004 - Low Dose Naltrexone for the Treatment of Long-COVID

In this video, I talk about a treatment that may help reduce Long-COVID symptoms.

I was able to download the full article at the link below yesterday, but when I checked today, the article didn't seem to be available in full.

- Jarred Younger

[tunnl_personal]

Dear Jarred Younger,

I'm 22 years old, living in Germany and just finished my bachelor's degree in IT-Security. I have been living with LC for 2 years now after 2 infections with mild symptoms. Fatigue and brain fog are my only symptoms and I have now a long medical history of trying different treatments due to (mostly) misdiagnosis.

I just wanted to leave a big THANK YOU for your work! As you can imagine, a person in my situation will do anything to get well again. For me this means trying to understand the papers published in the medical academic field. For someone without a background, this is already hard enough, but of course, the fatigue and brain fog make it much, much worse.

This is why I am so grateful for your work. I value it just as much as the work of the people doing active research. Critically reviewing papers and understandably presenting the results takes so much work off me and other LC patients. Have a great day!

(ps: can I support this work somehow?)

[ClaireCaoimheRaeMoonshadow]

Those of us in the ME/CFS community have been using LDN for a while. I take 3mg twice a day. More stamina, less pain, crashes are less intense and shorter.

[arasharfa]

LDN is fantastic. so gentle, such positive effects, i really just feel better from it. I dont get sudden fatigue crashes nearly as often anymore and i recover faster, much less restless legs and anxiety. I postulated that my sudden strengthening effects from ketamine was due to opioid receptor interaction and decided to try LDN, and it did exactly what i suspected it would do, but better.

[raeknightlyauthor]

I’ve been on LDN for 5 months now. My brain fog has improved, but not my energy (yet). I’m at 4.5mg and my doctor recommended I increase the dosage.

The first two months were really hard: I took it before bed, it messed with my sleep and made me drowsy all day. The brain fog was awful! But then I switched to taking it in the morning, my body got used to the medication and the drowsiness and brain fog slowly went away.

I’d recommend taking it for more than two months - maybe even 6 - especially when you’re titrating up very slowly (I increased by 0.5mg every 2 weeks) because it takes time to work.

[DraganAlves]

LDN is the first thing in my 9 month long covid illness that actually seems to help

[TamiGuerrero]

Thank you! I’m in California and I’ve found doctors know nothing about our long covid. Nor do they care.

[danielscheerer]

As always, thank you for your information. I've been on LDN with some success, but have been off for quite a while. I'll look at trying a new round again with my PCP. Thank you!

[MichaelMerritt]

LDN was a saving grace for me for a few months before it suddenly stopped working and my pain came back. I took 6 months off and went back on it, it provided pain relief for a single day, almost euphoric and then immediately back to not working again. Very interesting drug and I wish it could've continued to provide benefit. I experimented with a few dosages and it was no different than a sugar pill once my body figured it out.

[sirenagarrido]

Dr thank you for all the information you are giving I really don’t understand why doctors are not interested in reading the new researchers and start working with their patients until now I have found out they don’t anything and they not interested to know they just don’t work with long COVID and that’s all. The ghosted me don’t listen at all I have developed a mistrust in most of them because I am feeling some coldness and indifference. I am looking just for some one who help me with my symptoms and not be suffering so much alone and by myself

[caseyj]

I feel terrible on LDN, unfortunately. In bed all day throwing up but I wish so much it helped.

[sharonmerton]

Thanks for this information. I will restart LDN on this basis. I am a doctor (Urgent Care Fellow) in NZ but out of a career now aged 58yo when I contracted two acute covid illness from work. 2 yrs down the track now. At what stage would you classify this as not long covid, but ME/CFS? prior fibromyalgia and a significant prior post viral illness attacking my bilateral achilles tendons - ongoing inflammation and pain there. I would be very open to joining studies as a participant. Many thanks for sharing this vital knowledge and research.

[ChrisKadaver]

I have ME, probably got covid during delta and got symptoms of slowly progressing cauda equina syndrome. But since they didn't suspect an acute bulging disc when I went to the ER I never got any help since they thought it was somatisation when my symptoms progressed and got even worse. It was back in 2021. I still doesn't get any help. They did eventually an MRI over a month after the symptoms started. But it didn't reveal anything. The radiologist how ever, pointed out that a swelling of the nerve roots due to inflammation can't be ruled out without contrast dye. And they didn't use any. And even still they won't let me do another MRI.

A few years have past and I have erectile dysfunction after this. And I still get relapses with worsening pain in the lower back, hips and sensation of electricity going down the left leg and also down in the genitals. And after every relapse like this the erectile function that I have regained a bit, get even worde. I don't have complete ED. But not far from it. And I don't know what to do. My doctors still treat me as if it was somatization syndrome. Just because the first MRI didn't show anything.

Any suggestion what to do? I live in sweden and all doctors share the same journal system.

[SaraTHTM]

It has also shown helpful for OCD which I was diagnosed with as a child short after SEVEN bouts of strep in one year. NEUROINFLAMMATION!!!! I had to go on an SSRI which greatly helped and I took through most of my life(still do) after that, but now that I am addressing neuroinflammation more since my Lyme and mold toxicity diagnosis, my anxiety and ruminating thoughts have been at an all time low.

[Prince-utxv]

Anosmia, tinnitus, extreme fatigue (1st wave 2020)...could LDN potentially have remedial effect on some of these now, esp Anosmia?

[jonvaughn]

My doctor put me on this about 10 yrs ago. By the 2nd pill the LDN had amplified my pain off the charts. Pain medication didn't help. I was running in the yard just to loosen my muscles up from the extreme tension. It was awful. I wish this result could be used to further diagnose what was wrong with me. Gabapentin also amplifies my pain just not near as bad as the LDN did. I can't take either.

[artpatten]

So thankful i found this channel. Thanks Dr. Y! (Do you ever hang with Dr. Z? ;))

[mistylee]

Amitriptyline has been a wonder drug for me. I was about to point out that the side effects are largely dose-dependent until you did mention it. But I think that’s important here.

I was taking trazadone for chronic insomnia. My urologist suggested switching to amitriptyline to treat both the insomnia and pelvic pain.

My primary doctor prescribed 20mg. At that dose I did experience excessive daytime sleepiness. The urologist said he would’ve started me at 10 mg.

After reducing to 10 the daytime sleepiness pretty much went away.

Since being on it other chronic symptoms greatly improved or disappeared altogether. Gastric pain that had left me miserable and too thin from anorexia greatly improved. Bruxism that had caused significant tooth and joint damage went away completely. This was something I struggled with my whole life. It was not something I could control beyond a minute or do - like breathing. You can only hold your breath so long before your body takes over and forces you to breathe. That’s what the teeth clenching was like for me.

A couple of years later my neurologist increased the dosage to 20mg for migraines. I did not experience a return of the daytime sleepiness when I did that.

So for those keeping score, it’s treating 4 things.

[xianayago]

What do you think about the lancet's study from January 2024 "Naltrexone 6 mg once daily versus placebo in women with fibromyalgia: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial"
Thank you

[yardii]

Dr. Younger that’s for your excellent work here - question: Dr. bernard Bihari talked about LDN’s ability to block the opiate receptors and increase endorphins which he believe regulated the immune system. I know you mentioned the action on TLR 4, but what about the endorphins and immune system mechanism of action? Anything there?

[andrewgifford]

Thanks Jared, A question if I may please; in the case of ME/CFS, should one get tested for particular inflammation levels or characteristics before considering LDN? Wondering what makes a good candidate, essentially.