Clinical Trial for 2 Treatments for ME/CFS & Long-COVID

This is such exciting news for the ME/CFS and Long-COVID communities! Open Medicine Foundation (OMF) is sponsoring a scientifically valid clinical trial of two medications, low-dose naltrexone (LDN) and Mestinon, that are commonly used off-label to treat ME/CFS and long-COVID (off-label means used for purposes other than for what they were FDA-approved).

Dr. David Systrom, MD, is the Director of OMF's Harvard Collaborative Research Center, and an exercise specialist who has seen many ME/CFS and long-COVID patients to diagnose, study, and treat exercise intolerance. He pioneered the use of Mestinon, a cholinergic drug used as a muscle strengthener for other purposes, to treat ME/CFS and long-COVID.

Naltrexone is a very old medication (approved for use in alcohol and drug addiction) that has been used for decades in tiny doses to treat various immune disorders; it helps to normalize the immune system (acts as an immune modulator). There are many dozens of studies on its use in a wide variety of diseases ... but, as it often the case, none specifically focused on ME/CFS. However, ME/CFS expert clinicians have been using LDN for decades, and feedback from patients has shown that it often helps. My son and I have been taking LDN for 16 years, since 2007.

The real exciting news is that this clinical trial will include 160 people and will be a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind study. That's the gold standard in science and medicine and will allow the study results to be published in peer-reviewed medical journals, where it will be widely available to the entire medical community. That would be a game-changer for all patients, allowing us to show any doctor the study and ask for the treatments.

In this short video, Dr. Systrom explains (in layperson's terms) the details of the trial, why they chose these two treatments, what he's seen in patients, and what the impact of the study could be. You can watch the 16-minute video on YouTube or here:

This is the start of a new era for ME/CFS amd long-COVID!

What are your thoughts on this new clinical trial?

Have you tried either of these treatments?

Let me know in the comments below.

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