Erin,

I am a member of the Neurotalk Parkinson's forum. I offer the following information regardiing my experience concerning LDN in case others on this forum might be interested in exploring a possible alternative which does not require a physician's prescription.

Another member of the Parkinson's forum, AshleyK, reported that she was using LDN to attempt to ameliorate the progression of Parkinson's symptoms, since she had read on the LDN web page that some people were using it for that purpose, with positive results. She reported that LDN has apparently been effective in slowing her symptom progression.

A couple of years after I was diagnosed in 2001 at age 63, I did some literature research about naltrexone and related morphinan drugs. I discovered that Dr. J. S. Hong, a neuro-pharmacolagy scientist at the National Institutes of Environmental Health in North Carolina, who was studying inflammation in nervous tissues, discovered that, in addition to naltrexone at very low concentrations, dextromethorphan, a drug that is available over the counter in cough preparations, at the same low concentrations as naltrexone, was equally effective in suppressing inflammation in brain tissue cell cultures.

Because I wanted to try the LDN type of approach, but was reluctant to ask my neurologist to prescribe LDN, I decided to try low-dose dextromethorphan (LDDM) to slow my Parkinson's progression. In addition to my typical daily Parkinson's medications, I have been taking LDDM (1/2 tsp. of "Pedia Care Cough" containing 7.5 mg DM per tsp.,) every night for the past 6 years. The dosages of this pediatric preparation recommended for cough supression in children is 10-20 times higher that that.
During that time my symptom progression has been very slow, compared to that of other Parkinson's patients at comparable times after diagnosis.
Several other Parkinson's patients at early stages of the disease have also begun LDDM with good results. I have since shared my use of dextromethorphan with my neurologist, who continues to be delighted with my lack of significant progression.

I do not know whether or not dextromethorphan might be effective in modifying the progression of MS, but am aware that neuroinflammation is common to the progression of several neurodegenerative diseases including both MS and Parkinson's disease.

Although I am a scientist, trained in biochemistry and molecular biology, I am not a physician, and I want to be clear that I do not share this information as a recommendation for anyone else. It is only a case of self-experimentation which I have found safe and apparently effective in my own case.

Robert