Is Ivermectin safe?

The veterinarian anti-parasitic drug is getting a lot of attention lately regarding potential benefit as an anti-cancer therapy in humans. If you perform a general search on Google, you will generally find information stating its safety and miracle-like efficacy against all forms of cancer. But as with most things in medicine, I find them worth questioning before proceeding.

First, before you make any decision about a drug and whether or not to take it, it is important to understand how it works. How a drug works is categorized as its "pharmacology" which has to do with how the drug affects the human body and is metabolized. Ivermectin is a a chloride channel inhibitor metabolized primarily by the liver. Chloride (part of salt) is used for a good number of important pathways in the body. These include:

• regulation of nerve impulses

• regulation of muscle contraction

• balancing fluids (water) inside and outside cells

• balancing cell pH

• regulating fluid inside cells of the eye

• maintaining homeostasis of cells that line blood and lymphatic vessels (endothelial)

• regulating communication between cells (especially immune cells) via vesicles

Maintaining cell hydration, pH, fluid flow and levels, nerve conduction signals, endothelial cells, and muscle contractions you could imagine are very important for overall health! So, in other words, chloride (within salt) is as essential to your health and life as breathing.

You may ask yourself this question: how could a drug like Ivermectin help me if it blocks the effects of chloride in my cells?

A result of the blockage of chloride is the triggering of a cell signaler. This cell signaler is called caspase. Caspase will signal "apoptosis" or cell death. You need apoptosis (cell death) in order to "kill off" cancerous cells.

While this does sound good to someone suffering from cancer, there are many cautions to using Ivermectin that should not go undiscussed. This is because of the inhibition of chloride channel function. It is possible for the eyes, nervous system, kidneys, or heart to be impacted advesely with Ivermectin use. The following list provides a summary of possible impacts with citations:

• vision loss

• neurologic and cardiac toxicities

• kidney damage

• increased oxidative damage and stress

• brain damage

I had a patient who put himself on Ivermectin. He assured me he was cured of his cancer. However, the PET scans disagreed by showing continuous spread of the cancer to metastatic reaches to his brain tissue. Why might this be?

Inhibition of chloride ions affects calcium. Calcium is necessary for muscle contraction, nervous system communication, immune cell function, and bone health. Additionally, if calcium levels drop within the cell (called hypocalemia), cancerous cells can be affected. A known phenomenon of hyopcalemia can be the rapid spread of cancer.