Sarah Zielsdorf, MD, MS - Patient on Fire: Hashimoto's (2017 Conference) (LDN, low dose naltrexone)

Sarah Zielsdorf, MD, MS - Patient on Fire: Hashimoto's (2017 Conference) (LDN, low dose naltrexone)

Dr Zielsdorf is a functional medicine physician and a board certified internist at the Institute for personal development. Sarah practices in Romeoville and Morris, Illinois in the United States.

In this presentation Dr Zielsdorf talks about her study “A patient on fire”, a study on Hashimoto’s. She shares her findings and how LDN can be successfully in treating Hashimoto’s, corroborated by her commendable track record with her patients. She details the typical cycle of symptoms that a Hashimoto’s patient can suffer from, including an increased risk of lymphoma, increased inflammation (therefore increased pain), and a typical loss of energy.

This is the case of a 38 year old female. She has an impressive past medical history and many chronic medical conditions, including degenerative joint disease with progression of herniated discs, both in her lumbar and cervical spine. In 2013, she had a failed traumatic spinal surgery, which consisted of laminectomy. Then she had a spinal leak and had suffered from chronic arachnoiditis and post traumatic stress syndrome. She has seen multiple specialists, multiple neurologists, and neurosurgeons. She's had multiple MRIs and procedures. She does not have underlying multiple sclerosis. She does however have Hashimoto's hypothyroidism, which is suboptimally treated. She also has a history of malabsorption with multiple vitamin deficiencies. She has a history of osteoporosis and she is obese.

Conventional treatments of Hashimoto’s are analysed, from psychotherapy to various drug related treatments. Dr Zielsdorf explains to the audience which therapies tend to have the greatest success in combination with LDN. She discusses the treatment of this patient and the benefits gained from Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) and other therapies including diet and lifestyle changes. She describes how during months two to six on Low Dose Naltrexone, the patient improved dramatically. The patient stated that it was the first time she had felt happy. At this point, she was off all other pain medications, as well as her anxiety medication. She had a sustained weight loss of 60 pounds and was able to perform weight bearing exercise, which dramatically has helped her.

Dr Zielsdorf concludes with how one must treat the underlying comorbidities and optimize nutrition to maximize efficacy and optimize the underlying mitochondrial function of the patient. With LDN and proper care this patient improved dramatically.

This is a summary of Dr Sarah Zielsdorf’s presentation. Please listen to the rest of Dr Zielsdorf’s presentation by clicking on the video above.

past conference presentations can be found on our website, https://ldnresearchtrust.org/ldn-conferences