Regarding the matter of taking NAL sixty minutes before you drink alcohol...how exact does this have to be?
For example, let's say I take a tablet of NAL, then get diatracted, and don't actually start drinking alcohol until ninety minutes later. Will it still work?
I'm trying to be as scientific about this as I can be, but sometimes distractions intervene. And I am still new at this.

Please advise.

Thanks

ScatMan1985

S-man, Peak plasma levels of both naltrexone and 6 beta natrexol (what naltrexone metabolizes into after ingestion) is achieved within 60 minutes. This means the drug will reach maximum effect for most people after 1 hour. What you have to remember is once you take naltrexone it is being increasingly absorbed. So it has a reasonable effect after 30 minutes, more after 45 minutes and maximum effect after 60 minutes. The half life of naltrexone is 4 hours and for 6 beta naltrexol 13 hours. (Half life is the time it takes for half of a drug to be metabolized out of your system). Since both naltrexone and 6 beta naltrexol are both responsible for opioid receptor blockade, you can count on your 50mg dose still being pretty effective even 12 hours after you take it. So if you had to err on drinking 15 minutes after taking naltrexone or 90 minutes you would be more covered after 90 minutes than 15 minutes. In theory if you don't have the full 60 minutes available for maximum absorption just take the naltrexone as soon as you can and drink your first drink slowly. Cracking the pill open between your teeth before you swallow should speed absorption. (you don't need to grind it up between your teeth). I hope this helps.

Saint Vincent,

Your response to my question was, without question, the most exact, most complete, most all-encompassing, most scientific of any I have ever received in response to any question I have ever asked anyone in my many years on this planet! Thank you for setting me straight and for being so thorough!

Onward!

ScatMan1985

I went to see a dr. yesterday in San Francisco to request naltrexone..I was very nervous I would get shot down but after reading the book on the sinclair method, I decided it was worth it..That is until he had no clue what it was (the man owns his own successful practice!) and then asked me in regards to my drinking "well is it THAT bad?" Totally clueless. I felt so ashamed. I cried on the way home, then proceeded to get online and order through http://www.helpful-online-pharmacy.com
I hope it is the real deal..I wish I would have come across this forum sooner, just found it today. I am curious to hear updates from new users like scatman. I hope to be starting very soon, just awaiting the arrival! Also if it seems my rx is not the real deal after all, would like to check out, was it all day chemist? Sounds like it may be cheaper. I spent $195 for 30 days/50mg. Not sure how much other sites ask for. Grateful to have found this forum of like minded individuals trying to do good things for ourselves..I am tired of feeling bad.
If anyone knows of a bay area dr. who is on the same page as the rest of us, Please let me know thanks!!

Hello Dragon Girl,

I'm sorry to hear about the insensitivity of your doctor in San Francisco. If you have health insurance and have access to a medical group rather than just an individual doctor, you may have better luck calling them up and asking them to put you in contact with their psychiatry department rather than your primary care practitioner. From there you can request an appointment with a psychiatrist who will probably be more understanding and, after a short office visit/evaluation, more likely to write you a prescription for NAL. That is exactly what happened to me. My medical insurance plan pays for most of it, and my co-payment for a bottle of 30 pills is only $10.00.

Your other option (as mentioned in other posts by other members at this website), is to order NAL directly from one of the Indian pharmacies. All Day Chemist (http://alldaychemist.com) is one, but $33.00 for 20 pills is steep, especially considering that they add on shipping costs of $25:

Brand US Brand Generic Strength Pack Size Bonus Total Pills Price Quantity Total
Naltima 50 Mg Depade 50mg Naltrexone Hcl 50 Mg 10 Pills 20 Pills $16.80 2 $33.60

Sub Total $33.60
Shipping $25.00
Total $58.60

I also tried The River Pharmacy (https://www.riverpharmacy.com/drug/naltrexone) who sold me 90 tablets for $217.80 (shipping is free).

So your best bet and most economical choice is to first try to get a local psychiatrist who is included in your HMO or PPO insurance plan to write you a prescription.
If, however, you try that yet continue to run into resistance, then try one of these two online pharmacies.

Best wishes and stay in touch.

ScatMan1985

thank you scatman!! I appreciate your help..how is the naltrexone working for you thus far? I went by the recommendations on here and bought it via "all day chemist" but I think next time might go the River Pharmacy route, that seems like a good deal. I do not have insurance, but even without insurance here in CA. through Costco a one months supply is $45..which is not bad and so so worth it, given the money I spend weekly on vats of red wine;) I would rather have my cash go into something beneficial and towards my health. I am anxiously awaiting my package..it could not come a moment too soon.
I feel grateful to have found this forum and this medicine..I was doing good for a while "maintaining" but that seems to be dwindling away rather quickly. So I hate to put all my hopes and expectations into one basket but I am afraid this is the last stop before trying the whole AA route again, which made me feel really bad about myself..made me feel like I must be really sick, which I feel just leads to more a shame spiral. ok, sorry feels nice to vent to people who understand and are traveling the same path.

DragonGirl,

You can get NAL at your local Costco?? Wow...go for it! $45 for a bottle of 30 pills at Costco is not a bad deal at all.
So forget the Indian online pharmacies altogether!
And as you pointed out, taking NAL is a heck of a lot cheaper than how much $$$ all of us have been spending on red wine and beer!

Some further suggestions I am getting from people (once you are stabilized):

• Put honey in your tea or coffee in the morning and drink orange juice later in the day to stabilize your body’s glucose levels.
• Start eating more green vegetables
• If you can, get your doctor to give you Vitamin B 12 shots (injections)
• Figure out what time of day your cravings usually come on, and instead of drinking at that time, go jogging (which is what I now do, one hour straight each day) or some similar form of vigorous, cardiovascular exercise. Even just thirty minutes of cardio three times a week will change your mind set.

Regarding AA: I am violently opposed to it. As far as I'm concerned, AA is a nothing but a pseudo-religion. It was perhaps okay back when it started in the 1930's, when its founders would carry a Bible along when visiting a sick person and incorporate scripture into their prayer, but at some point they threw out the Bible, and inserted the phrase "God as you understand Him," which means nothing more than an easy, make-believe god fashioned after each person's own image, which is idolatry. Jesus said, "No one comes to the Father except through me." We don't get to make up our own god.

I've sat in at meetings at my local hospital that are supposed to be free-form discussions for people concerned about alcohol for whatever reason (i.e.: NOT an AA meeting), yet the AA zealots in attendance invariably overtake these meeting with their rhetoric and worn-out slogans. They're cocky, long-winded, and cuss like sailors, all the while professing to be a spiritual organization. There is no God or peace in those people. I want nothing to do with AA, and have no intention of being shackled to a life of attending their meetings.

So on top of the bullet points I listed above, I also recommend that you find yourself a good, local full-Gospel church where there are altar calls, and people can go up front and get healing and deliverance prayers. I also recommend that you start listening to Christian radio.

I will leave you with the following three passages of scripture which I recommend you incorporate into your nightly prayers:

• "Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress; He sent forth His word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave." – Psalm 107: 19-20
• "Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise." – Jeremiah 17:14
• "He Himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins, and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed." – 1 Peter 2:24


Best wishes, and stay in touch.

ScatMan1985