Answering the Question of Is Ivermectin Safe for Humans

Executive Summary

• There are many questions related to whether is Ivermectin safe for humans, and a lot of inaccurate information is provided by health authorities.
• This article covers the real story of Ivermectin safety.

Introduction

On the question of is Ivermectin safe for humans to keep people from taking Ivermectin, as it would have cannibalized the sales of far more expensive on-patent medications with far lower side effects, the health authorities, under the control of the pharmaceutical companies, massively exaggerated the safety issues with Ivermectin. A good example of this is the FDA’s warning on Ivermectin, which you can read here. That article focuses on whether Ivermectin safe for covid — however, this website covers the use of Ivermectin for many purposes. All of the health authorities want Ivermectin only limited for use against parasites. This article covers the is Ivermectin safe without any pharmaceutical influence or any political considerations.

About the Brightwork Research Treatment Database

We have a subscription website that provides people with everything they need to know about using Ivermectin for several diseases. Cancer is just one of our most researched areas. To see more see the below article indexes. 

Article Indexes

• Open this link to see just one example Ivermectin article index.
• Open this link to see the full article index. 

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Is Ivermectin Safe for Humans, and Where is the Toxicity With Ivermectin Found?

This quote is consistent with all of the studies we have read on Ivermectin.

Moreover, there were almost no adverse effects for ivermectin treatment. Ivermectin exerts selective toxicity and has protective effect. – Anti-parasite drug ivermectin can suppress ovarian cancer by regulating lncRNA-EIF4A3-mRNA axes

And this quote.

Ivermectin has continually proved to be astonishingly safe for human use. Indeed, it is such a safe drug, with minimal side effects, that it can be administered by non-medical staff and even illiterate individuals in remote rural communities, provided that they have had some very basic, appropriate training. This fact has helped contribute to the unsurpassed beneficial impact that the drug has had on human health and welfare around the globe, especially with regard to the campaign to fight Onchocerciasis. Since the inception of the Mectizan Donation Programme, Merck has donated well over 2.5 billion Mectizan® tablets for Onchocerciasis treatment, with in excess of 700 million treatments authorised. Currently, some 80–90 million people are taking the drug annually through MDA in Africa, Latin America and Yemen. A further 300 million total treatments have been approved for lymphatic filariasis, with around 90 million treatments being administered annually (Fig. ​(Fig.8 ).8 ). At present 33 countries are receiving ivermectin for Onchocerciasis and 15 for Lymphatic filariasis. Consequently, around US$4 billion worth of ivermectin tablets have been donated to date. – Ivermectin, ‘Wonder drug’ from Japan: the human use perspective

The establishment media makes a massive deal of people taking large doses of Ivermectin. This is a scare tactic because not only is Ivermectin one of the safest drugs, but it takes a significant multiple of the recommended dose to end up with complications. See the following quote.

See the following quote.

Significant lethality was observed in mice and rats after single oral doses of 25 to 50 mg/kg and 40 to 50 mg/kg, respectively. No significant lethality was observed in dogs after single oral doses of up to 10 mg/kg. Significant lethality was observed in mice and rats after single oral doses of 25 to 50 mg/kg and 40 to 50 mg/kg, respectively. No significant lethality was observed in dogs after single oral doses of up to 10 mg/kg. – RXList

Let us explain how much of a multiple this is.

These are all in kg. And the recommended dose when in kg is .2 per kg.

Let us take the midrange value of (25 + 50)/2 = 37.5 + (40 + 50)/4 = 45. Let us take the midrange value of the first range provided. We get this by performing the following math.

Let us take midrange value of (25 + 50)/2 = 37.5 + (40 + 50)/4 = 45 (25 + 50 mg)/2 = 37.5 mg (Value #1)

Let us take midrange value of (25 + 50)/2 = 37.5 + (40 + 50)/4 = 45 (40 + 50 mg)/4 = 45 mg (Value #2)

(37.5 + 45)/2 = 41.25

41.25/.5 = 82.5

So this means that lethality was arrived at in rats in the study when the dosage was 82.5.

Another test was performed for lethality in dogs and found the following.

In dogs the dosage of 10 MG/KG showed no significant lethality. – RXList

Let us calculate the multiple of this of the recommended dosage. 10/.5 = 20

This means that at 20x the recommended dosage, no lethality was found.

Therefore, it takes a massive dose of Ivermectin until it becomes dangerous. The establishment and pharmaceutical-controlled media have stated that large amounts of Ivermectin are hazardous; however, they do not address the wide safety margin with Ivermectin.

Large quantities or overdoses of most drugs are dangerous. However, the establishment media seem to allocate most of their focus to this topic of Ivermectin. Even taking the standard prescription dose of various opioids, Remdesivir, Vioxx, and many other drugs are dangerous. However, you will notice the establishment media is silent on these drugs.

More on Ivermectin Safety

This previous information is reinforced by this quote which is from the article What Happens to Doctors Who Innovate?

Every drug is toxic (hence why I use them sparingly), and while ivermectin is not 100% safe (reversible symptoms will occur in sensitive patients), it is one of the safest drugs in existence.

For example, I do not know of any documented cases where someone has died from an ivermectin overdose (I only know of three “suspected” cases where more information was not provided). This is a distinction very few other drugs hold as virtually any drug can be deadly at a high dose.

Is Ivermectin Safe for Children?

Whether ivermectin is safe then has to consider the question of Ivermectin for children.

Ivermectin is prescribed for children as an antiparasitic all over the world. There was a safety concern, but this issue was tested and proved not to be an issue through long-term usage, as is covered in the following quotation from Ivermectin, ‘Wonder drug’ from Japan: the human use perspective.

For a long time, it was believed that ivermectin was contra-indicated in children under the age of five or who weighed less than 5 kg, as there was a fear of neurotoxicity, the drug possibly being able to cross the as yet not fully developed blood/brain barrier.

However, evidence has emerged that is probably not the case.

Why the Hit Pieces From the FDA and Establishment Media Have Been So Nonspecific

The questions about Ivermectin’s safety don’t come from actual reports on drug safety. Instead, they nearly always come from exaggerations and false claims by the medical establishment, which are whitewashed through the establishment media (for which they are major advertisers.)

Let us take the example provided as what was used.

Some More Risk Math

The toxicity of Ivermectin is not measured at, say, 10x of the standard dosage, which is a 150-pound person divided into 1,500 pounds, 10. However, the toxicity is nearer to 20 to 80 times. Also, the dosage is stated as per KG, even on animal Ivermectin bottles and packaging. Who would calculate their weight at 1,500 pounds?

Ivermectin is a very unlikely drug to overdose upon. You would be hard-pressed to find a cure with fewer adverse side effects and fewer negative interactions with other medications. And yet, the establishment media has written more articles on overdosing on Ivermectin than the countless far more dangerous drugs prescribed nationwide.

Hundreds of thousands of adverse drug events every year in the US lead to death, not to mention simply adverse events, and the establishment media barely covers this critical topic. However, they are obsessed with Ivermectin overdoses.

• Secondly, the dosage is by weight listed on the packaging. So why does the establishment media think people will calculate a 1,500-pound dosage?
• This is just reaching on the part of the media, serving a PR function for their pharmaceutical company advertisers.

The Reality of the Supposed Overdoses of Ivermectin

The establishment media and FDA have proposed that people have been overdosing on animal Ivermectin for years. However, they downplayed the actual statistics.

This quote reinforces my observations. It is from the article What Happens to Doctors Who Innovate?

Third, the source the NPR article cited indicated that for the first 8 months of 2021, compared to 2020 or 2019, of the approximately 728 extra cases, 0 died, 1% (roughly 7) had a “major” effect, 8% had a “moderate” effect (roughly 58), 13% (roughly 95) had a “minor” effect, 20% had no effect, and of the 58% not followed, the majority were not thought to have had a significant effect from the ivermectin.

What this means is that there was an understandable increase in calls to poison control centers by people who had decided to take veterinary ivermectin and then became were worried they’d misdosed it. Nonetheless, nothing of consequence happened (seven people in the entire country had “major” reactions).

Conversely, there are slightly over 2 million calls to poison control each year, 567,035 of which come from just seven types of pharmaceutical drugs.

These details illustrate how dishonest the establishment media and the health authorities have been on this topic.

The WHO’s VigiAccess Adverse Reaction System

The World Health Organization maintains an adverse reaction database. The following information is found at VigiAccess.gov, supported by the WHO. Let us look at its reported adverse effects.

Mathematical Comparison #1: Adverse Reactions Reported  Per Dose

• Covid Vaccines Problems per Dose = 7.8 Billion / 2.7 Million = 28,888
• Remdesivir Problems per Dose = 102.9 Million / 7859 = 13,192
• Ivermectin Problems per Dose = 3.7 Billion / 5812 = 636,613

The higher the number, the lower the proportion of adverse reactions. Now, we can determine the relative risk difference with the following calculations.

Mathematical Comparison #2: Relative Risk Per Dose

• Covid Vaccines Versus Remdesivir Relative Risk = 28,888 / 13,192 =  2.1
• Remdesivir has 2.1x as many adverse reactions per dose as the Covid vaccines.
• Covid Vaccines Versus Ivermectin Relative Risk = 636,613 / 28,888 =  22
• Covid vaccines have 22x as many adverse reactions per dose as Ivermectin.
• Ivermectin Versus Remdesivir Relative Risk = 636,613 / 13,192 = 48
• Remdesivir has 48x as many adverse reactions per dose as Ivermectin.

What should also be noted is that while Ivermectin is roughly $1 per dose, Remdesivir is $3120 per dose. And Ivermectin has proven to be more than 3x more effective than Remdesivir while having far more studies. You can see this in the article How Effective is Ivermectin Versus the Pfizer and Moderna Corona Vaccines?

Where Are the Reported Adverse Effects of Ivermectin at Drugs.com

Drugs.com is a website that is paid for by pharmaceutical companies. However, for some reason, they appear to leave the reviews without censorship, because it is very easy to find bad side effects from drugs in the reviews. See the article The Side Effects of Statins Like Lipitor, as one example.

However, problematic side effects are not apparent from the reviews on Ivermectin.

Lets review some sampling of comments from Drugs.com on Ivermectin. These are only from comments where the review is lower than the average review. The vast majority of reviews on Ivermectin at Drugs.com are positive and do not report side effects, so we are only interested in going over those where side effects are listed.

Comment #1: Ivermectin on Scabies

Stromectol (ivermectin) for Scabies “Works good, but the bug has to bite you in order for it to be effective. Administered by body weight formula. Saturation to full strength within 4 hours after ingestion. Remains at full strength for appx. 18 hours. Dissipation afterwards at appx. 2.5mg per day. Estimated half life is 12 days per dose. All conditions depend on body weight. Kills bugs wherever they feed, including those in the skin, which may cause ulcers from the decomposing dead parasite.

Comment #2: Side Effects from Ivermectin?

My husband (48) & I (44) took Ivermectin trying to protect us from Covid. Side effects were AWFUL: stomach pains, nausea, diarrhea & my husband had really bad blurred vision & dizziness. He stopped taking it after 3 wks because of side effects. I hoped it would work better than it did, but we BOTH still got Covid 4 weeks after starting Ivermectin. My son, who refused to take Ivermectin since he was vaccinated for his job (mandated), didn’t get Covid although he is currently staying with us. I think it was all for nothing since we’re both still so sick after 16 days & my son didn’t have any of these side effects with his vaccine & also didn’t even get sick! Worth noting that the ER doc said my husband was already weak & dehydrated when he got Covid-19 since he’d been having diarrhea for weeks before, from the Ivermectin.

These are the side effects listed for Ivermectin. However, in both testing on rabbits and on ourselves up to 5x the our recommended dosages — we have never been able to replicate these side effects. I have another question — why did this man continue to take Ivermectin for three weeks? Anytime side effects being to manifest from any medication, the medication should be ceased.

Comment #3: Neurological Effects?

 “I tried it and had terrible just terrible neurological side effects. I even took a pretty low does 9mg. If you have any CNS issues whatsoever or have had tinnuties, peripheral nerve issues DO NOT TAKE THIS. I am suffering big time with shaking, internal vibrations, and nerve issues and crossing my fingers this goes away.”

9 MG caused nerve issues, but only in a person who appears to have a pre-existing condition related to the nervous system.

Everyone at Brightwork is over 30 MG per day. I have been at this level for over a year and a half.

When he talks about hoping it goes away, Ivermectin will clear from his body if he stops taking it.

Comment #4: Bad Reaction?

I am a 38 year old female and took ivermectin for 9 days. I would rate my experience as 1/10. I started ivermectin 2 days after getting a positive COVID-19 test. I don’t think ivermectin works at all! I have pneumonia and I can barely breathe. I can hardly walk and I can’t keep food down and literally feel like death. I have literally been having diarrhea, nausea and sometimes throwing up since I started it and so i don’t know if it’s from the Covid or the Ivermectin but on advice from urgent care I stopped it today to see if maybe I’m having a bad reaction.

It is difficult to know here what parts of these symptoms are due to covid versus Ivermectin. Diarrhea and nausea are rare side effects of Ivermectin, but pneumonia is not a side effect from Ivermectin. As you can see from C19Early.com, based upon nearly 100 studies, Ivermectin is the most effective treatment against covid that is not based on just a small number of studies. But lets leave that to the side and just focus on her side effects.

Overall, after reading several comments about being nauseous, but never experiencing or this or observing this in any testing of Ivermectin I can only conclude that there is a segment of the population that is sensitive to either being nauseous generally, or becoming nauseous specifically in response to Ivermectin.

Comment #5: Heart Palpitations?

I was prescribed to take ivermectin for headlice for 3 consecutive days and 4 times a day at 3mg each. The first day was very mild dizziness, no problem. The second day was fine. I only started getting side effects the night on Day 2, and they were horrific. Muscle tremors, shaking, rashes, loss of appetite, heart palpitations. I was trying to sleep and I kept being woken up from doze because of the palpitations. Well I tried continuing its usage up until midday Day 3, when I was so beyond the point of shaking that my teeth were chattering and I had to stop taking them of fear of something happening to me. Fast forward a few days later off of them, still experiencing side effects. Skin is peeling, skin is red, moderate shaking. I gave a few stars because I do feel like it was helping for my condition but it did not outweigh the side effects. Contacted my doctor for something else.

Before reading this review, I had never heard of heart palpitations as a side effect of Ivermectin. However, I checked, and it is one of the rare side effects of Ivermectin. Another rare side effect is a rash, but not skin peeling. This person appears extremely reactive to Ivermectin. It would seem logical to bring the dosage down from 12 MG per day (4 x 3 MG), as they stated they do feel it is helping.

As just a general note, some of these reviews seem a bit odd. Any person who is experiencing side effects from any medication needs to either reduce or stop the medication. You don’t need to talk to an MD to respond to a medication by reducing it or stopping it. Some people are particularly sensitive to different medications. If a person is experiencing the rare side effects of a medication, that is the first clue.

Comment #6: Diarrhea?

“I took it last night and promptly after 10 times to the toilet lost the contents of my stomach and diarrhea. I am being careful. Not eating much. And washing all the glasses I use. Wash my hands more often be too. I hate to be sick.”

And I hope they are cutting the dosage down! This is not a functional way to be. And “not eating much,” is not the solution. This will weaken this person. Better to cut the dosage, and see what occurs, and then if major improvement in the side effects is not apparent, to switch to some other medication.

Comment #7: Diarrhea?

For COVID-19 “I started feeling better two hours after taking it. (except for the diarrhea that I got!)”

Again, some segment of the population has this sensitivity. I don’t consider diarrhea to be sustainable. It means you can’t really leave your house, and it leads to dehydration. This is very unfortunate that some people appear to have this reaction.

Comment #8: Developed Conjunctivitis

For Ascariasis “I have developed conjunctivitis. My eyes are constantly itchy. My blood pressure, which has always on the low side has suddenly become high and my intestines are acting up.”

Neither conjunctivitis not a documented side effect of Ivermectin, and Ivermectin does have a side effect of low blood pressure, but not high blood pressure. It seems like there is an attribution of side effects to Ivermectin that could be from Ascariasis or something else.

So — that was all of the side effects I could find from the Drugs.com reviews out of 47 reviews. The biggest issue from the reviews appears to be diarrhea. If you develop diarrhea after taking Ivermectin, you need to cut the dosage down.

Technical Reason for Ivermectin’s High Degree of Safety

Ivermectin is approved for use as an antiparasitic, and Ivermectin does many things and is not just antiparasitic. However, the following explains why Ivermectin is effective against insects while not toxic to mammals.

Ivermectin and its related drugs act by interfering with the nerve and muscle functions of helminths and insects. The drug binds to glutamate-gated chloride channels common to invertebrate nerve and muscle cells. The binding pushes the channels open, which increases the flow of chloride ions and hyper-polarizes the cell membranes, paralyzing and killing the invertebrate. Ivermectin is safe for mammals (at the normal therapeutic doses used to cure parasite infections) because mammalian glutamate-gated chloride channels only occur in the brain and spinal cord: the causative avermectins usually do not cross the blood–brain barrier, and are unlikely to bind to other mammalian ligand-gated channels. – Wikipedia

Another issue regarding Ivermectin’s excellent safety profile is the following.

The discovery of ivermectin has been described as a combination of “chance and choice.” Merck was looking for a broad-spectrum anthelmintic, which ivermectin is indeed; however, Campbell noted that they “…also found a broad-spectrum agent for the control of ectoparasitic insects and mites.”

Merck began marketing ivermectin as a veterinary antiparasitic in 1981. By 1986, ivermectin was registered for use in 46 countries and was administered massively to cattle, sheep and other animals. By the late 1980s, ivermectin was the bestselling veterinary medicine in the world. Following its blockbuster success as a veterinary antiparasitic, another Merck scientist, Mohamed Aziz, collaborated with the World Health Organization to test the safety and efficacy of ivermectin against onchocerciasis in humans. They found it to be highly safe and effective, triggering Merck to register ivermectin for human use as “Mectizan” in France in 1987. A year later, Merck CEO Roy Vagelos agreed that Merck would donate all ivermectin needed to eradicate river blindness. In 1998, that donation would be expanded to include ivermectin used to treat lymphatic filariasis.

Ivermectin earned the title of “wonder drug” for the treatment of nematodes and arthropod parasites. Ivermectin has been used safely by hundreds of millions of people to treat river blindness and lymphatic filariasis. – Wikipedia

About Ivermectin Safety by Dr. Chris Martenson

This video covers the safety of Ivermectin, and it focuses on using Ivermectin for covid—most of the literature and media on covid other than for its use as an antiparasitic. However, while you may not be interested in using Invermectin for covid, the safety of using Ivermectin against covid applies to using Ivermectin for other purposes. 

Dr. Simone Gold on Ivermectin’s Safety

Dr. Simone Gold does an excellent job of explaining the safety of Ivermectin. The pressure on Dr. Gold has been enormous. Some crucial points are the following: 

• Ivermectin has been known as highly safe for decades until (in our interpretation) Ivermectin became a threat to the desired treatment protocol of health authorities for covid.
• MDs are not licensed as a group; they are individually licensed. However, we have some MDs pressuring other MDs based on their place in a hierarchy.
• A major medical insurer pressured managing MDs at hospitals not to prescribe Ivermectin.

Our Testing of Ivermectin

At Brightwork Research & Analysis, we have tested several types of Ivermectin, human and animal, using ourselves as test subjects. While we were told animal Ivermectin would lead to overdoses, we tried cattle Ivermectin and multiple times the recommended dosage that we recommend in the article The Ivermectin Dosage Guide.

We found no ill effects.

This should not be surprising, as Ivermectin is a very safe drug, something the establishment media have been trying to cover up.

Furthermore, to get human Ivermectin in the US, the only way to get it is to claim to the doctor that you want it to fight parasites, as the medical establishment has disallowed the prescription of Ivermectin for anything else.

If you have a prescription for Ivermectin for an FDA-approved use, get it from a legitimate source, and take it exactly as prescribed.

The Arguments Leveled Against Ivermectin by The Medical Establishment

One of the biggest arguments against taking Ivermectin for anything but its FDA-approved use as an antiparasitic is that people overdose on animal or livestock Ivermectin.

The argument is that because people buy animal Ivermectin (which requires no prescription), they will apply it in doses for the most significant livestock, like cattle, even though Ivermectin is prescribed by body weight.

Statistically, Ivermectin is safer than aspirin.

Conclusion

The combination of Ivermectin’s benefits for many different diseases and ailments and its low toxicity/high safety level means that there is little argument against it.

Even if a person were to take several times the dosage described in this article, they would have a little negative impact. To read about the side effects of Ivermectin, see the article Answering the Question of the Side Effects of Ivermectin in Humans.