Page 31 - Winter2008

endorphins or give them more endorphins, maybe naltrexone doesn’t do anything harmful, except, in a few cases, inhibit sleep.
they’ll feel better and maybe that will stimulate Instead, it tells your body to respond in a certain direction. It is the most
their immune system to function properly so they powerful, effective, easy and simple way discovered to boost endorphin
won’t get diseases like AIDS. levels. A lot of these early heroin addict patients with AIDS were treated
Researchers have tried all different ways to with low-dose naltrexone in the early 1980s, and many of them are still
increase endorphin levels. Intravenous human alive.
endorphins cost one hundred thousand dollars
per shot, last about five seconds and don’t really AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE
work very well. They tried giving them orally. According to the New England Journal of Medicine (November 13,
Like insulin taken orally, they don’t get absorbed 2003), “Preclinical evidence indicates overwhelmingly that opioids alter
and so that doesn’t work either. the development, differentiation and function of immune cells, and that
In the process of this research they discov- both innate and adaptive systems are affected.” Bone marrow progenitor
ered a few things that naturally boost endorphin cells, macrophages, natural killer cells, immature thymocites, T- cells and
levels. The first is high-intensity exercise, the B-cells are all involved. Thus the whole gamut of cells that we associate
so-called runner’s high, that feeling that you get with the immune response is dependent on naturally produced opiates. In
when you’re really exercising, when you have other words, autoimmune disease is really an endorphin deficiency—that’s
your second wind and you feel you won’t ever the proper diagnosis. These diseases are not caused by an over-activity of
get tired. We know that high-intensity exercise the immune system, as we’ve been told. They are caused by the immune
absolutely will boost our endorphin levels. system not getting what it’s looking for. The immune system wants to be
Another one is acupuncture. Probably one reunited with the poppy plant. Low-dose naltrexone helps the body reunite
reason you can take someone’s appendix out with its inner poppy nature by stimulating it to produce more endorphins,
under pure acupuncture anesthesia, or do dental and when that happens, your autoimmune disease vanishes.
procedures, is because acupuncture seems to Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease. Bernard Bahari
release these bursts of endorphins so you don’t treated 44 patients with MS. Forty-two of them went into remission—their
feel anything painful at all. You feel that life is disease stabilized and they stayed that way for the next fifteen or more
good so you don’t feel pain. years. When they discontinued taking it, their symptoms returned within
The third one, which every woman knows one month. So this treatment does not really heal anything. But if there is
about, is chocolate. Chocolate has a chemical anything that will help someone with MS feel better, will alleviate their
called l-phenylalanine which prevents the break- spasticity and perhaps stop the autoimmune attack on their myelin, I’m all
down of endorphins, so it’s a bit like sustained- for it.
release endorphins, except it doesn’t last forever. Crohn’s disease is a debilitating autoimmune disease. The April 2007
Then you need more chocolate. A lot of women issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology published an article
have found that out the hard way. entitled, “Low-dose Naltrexone in Crohn’s Disease.” The researchers
The fourth way to increase endorphin levels, found that 67 percent of Crohn’s disease patients went into remission with
which was discovered in the mid 1980s, is low- no other therapy but 3-4 mg of low-dose naltrexone before bed. About 80
dose naltrexone. Remember that the researchers percent of the participants reported a significant improvement.
found that 50 mg blocks the endorphin receptors I have used low-dose naltrexone successfully for Crohn’s disease,
all day, which makes you feel terrible. But what ulcerative colitis and even Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. In fact, for the first
about giving addicts 3 mg of naltrexone? And time I can see the way towards successfully treating autoimmune thyroid
what about giving it to them right before bed? disease whereas before nothing really worked.
It takes about two hours for naltrexone to Low-dose naltrexone also works for rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren’s
get absorbed and block the receptors, and the syndrome, lupus, in fact any autoimmune disease. However, it will not
low dose of naltrexone will only block the re- work with osteoarthritis, which is not an autoimmune condition.
ceptors for about an hour. Then the block wears Basically every illness that researchers have looked at—MS, irritable
off. The body looks at this situation and says, bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis— shows improvement
“Hey, somebody blocked my receptors. I need with low-dose naltrexone. The first thing that happens, as you would expect,
more endorphins.” So it responds by producing is that people feel great because their inner poppy plant deficiency has been
more. resolved. The second things is their disease over time (usually two to four
The reason you can almost consider this months) starts to go into remission, as if their cells are getting what they
natural medicine is because the low amount of need and the proper fuel is there. It sure beats eating a ton of chocolate.

WINTER 2008 Wise Traditions 31