Sabrina Knowles LDN Story (low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.
Hi, my name is Sabrina Noles. I'm 44 years old. I live in the beautiful Bahamas, and I have a husband and two kids. I was healthy for years. I mean, I was living the fast life. My career was taking off. I was in IT. I was working. I was travelling for the company I was working for, the bank I was working for, and I was very much into my career, and everything was going really well.
I got married when I was 21 years old, and things are still going really well and then I would say a scale of one to 10, my quality of life at that point was probably a 10. Now, I would say if I go back to when I was a child with asthma and the complications from being a bit overweight or whatever, I would say it was, I was more like a seven, you know, that's six, seven.
But at that point once I lost that weight and weight later, teens and I just stayed there and I, you know, focused on my career. I focused on my college. I was really booming and it was going really good, you know, so I definitely was a ten then, and that went on for a good few years, I guess.
I got pregnant. I was three years married, and then I got pregnant. Four years on and I was still feeling really good. You know, things are going well. And then just, just one day. I actually started to lose the baby, and I had to go on bed rest because I was spotting and stuff like that.
So I had to go on bed rest, and I did not know that was the start of a whole lot of things coming for me. So I would say for most of the pregnancy I was on bed rest. And then when I was two months pregnant then and I stayed on off and on for the majority of it. Then it got diagnosed with this and that, and it was a struggle in the pregnancy.
The entire pregnancy was just a real struggle and then I actually lost the use of my hands when I was about seven months pregnant. In fact, we had a baby shower. You know, it was all a surprise. It was really rough. But I couldn't open the gifts. You know, everybody sits down and opens the gifts and my husband and I just sit next to me and actually open the gifts for me because I literally could only put my hands in my lap. I was able to use my hands minimally, but to do pretty much intricate things or just things. I was in so much pain, and they were always so swollen. And you know. Then, I didn't know that that was definitely a start or something bigger. And so I went on, my son came prematurely actually.
He ended up in the hospital and there was a rough time too with that whole situation. So it when he actually couldn't take my breast milk, and that's what was making him sick. And he found that out when he was about seven weeks.. And we had to just cease him breastfeeding. And once we did that, his condition cleared up right away.
You know, you should go for your six-week visit. And I ran for that, and I noticed that the shoulder was painful. And so I rang my doctor had told me prior to that, she was like, Oh, your hands are going to get back to normal after the pregnancy. And I said, okay, great. Glad to hear that. And everything is going to get and that was great to hear that. But no, this is now. Seven, eight weeks later, and my hands and still a mess, and even worse than they were at that point when they started. And then my shoulders now a mess, and she's now saying, Hey, my doctor's saying, Hey, you probably need to go see your rheumatologist.
I rang to see a rheumatologist, a local rheumatologist here, and I just told him what was happening with my hands and my shoulder, and he said, okay. He just rolled up with some steroids, and he said, take them. And I'm like, what? what am I taking them for? And he said, well, just take them.
And he never gave me any explanation, and I'm kind of stubborn. So I knew steroids weren't good for you, so I just decided not to take them. I ain't really, honestly never did. I got prescribed them many times after that. But my stomach felt, decided not to go back to see him, and I would just wait this out because I'm going to be fine.
So I tried, you know, I ran to the gym, and I was working out thinking that if I lost the weight, which I was told by the doctors who want you to lose the weight, you're gonna feel better. And so I said, okay, sure. So I, you know, watched what I ate and I worked out and. My hands were far worse at this point.
And then the shoulder went and then it was like, okay, now we're, we're, I maybe I damaged this in the gym, you know, and that's what I'm thinking. And so I, at that stage, I finally, I needed help with my house cause I needed to, I went into, my son was about a year old, cause I didn't want to do anything until I knew he was able to at least walk around. So I went to see another doctor who said, Hey, you have Quervain's severe disease. So I said, okay. So he said, you have to get an operation on both hands. So I said, okay. You know, but I also have a shoulder issue, and then I have a left knee issue. Yeah. But they're not related at all.
You know, you have to get the surgery in your hands in order to feel better. So I had to go and, I think I took about two months before I actually went to go to the surgery with him. And I remember I was laying there and they cut up on both hands and then did whatever they do. And I was definitely without using my hands for about four weeks after that.
So I was, everything had to be done for me at that, at that point and it's good. I have a pretty good husband cause he had a whole lot during this whole process. So now I'm 25 years old and I, you know, I had my first child, my hands are a mess, and I'm healing with these hands and I'm wondering what's going on with my body because it's not just my hands anymore.
As I said, it's both shoulders and now a knee, and I'm being told by a doctor, this is all in your head. All of this is in your head. Okay. So it's all in my head. So I said I even, at one point I got prescribed antidepressants because it's all in my head. And so that didn't go well.
So the quality of life is going down rapidly here, you know?
I'm sorry, I went back to work after my son was born. Then I, as I said, I had gotten the surgery not too long after, and then I was like, you know, something isn't right, and I'm not feeling right, and maybe it's the stress of going back to work. So I ended up quitting my job and staying home with my son, and I said, okay, for one year, because honestly I like to work.
That's just how I am. Plus, you know, he was starting to go to a preschool, and I was like, you know what, let me just go back to work and. So I went back to work and the pain now in my lower back so bad. I cannot forget those pains because that stayed with me for, you know, I'll get to that, but many years after that so I went in to see another specialist locally, and
she said to me, Hey, you have fibromyalgia. So I said, okay, what does that, well, at that point, I think it was 2003, and they didn't seem to know much about fibromyalgia at that point. So, she was like, well, you know. Right. And I think that was one of the first times I got prescribed the anti antidepressants because it was a treatment for fibromyalgia.
And then she said, well, if it's your low back and your neck pain, it must not be related to the fibromyalgia. That makes no sense. She said I think it's because you have large breasts. And I did. So I was like, okay. She said I think you need to get a breast reduction. So I said at that point, it was so much pain, I was like, whatever it takes, let's just do it. I must say, my mother, tried to talk me out of it. Kind of wish I listened to her, but I was in so much pain, especially in my neck. I went, whatever it takes. And I went under the knife again, and I got a breast reduction done. And I say a few months later. I may have had a slight bit of relief in my neck.Probably slight. I'm not sure this remained the same. She did tell me to, my shoulders should clear up too, because of the bra strap. Straight in the shoulders. I was like, okay. And I mean they did do some quite a bit, but still, you know just a slight change in my neck.
So then my husband and I, we went to New York, and we went to the New York Centre for joint diseases.
I have been to quite a number of places other than doctors locally. And they, um. They couldn't come up with anything really. You know, it was kind of like a dead end again, I hit a lot of dead ends, I think after that, that was probably 2005. Um, and then I, uh, I would say, um, I'm just trying to remember, I said, I saw another specialist, thyroid specialist as well.
Nothing was wrong with that, right? Then, the doctor who did suggest I get a breast reduction and said that there is some issue with my thyroid, but it's minor. Nothing to worry about. So that's why I ended up pursuing a thyroid specialist here who then told me, no, nothing's wrong. You know, everything's fine.
So I said, okay, now this time, every joint in my body is just feel like it's collapsing. The pain is just all through my body. My muscles are twitching. Yeah, my muscles were burning. You touch my skin. My muscle was burned. It was just intense. Um, I had, uh, I had so many symptoms. It was from one thing to the next..
It was a lot of stomach issues, a lot of dry skin, I could not sleep. I did not sleep for about 17 years properly. I will never forget that and off all things, and to be honest with you, I don't think anyone who knew me knew who I was going through because every day I had to be a normal person because like a lot of doctors told me it was all in my head.
So I wanted to believe that and just be normal like everybody else. So I just lived in all the lights.
I did get some relief when I was pregnant with my son too, until I came across the best thing ever, um, was in 2008, I went to Cuba for treatment, and I did ozone therapy, and I did, um, you know, a lot of rehabs and.
Uh, different things like that. And I must say, I think where I took myself out of a stressful situation, it's just home. And as well as we are just opening up our first business a couple of years prior to that, um, I think maybe I was like, okay, maybe that's what it is. It's just a bunch of stress.
So I had relief for about eight months.
It came right back, and when it came back, it came back worse than ever. And I was like, wow, I really thought i was getting somewhere, but it came back and it, it's terrible, and at that point, I started to want to give up. I was like, forget it I'll just suffer.
So, uh, but I didn't think it could get any worse, but that was another lie I was telling myself, besides, it's all in my head. Um, in 2011 and of course, I'm, I'm missing out a whole lot of, um, doctors I in between all of that. Besides fibromyalgia, I was told I had thyroiditis. I had, Myasthenia gravis I was told, um, ankylosing spondylitis was the, when I was diagnosed actually from 2003 in my, and I was told you know, ten years, I'll be in a wheelchair, you know, and that I, that was, yeah, so I would've been in 2012 I guess I would have been in that wheelchair.
But anyway, and So, and all that time, I'm being diagnosed with a whole lot of different things., I IBS, uh, chronic fatigue. Well, of course, I come that came with another doctor who I had already been diagnosed well two years before that. Um, and all of these things, Oh, um, arthritis. When I'm getting to that, I, I'm sitting there, we're watching this program called
The street diagnosis. I came, I know it was this, a doctor who had a patient had exactly what was going on with me. That's how it just seemed. And so, you know, we got the doctor's information who helped her and really liked, she was in Texas, and we were like, yo, we're going to Texas. And you better believe in a few months we were in Texas seeing that doctor, and when we went there she said you have PCOS. And she showed me. And it was really like a podcast busier, as I said before on the answer again. So, Oh, I was planning, and I was prediabetic. And that is where, um, she said that, well, these pains and joint issues and problems, they don't seem to be related to the PCOS, but let's go see a specialist.
And. I'm between hunting specialists. I was told like, polyarthritis but, um, I was like, yeah, it's just another label being put on me. I think I was getting used at that point, but I didn't mind treating this PCOS. I saw you've been on glucophaseh and, um, I think it was something else. I don't remember it was okay in some ways, um, but at this point, you know, um, brain fog and, Oh, I will never forget this.
Music used to play in my head at a very loud tune all day, every day until he went to bed. And, and like I said, sleep was not good. So I woke up in the morning and the music was loud and loud, and that went on for years. That was one of the worst symptoms ever. And I, uh. I would say at this point this is now 2011, quality of life is really poor.
I am, I thought it couldn't get any worse, but if I were to give it a number out of the worst, I would say I was probably about a four at that point. Trust me it got to a one though, and um after I saw the doctor in Texas and they did what she told me to do and things, so it wasn't getting any better. I definitely, I'd given up then, and I justt wrote it off for years after that. I said I didn't even talk about it. I just like, whatever. I think what really hit me when I felt like, you know, uh, I'd say about maybe 2015 I said, you know what? I think I’m going to die. And that's, that's when I started to realize I gotta do something cause I have two kids and I'm feeling like I'm gonna die, you know.
So I said, uh, you know what? Let me start looking into this again. I, I'm forgetting the whole giving up thing. I'm going to start looking into this again. I always, I'm subscribed to a lot of the functional medicine doctors, and I get their emails, and sometimes I'll read them and sometimes i won't.
And dr Hyman was definitely one of the ones that I, um, you know, loved his, uh, everything he had to say, you know, so I one day, an email popped up, and it was, uh. It was related to a series he came out with. I thought the series was so different, cause I've never seen any, any of them, how a series comes on.
So I was like, you know what, let me read about it. So I read about what's called the thyroid secret. And so, of course, the thyroid is almost always buzzing around me with my condition, even though it was all in my head. Um, so I, I always, I always felt it was related to my thyroid. I'm; still, I'm still. I know that it is related to my thyroid, it to some degree.
Um, but as you know, with autoimmune diseases, once one thing starts, another one and then another one. So anyway, um, I, I decided to watch this series. Uh, initially I didn't, I was like, I don't know. Watch, I'm wasting my time. It's just another waste of time. But then I, then I remembered, I said, you remember you didn't want to give up, so you've got to do everything it takes.
So I said, you know, I never saw it was done by dr Isabella Wentz. And I watched that first series, and I couldn't believe what I was watching. I was like, this is another world to me. I didn't know who that, uh, you know, that this type of help and these solutions are out there. I would say I saw, I learned about, um, AIP, which is the, I still follow the AIP diet today.
I, well, I, I bought it. Some things blocking are important things. Um, and then I learned about LDN, and I was like, I, you know, as she spoke about LDN, It can be. I've seen all these doctors. No one has ever said those three letters to me. No one has ever said that. So I just, so I got more interested. I, and I read, I listened to, I think it was 12 shows in the series.
So I, and I, I bought it, and I listened to the can, and I even got the, um, transcript. And I read that I ain't got so into it. And I was like. You know the, I think this was like late 2015 or early 2016 now coming in, I was like, you know what? I am going to do everything she says and that, and I didn't know how I was going to get my hands on LDN.
I'll be honest.
So in 2016 late 2016 right? That's when they started to make all these changes, and then it was unbelievable. I know. Amazing. I started that AIP diet is very strict. I, along with the LDN and when I saw the LDN, I, um, I got, I got like, I'm sick and I was like, what am I doing wrong? And then I went and saw him do a little research and I, I was taking too much of it.
So I did, I had to pull back a lot. I started to take like just 0.25. Then I, uh, and, and along, as I said, I was doing the AIP then I was doing, being very soon, I wasn't taking any supplements. I was doing everything extremely slowly. And they realized that I had, I just had a sensitive, very sensitive body.
All of that exposed me to what was really going on. And I could almost say overnight. I just became a brand new person. I hit my 10 then with feeling my best and that. I have started in, uh, 2017, early 2017. That's when I started to change between the LDN and the AIP diet and, and that I, I, I, I wouldn't say I'm a ten still.
I'm like nine now. Cause you know, a couple of little things are showing up, and I'm trying to figure out, okay, how to deal with those little things. But that's fine. That's fine. But, um, since 2017 to today, 2020, I am doing a whole lot better. A lot of, I have even forgotten so many symptoms that I used to write down symptoms every so often just to remember.
And I had to literally go back and read some of them just to be able to recall them. Um, I mean, I'm running now. I do, uh, uh, well, I didn't do a marathon, but I was a part of a relay team for a marathon recently. And I, I ran one of the legs, one of the longest legs. I do, um. I always placed in the Run's too, I want on Saturday and hoping to place it.
And it's amazing how the change in me has just come about from just making . I'm not going to say the diet is easy, so let me say that. The diet wasn't easy, but I believe the diet was definitely, me helping the LDN to work, and the LDN was also just helping overall. Um, everything I could think of has pretty much just cleared out.
I am like, like I said, a brand new person, you know, and I, I, I can't believe how well I've done, cause Just, again, the diet is very, very hard, It's just really hard to public pill. But I had to learn how to use it pretty much. And I've been on it for the past three years, and I'm not planning to come off it at any time.
So when I, um, well for me, I never thought it would be possible to come from where I was to where I am now. I had an unbelievable change. I, if that can happen to me. And that can happen to anyone. Oh, well over the past three years, well, even before I started LDN, I read a whole lot, and I couldn't believe what they were saying.
I wasn't a believer because how could this one pill do so many things? So, but if I can sit here and tell you what I went through to, to get to the point I'm at. With, just the LDN and, and like I said, the dye, but I know I've read a whole lot of stars where people didn't change anything, and that's doing the LDN, and they're fine.
They're fine. Then I, I'm definitely a believer that LDN can help in so many situations. So many people have approached me, since I had changed my life and. a lot of them come to me, and they noticed the weight loss initially cause I lost about 70 pounds now, so that I know when I tell them about the conditions I had and all that very, they're even more, uh, amazed by it.
Um, and then I tell them about LDN and then they're like, okay. Like, you know, it's hard for them to really believe . You know, I'm, I'm sitting here, and I'm telling you that this is real and this is, um, possible. And so I, um, always make that a part of my, story to, to people, if this, if we can, as a country be able to accept something like this very cheap drug to, come into this country to help them.
Many, many, many social the sicknesses we have in this country, and we have a whole lot of challenges is no joke about that. You know, um, we can see so many changes. Uh, it, it would be great if we can get, um, a team of people who would beready to back what LDN is able to do. Um, as I said, I can talk about it and tell him blue in the face.
The problem here is getting access to it. I have to get mine out of the US, and brought in. Nobody here has said, I've tried to find it here. In fact, um, I probably have a pharmacy there to really help to try to get it there. But I think because of the compounding side of it, it's where it's a challenge for them.
I'm not sure. I'm not, you know, uh, I don't know much about pharmacies, but, but if we can get away to get it set up here and for doctors to jump on and learn about this, and it's a lot of if I can find the literature out there to show that this, this thing is real, and this works, I'm certain they can also see it for themselves.
Uh, it's side effect free. It's, it's not like you're taking a chance on a drug that's gonna be a concern for your patient. You know, it's almost side effect free. I mean, there's, I, I, I'm one of those who had the vivid dreams. That's fine. Who, who cares? I mean, I've had, when I go up in dose, I have like a slight headache, but that goes away, and it's very small things compared to the suffering I had prior to that. And it's for people who are worse than me. I would sit here and say, Sabrina What's worse than what you felt? But I know there are people who are worse than me, you know? Um. Then I would say that it is something that we really have to consider using in this country for so many.
I know it's not just for autoimmune diseases. Cancer and a whole lot of things it helps. So if we could get on board, that would be an amazing thing for us. You know, we could see a lot of things change in this country.
