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Dr Edyta BIernat-Kaluza – 19th September 2018 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.
Linda Elsegood: Today my guest is Dr Edyta, who's from Poland, and she's a rheumatologist. Thank you for joining us today, Doctor Edyta.
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: Hello. This is such a pleasure for me.
Linda Elsegood: Okay. And could you tell us your full name, please?
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: My full name is Polish, Etyta Biernat-Kaluza, and I’m a rheumatologist, rheumatologist.
Linda Elsegood: Okay. And when did you first hear about LDN?
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: So it was thanks to one of my patients who was a doctor. It was about, I think, three, four years ago, and she suffered from rheumatoid arthritis. She was the first person who told me about LDN.
Linda Elsegood: I understand. You take it yourself.
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: Yes, I am a patient, rheumatological the patient and not only neurological too because I suffer from arthritis with a B 27 antigen and my main problem was arthritis, sometimes reactive, but my second problem, immunological problem, is multiple sclerosis. So now my arthritis is okay, but MS is a little bit worse. I started a few months ago to treat myself with LDN.
Linda Elsegood: Okay. And when you first started, you know, what was your experience?
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: So at first, my first experience was as a doctor. So when I started to treat my patients, especially, yeah, women who wanted to be pregnant, but they suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, and they use methotrexate. It was impossible to be pregnant and use these drugs. So then I started to find my new solution, and then they started to prescribe them at the end, and it was a fantastic reaction for them and ease their pain and hurt much less. They started to feel better and better. And after such patient experience, I started to prescribe too much more patients. Of mine. So I have various patients with Hashimoto’s and autoimmune and so on. And they had a lot of MS patients because, uh, you do preventative medicine and nutrition not only with pharmacology but with these natural treatments. But I prescribe now a lot of LDN.
Linda Elsegood: And what dose do you start your patients on?
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: I think it was about two years ago with my first experience.
Linda Elsegood: Yes. The dose that you prescribe for your patients when they start?
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: So I started with at one point half and millilitres generally three at first. Then these with Waynflete, five later, three milligrams and the maximum dose is 4.5 very early ACE had revealed of these principles, for example. Oh, boys times.
Linda Elsegood: Okay. Have any of your patients ever experienced any adverse side effects?
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: Some, I think about 5% they have some adverse events. It is generally irritation or some problems with during the night and so on. If they come to sleep enough, would last.
Linda Elsegood: Um, what has been your own personal experience.
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: I generally feel there. Well, in what I'm able to say that my reaction to stress, special life stress is much better, but my advice, it's nice to eat the word very extensive in night, dreams, and so on. So I had to change the time of those instances before going to sleep. I take LDN in the morning, and it's okay for me, and I do everything normally
Linda Elsegood: Some people find that taking LDN in the morning gives them more energy. Have you noticed that?
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: Generally, I'm personally with a lot of energy, so I think I'm not able to say that maybe more. I have more energy, but nevermind if I had a lot of women taking LDN too.
Linda Elsegood: Mmm. That's good. So being a rheumatologist, what other conditions have you, um, treated LDN for? I mean, you named quite a few there. Um, do you have any exceptional cases that you could tell us about?
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: So my patient rheumatological patients, who I treat our patients with, for example, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, often attempt their multiple, this rheumatoid arthritis and so on. And so lots of patients with so-called collector notice, for example, she ignored the syndrome Slen so on. So it's the main mean. Because they are my rheumatological patients, but they have a lot of endocrinological patients, especially Hashimoto disease. So I observe very interesting results. The serologic is much better during therapy, and another group is MS patients because lots of people wanted to talk, want to be treated by me because that I'm an MS patient and they see that I walk very well. And I do everything's normally and so on. And generally this patient, I would like to follow along with my good conditions.
Linda Elsegood: And with your Hashimoto’s patients or patients with, um, taking thyroid medications, do you find they have to reduce the number of thyroid medications that they take.
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: At least the BTS about as the most important for me is observing these ones. You think of antibodies, antibodies. So it's, it's very important for patients and for me. Some of them are able to reduce thyroid hormone stuff
Linda Elsegood: And what about patients that come to you who are already taking opiate painkillers?
Um, because we know that people with arthritis and psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, et cetera, et cetera, are people that suffer from high levels of pain.
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: I, in general, it’s a problem and that it's better not to combine. And so they generally don't use opioid therapy together with LDN. So my experience is not to be who patients who use opioid treatments, and so I don't have such an experience
Linda Elsegood: but if a patient was already on the opioids and wanted to try LDN, what do you do to get them off the opioids.
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: You see it, or you generally try to use different solutions, for example, or anti-inflammatory, typical nonsteroidal the treatments. So then I'm able to take a different solution. And with the opioid, I generally do opioid treatment or LDN but not together. I don't have such experience now.
Linda Elsegood: And you talked about, uh, the nutritional side.
What do you recommend for your patients to, to follow?
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: Yeah. It depends on which treatment that disease for. I often will discuss diseases. It is a good solution if they had to without a little time, but without gluten and dairy. Non-gluten diet is the best solution, but we check in what's where action for lickings and I do very often, and people this we, so we call it intolerance and produce.
Um, T a G T class from and based on these eight, try to find a good diet for my patients, but generally, gluten-free, dairy-free, and without meat. Some people decide to eat all the way to me, but of course without threat.
Linda Elsegood: Yes. That's really interesting. Supplements. Do you recommend any supplements for your patients?
I know that everybody's individual and every condition is different, so what people need to take varies, but you know, if you had to say the top four favourite supplements that you like to recommend to your patients, what would they be?
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: So the first step for me is vitamin D three, and I have peak experience with treatments with high doses. So I participate, for example, international conferences on vitamin D 3. And the dose depends on the condition. Meaning minimal level in Poland is 30 nanograms per millilitre, but for the immunological problems that theirs is 75 milligram per millilitre, but generally patients is only metabolic problems, so 50 is okay.
I had an occasion to talk with Professor Michael Holick from Boston who is guru. Even the field of my time in the free and he treating corporation was a doctor from. Patients with a nurse with MS those are over. Those are 250, and they have good results. Me personally, my, uh, I try to. Treat patients with maximum dose and not to those, but 15 bucks in our level one, she's the size hole.
So one has it, 50 grams per litre is for ms patients, but generally, for an autoimmune, a lot of is 75, so the first is an item in the three different supplements is for example. Probiotics and it's different. I, based off my experience on the preventative and personalized for different conferences, and the nice way to use another technique, the only participants from Europe or go to a state and make it a Rosen setters during the class conference that probiotics ought to be changed every three to six months.
So I told this use probiotics generally, and I like probiotic means and so on. Sometimes I use enzymes like from Elaine and so on, the papain, and I use a lot of these natural at the same store.
Linda Elsegood: and of course it's really important what you put in your body and microbiome in the gut seems to be quite a hot topic over here in the UK right now.
Um, they were saying that if you've got your microbiome, um, correct, that it eliminates a lot of gut issues. And um. Other conditions. Could you tell us a bit about that? Your experience of the microbiome.
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: So in Poland, a prevalent form of diet is the diet of a doctor as a number of SCA. It's based on the vegetables and some thoughts, and it lasts about a maximum of six weeks and things.
So eating only these vegetables, my biome is changing, and they may be community in the microbiome is much better. Thanks for these changes in say, for example, in the direction of the vegan diet is much better and mainstream. We use it. If my patients decide not to eat meat you, they feel much better that they're in the very, very various conditions.
Sometimes you've beat on her some gastric problem or maybe a gastrointestinal problem. Not too often I do an examination of the microbiome, but it's very difficult, and they do in different places in Poland, not in Warsaw.
Linda Elsegood: Uh, and, uh, a documentary that I was listening to. They were saying that when somebody takes antibiotics, of course, the antibiotics kill all the bacteria, good and bad.
And they said that it was rather like a forest fire for the microbiome. It just wipes everything out and to only take antibiotics when it was essential. Um, but also things like, um, cans of fizzy drink that have, um aspartame in them that that kills microbiome as well. Is that correct?
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: I love tables to understand this last part.
Could you repeat it? Okay. Because I'm debating because I understood that the things that
Linda Elsegood: this last part,
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: okay. Um, cans
Linda Elsegood: of fizzy drinks. Um, I didn't really want to mention any, any brands, but you know, the cans of drinks that you buy that are sugar-free have aspartame in them. And it was saying that the aspartame, which is the sugar substitute, also kills microbiome.
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: It probably is sometimes for sending me photos, nothing to drink and not sugar drinks and so on. Then I, if my patients ask me, she ought to pick aspartame I said to know the most piece, so I will be such as. So drink water will be, for example, I'm on and so on. Or maybe from. Not to be, not to have such a low acidity in the about of course sparkling, especially sugar drinks are very bad.
Linda Elsegood: Yes. And of course to keep your kidneys healthy and your bladder, you really need to drink plenty of water to keep flushing. Everything out that's lurking in your body. If you're not hydrated, it's a problem, isn't it?
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: Yes, it is. It's necessary to keep in mind that it's we ought to drink before going to sleep at all because you might, for example, of some cast my create some crystals and so on. So it's necessary to drink before going to sleep. Not only during the day but. He's very, very important, but it might be.
The persons with a heart problem are especially insufficiency of, of the heart or to be not often to drink too much because it might be too heavy for their heart. Mm.
Linda Elsegood: Uh, how much would you recommend that somebody drink before going to bed?
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: Some fruits are these the one blouse, and the best thing is not, don't wake up with your ink now you'd still go to the toilet.
I sort of took try from themselves, which volume is best for them. Okay. If you run glass or half, go offload glass. So each person is different. And what
Linda Elsegood: is your take on like tea and coffee and caffeine? Is that. Okay. To have in moderation or should people, cause I mean there are people that drink tea and coffee all day, all day long, and some people have strong black coffee.
I mean, how does that affect the system.
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: So my experience as a doctor is very varied as, because some patients, they drink coffee before night or even green tea before. Neither have they, some of them are not able to sleep, but some patients like to drink coffee, and they will sleep and say no, or a new fresh person. Generally, if the patient asked me, okay, if I can drink a lot of coffee or home and coffees, I am some that it depends on your genes. And we do special genes that we send saliva to Canada, and we take which type of gene you have and how many, for example, coffee, you are able to bring back the coffee. It means both coffee, green tea and chocolate. And so on, so on. So we know that some persons are able to. 200 milligrams of coughing. It's okay. For example, me, if there's some type of gene and the different person are able to drink much more coffee.
Linda Elsegood: Um, what about alcohol? Where does that sit with the amounts that people can tolerate without them being, without them being an issue?
And of course, alcohol is also high in sugar,
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: isn't it? Yes, it is a, you see generally depends on the works. How do you think about alcohol and so on? Because towards the sample from an oncologic oncological point of view, generally, all alcohol is bad and each may create more cancers. For example, women with breast cancer that usually drink even acceptable amounts of one glass of red wine are, they're probably to have a recurrence of breast cancer is high.
So generally much better is not to drink, but it's very difficult to release it this way. Yeah. So, for example, a doctor or rheumatology doctor we know as a strong example of the most important or tried, this is the whole, he's gout. And for gout drinking, alcohol is very bad, but the worst is beer because it's a source of purines. I talk, so I get asked from a patient with gout, they ask me, doctor, what I'm able to drink from them. I answer it's maybe a little bit of vodka with lemon juice. Okay. And many people, even today, I had patients, and he has the, he says to me that if he even thinks of vodka, then he does well with the lemon juice.
Hmm.
Linda Elsegood: Well, I can remember having gout years ago. I must have been. The late twenties, early thirties, and I thought it was just old people that got gout. Uh, I've had it twice,
but it's very painful in my big toe. Um, but it was very painful, really, really painful. Um, does that come under rheumatology? Gout. Okay.
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: And now it's the most popular arthritis reaching the whole world. But it isn't always so. The patient told me it’s my ankle. It's my knee. It's made to be there, for example, herbal and so on. So it may be probably levels or try, or sometimes his problem was tendonitis. So for example, Achilles tendonitis and so on often is due to high levels of uric acid.
And how do you, that's the second issue that it's patient with how you exit? You either they, either they eat a lot of sweets and so on. Then propel is a probability of an attack of gout is higher. On the contrary, if they don't eat sugar,
Linda Elsegood: and once you've had gout, are you, they're more prone to have reoccurring attacks of gout.
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: Yes, but you generally know, we know that the gout isn't so difficult to treat because it's very important to reduce levels of uric acid grams per litre and then become, the count doesn't exist, or these attacks are rarer Marara and so on and so on. So now it's only questioned how good the gout is treated. So it isn't a problem. Now you add Ames in such a group, do you come? So it's gout treatment that's all grown up from about 170 scientists from the whole connected in science about gout.
So we know that if the Galtee is good, three tips, so it isn't a problem.
Linda Elsegood: Well, that's good. So if anybody is listening who suffers from gout, uh, there is, um, the good news that it can be treated.
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: Now, generally, even the popularity or the treatment in the UK too is allopurinol. I look generally know that we sell now we have new, more modern drugs and if somebody is very systematic is, so it works for awareness.
And I know Dr Doherty's from the UK, and he led such a nurse-led to take care of patients with gout. We have very good with our phones, even the doctors. This nurse curse, you said better. Wonderful. Thanks for the time explaining everything and so on and so on. That doctors hurry to match
Linda Elsegood: and anybody listening, if they would like to come and see you have an appointment to discuss the condition, how would they get hold of you?
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: So it isn't so easy. It is to see, I'm able to speak English, and I do the telemedicine so it's able to talk. They find my place of work in Warsaw. So, and right.
If, for example, uh, InMail, and then I'm able to find appointments for such patient. and
Linda Elsegood: do you have a waiting list?
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: Generally, in Poland, I don't even relate it to meet a person that patients who they would like to be treated by me in person. You would be seen by my assistant doctor about the IEM case of patients from abroad. Then I will find time personally for them. Well, I have a very long waiting list.
Linda Elsegood: We do have quite a few members of from Poland, so I'm sure they'd be very happy to seek you out even if they have to wait for an appointment. But it's been amazing talking to you today. Thank you very much for being such an amazing guest it was a pleasure and honour to have you on the show.
Dr Edyta Biernat-Kaluza: Terrific. Thank you. Thank you.
Linda Elsegood: This show is sponsored by Dixon's chemist. We're the experts in LDN and associated treatments in the UK. Dixon's Chemist is the most cost-effective for LDN in all forms within the UK and Europe, maintaining safety standards far in excess of what is required. Why would you choose to get your LDN from anywhere else?
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Linda Elsegood: Any questions or comments you may have, please email us 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.