Angie Fielden, LDN Specialist shares her experience of Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN, low dose naltrexone)

 

LDN Research Trust - Low Dose Naltrexone Angie Fielden, LDN Specialist shares her experience of Low Dose Naltrexone.

Please visit our website https://www.ldnresearchtrust.org, which is packed with information on Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) for Autoimmune Conditions, Cancers, Chronic Pain, Women's Health, Children's Health etc., plus we have a very active FB Closed Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/LDNRT/

Linda Elsegood: Welcome to the LDN Radio Show brought to you by the LDN Research Trust. I'm your host, Linda Elsegood. I have an exciting lineup of guest speakers who are LDN experts in their field. We will be discussing low-dose naltrexone and its many uses in autoimmune diseases, cancers, etc. Thank you for joining us.

Solutions Pharmacy is licensed in 20 states and located in Chattanooga in Tennessee. They have led the compounding industry with excellence for over 60 years, specializing in LDN, hormones, fibromyalgia, pediatrics, and autoimmune conditions. They offer an LDN program to patients who need help starting LDN. Call 423-486-1811 for a consultation.

Today we're joined by Angie Fielden from Solutions Pharmacy in Tennessee. Thank you for joining us today, Angie.

Angie Fielden: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Linda Elsegood: Now, I know that you took the Masterclass, which is totally amazing, and you did really really well, and you've been using that knowledge; and, I understand you've been holding monthly, public, free seminars. Could you tell us how well that's going?

Angie Fielden: It's going absolutely fabulous. The lowest class we had was the very first one and it was kind of a quick turnaround in that we had two people in there, both people signed up for our LDN program. We average around, I would say, 5-8 people each month. It lasts about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes. The educational part is around 45 minutes, and then there's Q&A time, and then afterwards we always have our LDN books up there, and they'll usually have a few people that will buy those. We sign them up for their consultation. If they choose to go forward, and we usually have about 80 to 100 percent that sign up, and they desire to start on LDN.

Linda Elsegood: Okay! You say sign up to your program. Tell us more about your program.

Angie Fielden: When we decided to launch an LDN program, it was because we noticed that there were a lot of physicians, a lot of providers in general, that didn't know a lot about LDN. What is low-dose naltrexone? So, we thought well, let's do an LDN program where we can send this information about our program to providers to let them know we're going to offer a service for you, and this is what the service is. We do free educational seminars, or we will educate patients one-on-one. We will do a patient consultation for that provider. Basically, the patient fills out an assessment form on their medical history: what their issues are and why are they seeking help for that medical condition. We then decide if we think they're going to be a good fit for LDN: is LDN going to potentially help them with this disease issue or case that they have. Then we take all of this information with, let's say they have a disease state of fibromyalgia, we're going to pull some studies on fibromyalgia patients that used LDN and let the providers see how their condition was helped with LDN. We always send a study or two about that disease state that that patient has along with their assessment form, and along with basic information about LDN itself. Then we also provide them with an Rx prescribing form that has the starter - depending on how we were going to start that patient. There are several different starters, so we would check which one we think would be best for that patient. And then we also tell them about maintenance. We also have a patient information sheet that we give each patient as they pick up their prescription. The information sheet tells them exactly how to take it, and some what-ifs, and we also put a little encouraging thing in there: this is the reason why you want to stay with it; it's not necessarily going to be everything you need within two to four weeks; it might take a little bit longer. So, we kind of give them a little motivational in there. We also give the patients ability to call us if they feel that they need to not titrate up to the next dose yet because something is going on. They call us, so we take that time that a patient would need to speak to a professional off of the provider, and we do that ourselves. Not me, but one of our pharmacists does that. Our pharmacists are the ones that talk to the patients about any medical issue. What my job is to get the information to the providers, the correct information. I extract the information from the patient, put it on paper, and then I give them over to our pharmacist, and he conducts the patient assessment. Then I'll put all the paperwork together for the provider and get that over there. So that's kind of how the LDN program works, and it comes at a very affordable price. They use us ongoing; we do follow-ups with the patient at 90 days and at 6 months, so 3 months and 6 months we do follow-ups. And by that time, they're generally pretty good. And we send the follow-ups to the provider as well.

Linda Elsegood: Well, what a service! I mean, this is what the LDN Research Trust was hoping, you know, educate the pharmacists, get the pharmacists happy for the pharmacist to educate the providers, because I don't know how many staff you have in your pharmacy, but you know there is a limited number of hours in a week. But once you've educated one provider, that one provider could treat, you know 100-200 patients.

Angie Fielden: Yes.

Linda Elsegood: And not only do you get the opportunity to educate more providers, the provider that is using LDN can see that LDN is helping their patients. They then tell their other medical professional friends and that's how it snowballs isn't it?

Angie Fielden: Yes, and just last week I had two luncheons, so as the marketing director, what my job is is to go to providers’ offices and deliver information about what we compound. LDN was my main focus this last week, to two places. They were arthritis centers, so they can really use LDN. And it was surprising that neither of the physicians at this one office knew anything about LDN. I do come across that all the time. I presented the information - I already had everything printed out to where they could just go through it, just like this. I give a quick read, If they want to just read. Basically, I kind of regurgitate to them what's on that paper quickly, so they don't have to read it; and then usually I tell them a success story. I have a success story myself. I'm using LDN, and it has given me my life back. But we also have a patient that is a poster child. She is a fibromyalgia patient, an RN, and she'd been out of work for 20 years. Her story is phenomenal, and I love telling that story to our providers. Their ears kind of perk up, and they say, oh tell me more. They're really excited about learning about it. So, my job is so fun because I'm the first point of information for them. Then they have access to our pharmacist. They have also access to come to one of our free public seminars. We have three providers that are coming to our next seminar. It's so exciting, and you're right, it trickles down, and then they can help hundreds of patients. That's why I'm so passionate about being an LDN Specialist. I just absolutely love to see that trickle effect of helping, and people are saying “it saved my life, it's given me my life back; my husband has his wife back; things like that is what keep hearing.

Linda Elsegood: So, what conditions would you say that your patients are using LDN for 

Angie Fielden: We've had some rare conditions as well. Fibromyalgia, arthritis, and pediatrics are our top three conditions that we see a lot. But we've had some cancer patients and we had a chronic regional pain syndrome which we're just now dealing with, that provider and patient, and it's so exciting to see how this girl is going to progress in getting her life back. She had been in a wheelchair. She's a microbiologist in her college at Tennessee Knoxville, and it's phenomenal to see her be able to do everything she's doing with the condition that she has. We really feel, and the provider feels, that this may be exactly what she needs, and he's familiar with LDN. So I'm excited: she'll be starting it in about two or three weeks, when she graduates; or any time now she'll be starting it, and I'm excited to see how her life is going to change and improve.

Linda Elsegood: So, all this education that you do for patients and providers, how do you go about letting them know? I mean, obviously you can only visit so many offices in a week. Do you advertise in any which way shape or form?

Angie Fielden: In the lobby we have a pop-up banner that talks about LDN, and conditions and symptoms, and that if you're having certain symptoms, you may be interested in our in our seminar. We get a lot of seminar patients that way. We have a banner that we put out by the roadside. In fact, let's see if you can see that tall banner.

Linda Elsegood: Oh yes! 

Angie Fielden: It says “free seminar tonight”, so we'll put that out on seminar night. We do quite a bit on social media, we do our website, we have a banner on our website about the LDN seminar, we have an LDN section on our website - so we get a lot of people from our website that sign up for our free seminar because they're learning about LDN. We've had people that found us from your website actually, and have come to our seminar by seeing that there was an LDN Specialist there. Then they check out our website, and then they end up coming to the seminar. It's so cool to see how we're all working together to help any and everybody in all different places. So those are some of the advertisings we do.

Linda Elsegood: What forms do you compound LDN in?

Angie Fielden: We do mostly capsules, but we have done a liquid formula a couple of times. One was for a cancer patient, and he could not swallow, so he had a feeding tube and had to put the liquid in a feeding tube. And he remarkably made improvements pretty fast once he started. The provider wanted to start at a higher dose - and this was this is what's great about the LDN Research Trust and being an LDN Specialist - I was able to work with you, Linda, and you helped put me in contact with some of the speakers that spoke on cancer, and I was able to email them and get two suggestions from two different people about where to start with this case. This is a unique case. This guy is stage four cancer, where do I start? They both told me the exact same thing. It was phenomenal, and it's so refreshing to know that we're going to get the exact information needed. It's going to be precise. It's going to be consistent with each other. They both told us to start at a higher level. This is a case where you don't titrate up. You go ahead and start at the four milligrams. Time is of the essence, and we have to act quick. And the patient began to turn around! It's another one of those stories that the wife, when she contacted me, said he is home now, he is no longer on a feeding tube, he's still on his LDN, his seizures have stopped, his pain level is manageable. It's just phenomenal to see how well LDN is helping.

Linda Elsegood: Well, that's good! I mean, the LDN Research Trust has been going over 18 years, and we have amazing people on board who don't mind sharing that knowledge, because they realize they are one person. They can only treat so many. But if they can help educate other providers, the number is infinite, isn't it? 

Angie Fielden: Don't you see also that they all equally have the passion to help people? That's what it seems like to me, that the passion that everyone holds, and that's why they want to help everybody.

Linda Elsegood: Exactly, exactly! So, if you were going to make an appointment to see a provider, and if we have providers listening thinking “I can't dedicate hours to learning this” you know, initially how long do you need to talk to a provider?

Angie Fielden: What I would need to talk to providers and what I actually get are two different things. At one of my luncheons, I had 20 full minutes. That's a long time to have with a provider. At a luncheon you normally don't get that. You might get three to six minutes, which isn't much time. You're regurgitating as quick as possible. Thankfully, God gifted me with fast-speaking ability. That's why it's crucial that I take an information packet that is fully able to teach them what they need to know, so I'm going to give them a snippet of what I’m actually handing them. I average five to eight minutes, I would say, per provider. But where they really learn is probably the written information that I give them, and it's a packet, maybe 20 pages long, but they're in different forms, like the information packet that you guys have on your website for providers. That's a quick read. They can read that and learn quite a bit about it. We have other forms. We always give them enough information that they can learn more about it. 

Linda Elsegood: It's a balance, isn't it? Give them too much and they don't want to read it because it's going to take too long.

Angie Fielden: Correct.

Linda Elsegood: But it's got to be long enough to pique their interest to get them to want to read more.

Angie Fielden: They love the studies, so if I give a study according to what types of patients they see. it sparks their interest. Usually I will give them one or two studies and that's it, and I highlight the conclusion - they know how to find it, but I usually highlight what I really want them to read, so that it will spark their interest to want to read more about that study. I think the studies help, that one quick information sheet helps. I give them the Rx form that is personalized to them, so it makes it so easy for them. I actually give them a sample form filled out so that they see very clearly how easy this form makes your life. A lot of people e-scribe now, but what my form can do for them is tell them how to write the directions, or how many milligrams, how to titrate it up. I also give them that patient information sheet, so they know exactly how to educate their patients on what they're going to be doing so. I think it's not as much the time I’m able to speak with them as much as it is the information I’m able to give them. Doctors are busy nowadays, and they don't have a lot of time to read or to research. So I’m hoping that I am shortening that time frame for them and they can learn quickly

Linda Elsegood: I know that you ship LDN to many states. How many states is it you ship to?

Angie Fielden: We're licensed in 20 states, soon to be 21. We ship an average of 400 packages a day; and then we have a lot of local.

Linda Elsegood: I'm moving ahead here with my thoughts: for people who would like to attend a seminar who live in a state that is too far away and can't get to one of your in-person events, are you thinking later of having them as a zoom webinar, where people can participate from those states that you could ship to?

Angie Fielden: Yes Linda, that is coming. We're so excited about it. We wanted to do several live seminars to get the pharmacist, because the pharmacist does the lecture in the PowerPoints. I open this up; he does the lecture in the PowerPoint; and then I do testimony, and tell them about our LDN program. It's pretty quick like that. We will have a recorded seminar for physicians that our pharmacist in charge is going to deliver, and then we'll open up a live portion where physicians can ask questions; and then we'll also do that exact same exact thing for patients. So yes, that is coming, and we're super excited about that. We probably will develop that this summer, so within the next couple of months, I would say, we'll have that ability. There are a lot of patients that ask us about it. They'll happen to follow on our website, see it and ask about a recorded version, and so our physicians are asking do you have a recorded version. It is a need that we need to fill, and we are going to be working on that very soon.

Linda Elsegood: Well, all I can say is we wish you every success! Anything the LDN Research Trust can do to help, just ask. We look forward to interviewing you again on your next stage. 

Angie Fielden: Thank you.

Linda Elsegood: Solutions Pharmacy is licensed in 20 states and located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. They have led the compounding industry with excellence for over 60 years. Specializing in LDN hormones fibromyalgia, pediatrics, and autoimmune conditions, they offer an LDN program to patients who need help starting LDN. Call 423-486-1811

Any questions or comments you may have, please email me at 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.