How Successful is the Use of Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) in Multiple Chemical Sensitivity?

LDN Specialist Pharmacist Michelle Moser
LDN Specialist Pharmacist Michelle Moser

How Successful is the Use of Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) in Multiple Chemical Sensitivity?

How successful is the use of Low Dose Naltrexone in multiple chemical sensitivity? Dosing and managing side effects? That's a good one.  I don't know how much science is out there, but any time we have a sensitivity and we are exposed to that element or chemical that causes the sensitivity we're going to have inflammation.  That's where LDN would be helpful.  Again, this is going to be a very individualized situation.

You're not going to see too many side effects no matter what the dose is on Low Dose Naltrexone.  If you're also very sensitive I would recommend starting very low.  Very low.  Perhaps even a 0.1 milligram and then slowly increasing from there.  You may also want to use an oral liquid rather than a capsule so that it's much easier to manipulate.  What I mean by that is that if you have Low Dose Naltrexone compounded in a dose of one milligram per ml, that means every 0.1 mil is 0.1 milligram.  Therefore if you increase by 0.1 mil you're going to be increasing by 0.1 milligram.  That will help you evaluate how you respond.  A lot of times when you are very chemically sensitive you're going to be very sensitive to a wide variety of other issues.  If you have Low Dose Naltrexone compounded in a capsule you cannot open those capsules and chase the dose by taking only a little bit of it.  That is not going to happen.   I can't do that in my pharmacy using analytical balances and very scientific highly regulated machinery.  You're not going to be able to do that at home.  It's not going to happen.  

Can you do it with sublingual trokies?  Yes, but not as well.  The liquids are much easier to manipulate.  Liquids are usually compounded in two different types.  There's an oil type and there is an oil vehicle and a water-based vehicle.  The oil vehicles will give beyond use dating or an expiration date anywhere from 90 to 180 days.  The water based vehicle will give you about a 30-day expiration.  They usually have to be kept in the fridge.  Depending on your lifestyle and how quickly you're using things, you may want to lean toward more of the oil bases.  Oil bases just like the water ones need to be shaken up really, really well before every single use.  Every single use.  You keep them in a moderately temperate environment.  They can be flavored.  Naltrexone is bitter.  Sometimes we use natural flavors like Stevia or sweeteners like Stevia and we can always put in some flavoring in there as well.  The three oil bases that we use to compound are almond oil, olive oil and MCT oil which is derived from coconut.  So those are usually the three oils that are used.  Mainly because we can find those in pharmaceutical grade.  We can make sure that there's no other impurities. We can also make sure that our suspending vehicle and our medication, our active ingredient of Naltrexone is going to work really well.  And then we always take a look at the flavorings.  Right now we have, I think our most common flavor is a berry cobbler.  We also have a natural Tangerine oil, natural lemon oil, mint, cinnamon, things like that.  So we just have to be very careful especially when we're dealing with chemical sensitivities that there isn't some cross reactivity.  We want to make sure that you're well taken care of.  You can always opt for no flavor whatsoever.  You can even leave out the sweetener but again it's going to be bitter. You just have to figure out what's going to be tolerable so that you can stay on it.