Naltrexone?

Typically used for alcohol and opiod addiction. If this advice is coming from a chiropractor I wonder how many J Pouch patients he/she has (and how many are addicted to pain killers).

Pulled this from an internet article. Sounds to me like a drug with few side effects. A low dose is needed to heal inflamed mucosa. May be worth trying and thanks for passing the info along for others. Amazing how a chiro can suggest something your gi may have never thought to.

Naltrexone. Originally developed to help treat heroin addiction, lower doses of naltrexone have shown a range of remarkable immunological activities. A placebo-controlled study on the use of low-dose naltrexone (4.5 mg per day at bedtime) suggested that the drug could resolve mucosal inflammation and induce clinical remission in patients with moderate-to-severe Crohn’s disease (Smith 2011). This confirms one earlier uncontrolled study of low-dose naltrexone’s efficacy for Crohn’s disease (Smith 2007). Naltrexone appears to relieve inflammatory bowel disease in part by decreasing expression of proinflammatory cytokines and promoting tissue repair (Matters 2008). At low dosages, the drug may cause drowsiness, but other side effects are uncommon.

pouchmonkey - look at healingwell.com - there are numerous posts re. naltrexone experiences there, particularly with Crohn's patients.

I've wanted to try it, but none of my "mainstream" docs would prescribe it. I don't know why they are so resistant, as it appears there's very little to no harm in trying it. I haven't pursued other means of getting a scrip (alternative doctors) yet. Please keep us posted if you try.

I read on the healingwell.com UC forum that there a some people on LDN there. Sounds like some of them respond to it while others do not just like any other drug. GI doctors are still very hesitant to prescribe it although I'm not sure what the real reason is. I would investigate it further.

Nice thread. Looked for Naltrexone and yeah it a drug to treat opeoid drug addicts. LND or low dose Naltrexone is being tried in variety of deases. Check the link
http://www.lowdosenaltrexone.org/

But I see they used it for Crohn's. 1.75 to 4.5mg/day (abt 50mg/day is for heroin dependence therapey) What About effect on UC? Anyone?

My chiro recommended it specifically because he has other pt's who have used it for auto-immune issues & have done extremely well with it. I have read the online info that notes that it is used for opioid addiction, but that's at 50mg, not the 4.5 mg dose. The pt's he has that have been using it have MS, UC, & Crohn's. My GI (who I have not spoken with yet about LDN, I wanted to finish out my cycle of Flagyl & Canasa first) pretty well told me that pouchitis, or mine specifically in rectal inflammation, can basically be just like UC, so in theory, if the LDN works for UC, could it not work for pouchitis? If anyone runs across someone with personal experience, please let us all know!

Pouchmonkey,
I am very interested in this and if you do start the low dose, please report back your findings. I would much prefer to take a low dose of this med than 875 mg X 2 of augmentin daily like I have been on for the last 15 months non-stop. I will ask my GI about this at my next appointment.