If my blood test show I have no inflammation, could this explain why Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) did not work for me? 

If my blood test show I have no inflammation, could this explain why Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) did not work for me? 

If my blood tests always test fine for ESR, does it mean that I have no inflammation? If so, could this explain why LDN did not work for me? 

No. No. Just because one factor in the lab says that it's negative or normal doesn't mean that there isn't any inflammation. 

There are wide variety of areas that we look at to pinpoint inflammation. And it could be inflammatory processes that are caused by cytokines, which are like interleukin 6, 10, and 12. It could be inflammation caused from a food that you have a sensitivity to. It could be a metabolic process. So for example, diabetes is an inflammatory process. 

There's a lot of study going on about inflammation. So as we age, do our cells die off the way they're supposed to, or do they hang around and not die off as quickly as they should, even though they're not working very well. So there’s a wide variety of inflammatory processes that LDN may work on.

So LDN may not have worked for you because the dose was too high. Perhaps it was not the right dosage form, not given at the right time of day. There could be a lot of different reasons. Does that mean you can’t re- challenge? No. You could very easily go back and try it again. Start low, go slow and give it at least 6 months or so. It just really depends on exactly what it is you’re trying to treat, and go from there.

But again, use a really good compounding pharmacy that’s very much in the know. A lot of times they have really good patient follow-up programs as well.