet tissue at the moment, I cannot do it.  So I am using one of my last five 3mg LDN capsules to give to Magoo.   In a dark vial, dump in the capsule - add 3ml (same as mg) of bottled or distilled water - and shake.  Draw up required amount in syringe and give to pet.  Same if one has other strengths of LDN capsules or a 50mg tab - but use 50ml of water. Use the same amount of water as the mg of ldn used.  Keep in fridge - it will keep a long time.

I will update on Magoo's progress as we go along - I am hoping that it will help and that I am not too late in starting to treat whatever the poor guy has.  He is one of the 5 cats that survived for two weeks without food or water following the levee breaches after Katrina - all of those cats are heroes to me as well as being my "children"  -  I cannot tell you the stress and heartbreak that his illness has brought to me.   Again, the LDN is what has kept me going and I pray that it will do the same for Magoo.

NIGHTMARE -  Last Thursday, after noting that Magoo was drooling,  I pried open his mouth and found a nasty tumor underneath his tongue.  Extremely shocking and very sad finding - and after finally getting an appointment for him for exam and labs - this.   And feeling like an idiot that I did not see it earlier - I had been in his mouth 3 times daily for a couple of months.

Awaiting holistic vet's call - she briefly looked at it on Friday.  She wants to try and shrink it before doing anything else - trying Thuja - 1M and 50M.   Meanwhile, I let Magoo skip a couple of days of the LDN - I am so afraid of cell proliferation with this.   However, after spending hours upon hours reading about this insidious disease, and how almost all cases end badly,  I figure that Magoo has nothing to lose with the LDN.  Started over last night with 0.15 mg and will go to every night dosing of 0.20 tonight.  The less is more approach obviously did not work for him -  well, hopefully, we will know more once the poor guy has lab work -  I am devastated over this - Goo is my boy - a sweet sweet spirit.    Playing this poverty game might have cost him his life.

UPDATE JULY 5TH 2013

Vet visit for labs and xray show clean scans and normal liver & kidney function tests. Slightly enlarged heart and liver.   Elevated white blood cells because of UTI.   Tumor that looked red and ragged last week now looks more pink with smooth edges.  Vet thinks might have shot that it is lymph related and not SCC.  On antibiotics for 8 days and then see how he is - then, if still needed, go to another vet for biopsy.

Been syringing his mouth with calendula and grapefruit seed extract mixed with bottled water several times a day.  0.02 LDN almost every night.  Vet not thrilled but did write Magoo a script for liquid LDN that will be filled at Skip's Pharmacy.  And as Magoo weighs in at 15-16 pounds, his correct LDN dose is more like 0.45 mg.  But again, less is more with LDN, particularly in those with impaired liver function.  So keeping fingers and paws crossed that it is not SCC!!!!!!