Dr John Robinson shares his LDN Experience on the LDN Radio Show 2016

Dr. John Robinson is from Scottsdale Arizona in the US. He first heard about low dose naltrexone (LDN) 5 years prior, as a mention by colleagues, and did a bit of research on it. As his focus on thyroid hormone replacement grew, and having patients with Hashimoto’s not doing as well as he would like, he looked again into LDN and has had great results in particular in patients with Hashimoto’s and Graves’ disease, and their clinic The Hormone Zone, in Scottsdale.

Dr. Robinson pointed out that once on LDN, some patients might not need as much thyroid hormone, although he has not seen that, and ensures his patients have adequate amounts of thyroid hormone. They watch lab markers closely, for markers in Hashimoto’s to go down, and to catch the flares. Key markers are anti-TPO (anti-thyroid peroxidase), and anti-TG (anti-thyroglobulin). These two are necessary elements to help with thyroid hormone synthesis, but in an autoimmune condition like Hashimoto’s or Graves’ disease, the thyroid is attacked, including those two enzymes or protein, and can be measured in the blood. So, for a patient with suspected thyroid disease and elevated markers, the first offense against that is LDN, which typically results in a decrease overall in the markers. At his office, one goal is to collect this type of data and start showing that patients are improving.

Generally, patients are started on 1.5 mg, a very low dose to minimize any side effects; increase to 3 mg LDN the next week, and the following week increase to 4.5 mg and stay there. Some patients report vivid dreams or nausea for the first week or so, and sometimes this results in lowering the dose for a while, or changing to taking LDN in the morning. Patients report improvement relatively quickly, usually within a couple of weeks. Because of the temporary endorphin suppression and rebound that occurs at night, it’s better to take LDN at bedtime.

In addition to LDN, Dr. Robinson also advises on other things, such as nutrition, dietary factors affecting Hashimoto’s, other hormone replacement therapy options for estrogen or testosterone, and so on, so at times it’s challenging to precisely figure out what’s happening.  But people where LDN was added after those other treatments are doing amazingly well. Some have a better sense of well-being, probably related to the endorphin release from LDN. And we see the markers like anti-TPO and anti-TG change.

Dr. Robinson had a patient on LDN for about 6 months and doing well, and her anti-TPO was down. On her recent visit her anti-TPO jumped to over 4,000, when they want to see the anti-TPO at less than 60. As it turned out she had a happy holiday season in terms of alcohol, and eating – particularly gluten and bread – she knew she had allergies to. A point is that any treatment has to be considered within a comprehensive approach towards health.  In this case, her Hashimoto’s was triggered by her gut dysbiosis or allergies from the diet.

Dr. Robinson thinks most people have some level of issue with gluten, or some other allergens, and attributes it to the type of wheat we use. They should stay away from it. At The Hormone Zone, there is a focus on the ketogenic diet for autoimmune conditions. This diet keeps carbohydrates around 5% - which pretty much keeps you away from gluten, because foods like bread tend to have a higher carbohydrate level.

The website for The Hormone Zone is https://hormone-zone.com/.   Phone 480-613-8357. They are located very close to the Scottsdale Arizona airport, not far from the Phoenix airport. If people do an initial in-person consultation, they can do follow-up by telephone. And if the treatment includes LDN, he is more than happy to prescribe this very effective and inexpensive medication.

Summary from Dr. John Robinson, listen to the video for the show.

Keywords: LDN, low dose naltrexone, thyroid, hormone, Hashimoto’s, Graves’, markers, anti-TPO, anti-TG, gluten, ketogenic diet, gut dysbiosis, autoimmune

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