Thankfully here in the Philippines, unlike in other countries, the natural health practitioner, hilot, naturopath or doctor of metabolic medicine is well respected and protected by the "Traditional and Alternative Medicine Act (TAMA) of 1997."
REPUBLIC ACT NO. 8423
AN ACT CREATING THE PHILIPPINE INSTITUTE OF TRADITIONAL AND ALTERNATIVE HEALTH CARE (PITAHC) TO ACCELERATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF TRADITIONAL AND ALTERNATIVE HEALTH CARE IN THE PHILIPPINES, PROVIDING FOR A TRADITIONAL AND ALTERNATIVE HEALTH CARE DEVELOPMENT FUND AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.
Low dose naltrexone (LDN) is a hot topic among patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), cancer, neurological conditions, HIV infection, herpes, autism, and autoimmune diseases. With good reason. Clinical trials and anecdotal studies show that LDN can stop disease progression, reduce symptoms and help the body heal itself.
Naltrexone is an opiate antagonist developed in the early 1980s in response to the need for an effective treatment for opiate addiction. Its safety and effectiveness at doses ranging from 50 to 300 mg daily were confirmed in clinical trials. In 1984, the FDA approved naltrexone as a treatment for opiate abuse, and several years later it was approved as a treatment for alcohol abuse. In the protocol known as low dose naltrexone, naltrexone is used in doses ranging between 1.5 and 10 mg daily.
During the development phase of naltrexone, Dr. Ian Zagon and his team at Pennsylvania State University began researching naltrexone and other opiate antagonists. Dr. Zagon was particularly interested in the reasons for the low birth weight in children born to heroin addicts. His studies led to the discovery that opiate antagonists such as naltrexone and naloxone caused increased production of endorphins. He discovered that besides making us feel better, endorphins are neurotransmitters that regulate immune function and cell growth. Most importantly, he found that low doses of naltrexone blocked the opiate receptor intermittently and caused a dramatic increase in endorphins. Increased production of one particular endorphin, met-5-enkephalin, Dr. Zagon found, inhibited cell proliferation, reducing inflammation in autoimmune and neurological disorders and stopping cell growth in tumors.
As of March 2004 clinical use of this medication by Dr. Bihari in some 450 patients with cancer, almost all of whom had failed to respond to standard treatments, suggests that more than 60% of patients with cancer may significantly benefit from LDN.
Of the 354 patients with whom Dr. Bihari had regular follow-up, 86 have shown objective signs of significant tumor shrinkage, at least a 75% reduction. 125 patients have stabilized and/or are moving toward remission.
Low dose naltrexone might exert its effects on tumor growth through a mix of three possible mechanisms:
By inducing increases of metenkephalin (an endorphin produced in large amounts in the adrenal medulla) and beta endorphin in the blood stream;
By inducing an increase in the number and density of opiate receptors on the tumor cell membranes, thereby making them more responsive to the growth-inhibiting effects of the already-present levels of endorphins, which induce apoptosis (cell death) in the cancer cells; and
By increasing the natural killer (NK) cell numbers and NK cell activity and lymphocyte activated CD8 numbers, which are quite responsive to increased levels of endorphins.1 (abstract)
Cancers that are reported by Dr. Bihari to apparently respond to LDN:
