How a Drug for Opioid and Alcohol Addiction Is Helping Treat Long COVID
A drug that’s helping millions of people with opioid or alcohol dependence is also being used to treat those suffering symptoms of long COVID.
Naltrexone has been around since 1984 to treat opioid or alcohol addiction. Given in high doses of 50-milligram tablets or a 380-milligram intramuscular injection, the drug works by binding to opioid receptors in the brain to block the effects—especially the urges and cravings to use—of opioids and alcohol.
Naltrexone has also been found to treat other disorders when administered in low doses. It is used off-label to treat obesity, nerve pain, anxiety, and autoimmune disorders.
“I found it very effective in my patients with rheumatoid arthritis, with Crohn’s disease, with other autoimmune processes, and chronic fatigue syndrome,” Dr. Keith Berkowitz, an internist, told The Epoch Times.
Naltrexone is given at doses of 0.5 to 4.5 milligram for patients with long COVID, along with other repurposed medications like prednisone, ivermectin, and vitamin D, according to Berkowitz. At low doses, naltrexone has a potent anti-inflammatory effect, as well as an endorphin effect. (See link for article)
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- The addition of naltrexone to FLCCC’s treatment protocol has been a “game-changer” for patients struggling with long COVID-19
- One doctor states patients with long COVID aren’t believed by other doctors for it.
- WHO published a clinical case definition of long COVID as symptoms that occur 3 months from onset of COVID-19 with symptoms and that last for at least 2 months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis.
- The CDC defines long COVID as a “wide range of new, returning, or ongoing health problems people can experience four or more weeks after first being infected” with SARS-CoV-2.
- FLCCC and other experts recognize long COVID can happen not only after infection but after a COVID shot.
- It is believed prolonged exposure to spike proteins and lipid nanoparticles produces chronic inflammation causing long COVID. Circulation Research demonstrated the spike protein was able to damage the cells of the vascular system, and that COVID-19 is a vascular disease rather than a respiratory illness.
- Another study (pdf)—waiting to be peer-reviewed found that people who received “two doses of COVID-19 shots had higher odds of developing Long COVID.”
- Another study found that the spike protein from the shots persis in the body & remains in lymph node germinal centers for 60 days after the second dose of an mRNA shot.
- On expert states the more exposure an individual has to the spike protein, the more symptoms they will likely experience.
- Brain fog is a long COVID symptom that can be so debilitating patients aren’t able to work.
- Cognitive dysfunction, another long COVID symptom is one of the most frequent persistent symptoms reported, & occurs in 70 percent of long COVID patients. Brain fog, memory issues, and speech and language problems occurred more often at eight weeks or later than during initial infection, and about 86% of participants reported being unable to work due to cognitive dysfunction and/or memory loss, according to a study.
- Interleukin 6 (IL-6) causes damage … and low dose naltrexone helps modulate it and nuclear factor kappa B protein, or the inflammatory pathway, Dr. Mobeen Syed said in a video presentation on naltrexone.
Naltrexone is often used with Lyme/MSIDS patients as well. For more:
- https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/12/18/ldn/
- https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/10/30/ldn-an-overview-of-clinical-applications/
- https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/06/12/ldn-reduced-pro-inflammatory-cytokines-in-fm-after-eight-weeks/
- https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2020/08/13/ldn-for-pain-autoimmune-disorders-cancer-and-lyme-msids/
- https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/07/16/low-dose-naltrexone-for-lyme-living-with-lyme-podcast/
- https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/05/18/bullseye-low-dose-naltrexone-lyme-disease-documentary/
- https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/01/16/ldn-cbd/
- https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2021/11/05/can-ldn-or-gabapentin-improve-sleep/
Madison Area Lyme Support Group 