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Andra-Maria, MS Patient - 5th June 2019 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.
Linda Elsegood: Today my guest is Andra-Maria, and she's from Romania and she uses LDN for multiple sclerosis. Thank you for joining me today.
Andra Maria: A pleasure.
Linda Elsegood: This is really exciting. Can you tell us in your own words, when you were diagnosed, what you were like at that time and what you are like now?
Andra Maria: When I first was diagnosed in 2012 it was kind of a shock but at the same time, it was a relief because, after two years of going back and forth to all sorts of doctors, I finally got a diagnosis, but thereafter I understood what kind of disease I had. I was kind of depressed for six months, and then because I'm a really optimistic person, I said: “well, these are the cards that I have from life and so with these cards, I will play along”. It all started with urinary incontinence. I was very dizzy. I was not seeing very well. I had all sorts of mixed feelings. I was happy. I was sad. All sorts of feelings and then, in 2013, I joined a national program for multiple sclerosis. The interferon did wonders for me for the first three years, but, after two more years, I started feeling worse, not being able to walk properly. I had a lot of fatigue. I had a lot of balance issues. I couldn't concentrate a lot, and I decided to stop. I talked to my doctor and I said, I think the treatment isn't going very well.
The process between changing from one medicine to another, because now I'm on Tysabri for nine months, but the period from going to one to another was for about one year. I really realized that in this year I had to do something because I couldn't just stand and watch myself going down every day and being sad and not being able to do things like normal. Actually I didn't find out about LDN by myself. My husband did because he was really affected by my illness. So he was searching through the internet and at one point he found a video about LDN, about people in Norway or Sweden who would take it and he showed me that video and she said, “what do you think? Are you going to try this medicine?” and I said, “I'm a very optimistic person and I think that all things that happen in life are for a reason”. So I think there was a reason why my husband discovered LDN. I said, yeah, definitely. I'll give it a try; what can go wrong? I did all the research. My husband found this group as well. He sent an invitation. I read all the information that you have on the Facebook group and I said that I’d go to talk to my neurologist about it. I'm very lucky that my neurologist is a very open person and is open to new… well, she's not very strict. I went to her with all the information sheets and I said to her, “look, I would really like to try this medicine”. She said “Okay. Let me, let me do my homework on it. Just let me read and see and I'll see you back in a couple of days”.
After a couple of days, I went to her. I had a prescription for naltrexone. Actually, this was actually in February. Just in February. It has been a year since I started LDN. My first dose was 0.5mg. I started from there. I took 0. 50 for about three weeks. After three weeks I went to 1mg and the best time for me on LDN was last year in March when I was lucky enough to go to Thailand. I had the time of my life because I was able to go around and visit all sorts of things without fatigue, without worrying about anything. So that's what’s great for me. Then I realized, wow, this medicine is great. Who knew because although I read all of those positive things that people go through, I read about many people who don't get well immediately, who don’t have any improvements in their systems. I crossed my fingers and said, “let's hope that's not me”.
Now I can say that now almost a year from that moment when I was normal for two weeks, I can say I'm not as well as then but for example, I did a lot of tests on myself and I decided to stop LDN for two to three days then I noticed a very significant change in my state. I said, no, this is not a medicine to drop.
So I must stick to it. I want to tell you that I'm very grateful that this medicine exists. I'm very grateful to all the people who shared their stories and their experience. I'm very grateful to those who are the admins of this group. I want to say thank you. You're doing a wonderful job.
From my point of view, whenever I go and I talk to people that have the same disease, I always end up putting on the table at a discussion, the LDN, and I always mention that it's done wonders for me. But as you know, people are people and some of them are sceptical and some of them are not lucky like I was to have a great doctor who trusts, my knowledge and who trusts that I will never go to my doctor to say that I want to use a medicine if I do not read about it before. So people, when I go and tell them about LDN, are really sceptical and they're looking at me funny and they're asking me questions.
What's this medicine for? I start telling them what this medicine is for something else. But it's used in a lot of diseases and a lot of illnesses, and people are really sceptical. So I guess you carry on. I guess you went through that as well. When you tell people, you can give people the information, answer all their questions, but everybody is entitled to make their own mind up what they think is right for them.
I know that there are some times when I want to say to people, please just try. You know? And it's very frustrating. We get a lot of phone calls and people will say, with multiple sclerosis, well, I'm okay right now. I don't need to take anything, but I know that LDN is there, so when I deteriorate, I can take it.
You know? And it's like, if you take it now, you might not deteriorate. Why wait until you know, you start to notice you're not so good, but you can't force your ideas on other people. You have to allow them to make their own mind up. But it is sad when the choice isn't what you would expect or what you would like them to say.
I want to tell you that if I knew sooner about LDN, I probably would take it from the start. So that's definitely a choice I would make. Even though in 2012 I was better. Because in 2012 when I was diagnosed, I didn't have fatigue. I was in DC and all sorts of MS stuff.
But definitely, if I knew about LDN, then I would have taken it so I wouldn't think about it. I wanted to tell you also that I take LDN now; I'm on Tysabri but I also have, let's say a strict diet. I don't eat gluten. I don't eat dairy. I don't eat sugar. Definitely no, for about two years now, I think so for about two years.
I don't eat gluten. I don't eat dairy. I don't eat sugar. Definitely not. So, yes. For me it did. Actually it did for my husband too, because my husband doesn't have any illnesses and for supporting me, he has the same diet. It has done wonders for him because he lost a lot of weight.
His back doesn't hurt anymore and all sorts of these things. So I think from my point of view, I'm trying to, with the knowledge I have now about eating correctly about LDN, pass it on, not only to sick to ill persons. I always try to pass it to another person. Make sure that people are okay and I'm always trying to tell them it will make a change in their life.
Eating just what's right. But again, you cannot force people. You can only give them information. If they are interested to try it, they will try it. If not exactly how you said before, you cannot force people. You have an amazing story and thank you so much for sharing it with us today.
Thank you. Again, thank you to all the people in the group. I want to give a special thank you to my husband who gave me LDN, for finding it and giving it to me. And besides the LDN, because he really makes a difference in my life with all of his support.
Linda Elsegood: Long may your success continue.
Andra Maria: Thank you and I hope to hear about more successes.
Linda Elsegood: This show is sponsored by our members who made donations. We'd like to give them a very big thank you. We have to cover the monthly costs of the radio station software, bandwidth, phone lines, and phone calls to be able to continue with the radio show and thank you for listening.
Any questions or comments you may have. Please email me and Linda, contact@ldnresearchtrust.org. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for joining us today. We really appreciated your company. Until next time, stay safe and keep well.