LDN Video Interviews and Presentations

 

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.

Today I'm joined by Tracey from the US who initially took LDN for Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Thank you for joining us today, Tracey.

Tracey: Thank you for having me. 

Linda Elsegood: So could you tell us how easy was it to get your initial diagnosis of Hashimoto's?

Tracey: It actually was not easy. After I had my second child I could just tell, even though I had a child, the fatigue was extreme, hair falling out, inability to lose the baby weight, and just a lot of different things. So I went to a primary care. I did get tested and they did say I was hypothyroid, but it took until 3 years later until I went to a naturopath for them to actually test, which it's kind of crazy, because it's really just one test. They tested my antibodies and realized I had Hashimoto's. Because I got that diagnosis with the naturopath, I stuck with that office, because they seemed to be working better with me.

Linda Elsegood: Okay, so what was the length of time it took from when you had your child to having the actual diagnosis?

Tracey: I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism originally within six months, and they gave me Synthroid, which really did not help very much. I was still exhausted. Maybe it helped me about 15%, and I just kind of struggled along with that for about 3 years. I went to an endocrinologist. Same thing. They just said just stay on Synthroid. And finally, I moved, and I went to a naturopath. They did the test, realized it was Hashimoto's, and then also switched me from Synthroid to natural desiccated thyroid, which changed my life. It really did. I felt like I wasn't hypothyroid or Hashimoto's anymore. I still struggled a little later with some fatigue, but it helped me about 80%. Then, I guess it was around 9 years ago, my naturopath said there had been studies - the office really kept up with trends and studies - and they really researched a lot, which is another reason I like going to a naturopath; and they told me about low-dose naltrexone, LDN. I had not heard of it, and most people at that time, because it's a while ago, had not heard of it. He gave me some research. I did some of my own research, and I started taking it. I started taking it about five years into my hypothyroidism, so it was about a year after I got diagnosed with Hashimoto's. And I titered up, and it made a big difference within literally just two months. I know they say it can take longer, but for me I noticed within two months. 

Linda Elsegood: So it was like you say, a long while ago now, but did you have any side effects? Can you remember when you started? 

Tracey: Well I know some people take tiny tiny amounts and they titer up really slowly. I split one 4.5 mg pill into four, so I took a quarter of that for three or four days, and then a half for three or four days. I really didn't have any side effects. I think the first night I had a little insomnia, and the first three days some unique dreams. And that's really it. I was one of the lucky ones that I just didn't have too many side effects at all. I had energy within one or two weeks. I felt extra energy in the day, which was great, because fatigue was one of my bigger problems. So I never ever had really any bad side effects. 

Linda Elsegood: Wow. So, comparing your life now to how it was before you started LDN, how would you describe it? 

Tracey: It's just much better. Fatigue, as a lot of people know, can really be debilitating. It can just affect your whole day. I used to be exhausted from about one o'clock in the afternoon until five, and I would be in the middle of working, or when I was younger taking care of my kids and working, so I had to stop for three or four hours and sit down or lay down. I don't have to do that anymore. I've just been staying on the 4.5 all these years. Unfortunately, last year I got diagnosed with seronegative RA. At least that's what we think it is, and so I am looking at increasing that to the 6 mg because there's been studies since nine years ago, of using it for RA in a slightly higher dose. So I'm just starting to play around with that. 

Linda Elsegood: And how's it making you feel increasing the dose?

Tracey: I just started the 6 mg about two weeks ago. I don't notice a huge difference, but I do know my doctor told me that sometimes to change RA with anti-inflammatory reasons, it could take a month or two. So I'm just gonna keep going with that, because there are some other people with RA who I talked to that are doing really well on that dose. I only take it at night. I know some people dose twice a day, but I feel like my body needs the 18 hours to cycle through the whole LDN cycle.

Linda Elsegood: Okay, so are you following a regime from your naturopath, on diet and supplements as well? 

Tracey: Yes, I've been taking so many supplements for years, probably the typical ones that most people take, you know the turmeric and black seed oil, B vitamins, D, C, all of those. I also take resveratrol and glutathione just for liver cleansing, and I do I did the ALP diet when I got diagnosed with the seronegative RA. I started the AIP diet, and after the 30 day elimination, I moved into basically a paleo diet. No sugars, processed food, stay away from gluten. And that definitely helps me, about 20 to 25 percent the diet alone. I feel a combination between LDN, my supplements, my diet and I do take one other mild RA drug, first line drug hydroxychloroquine, so maybe between all of them they all work around 20 percent. I can get back to my normal self.

Linda Elsegood: How did you know you've got RA? Were you getting lots of joint pain? 

Tracey: Yes, it kind of came out of the blue. I do know that people that have one auto inflammatory disease are prone to get others. It really was out of the blue. One day for years, working out five, six times a week, hiking, yoga, etc, at the gym. Then I started to feel knee pain, and I thought it was from running too much, so I stopped running. And the knee pain didn't go away. Then I started to get wrist pain, and then thumb pain, elbow pain, shoulder pain, and that's when I knew this is not from exercising. And I was in denial for a month or two, and it was pretty excruciating, I'll say. It escalated very quickly, and from what I've heard from a lot of other people, that's actually common, unfortunately. So I started my process, going to my primary care, and they sent me to different doctors, and I finally landed at a rheumatologist. I'm one of those people where my blood work was perfect, my RA and lupus and all of those, ANA, were all negative. The only thing I had was high inflammatory markers, which show that you're inflamed and in pain, so you don't look like a crazy person. They just started examining my joints, and they call that seronegative RA. Some doctors call that inflammatory arthritis, with the hopes that it will go away, but next month will be a year or so.

Linda Elsegood: That's a long time isn't it? 

Tracey: Yeah; I don't I don't think it's going away. 

Linda Elsegood: Who is guiding you with your LDN? Your naturopath still? 

Tracey: The naturopath is still guiding me with my LDN and my supplements. Rheumatologists generally go right away to medication, pharmaceuticals, which I understand, but I take all my test results and all of the suggestions from my rheumatologist, and I go to my naturopath, and we discuss it, because he'll spend more time with me. We kind of agree on what the next step will be trying to take things conservatively. So that's how I landed on hydroxychloroquine, but also the diet and the supplements. Since nine ten years ago, there have now been studies for RA where they're using it in slightly higher doses, all the way up to 9 mg actually. He sent me all studies, and I thought I would go ahead and try that, and very slowly titer up. I like to do one thing at a time so I can see what's working. 

Linda Elsegood: Yes, it gets a bit confusing doesn't it, if you start too many things at the same time. 

Tracey: Right. I had started that hydroxychloroquine and thankfully had zero side effects, and I let that work a few months, and then then I started increasing the LDN. I've only been doing that about 12 days, so we'll see. Hopefully, in another month or two, because I think it will be gradual - I don't think I'll just wake up with no pain. I think it will be more gradual, looking at my pain level over a whole month versus just day to day. 

Linda Elsegood:  Yes, well the good news is I know of two rheumatologists that will actually prescribe LDN as a first-line treatment. The LDN Research Trust has been going over 18 years now, and the message is spreading well. It's not just naturopaths anymore. Conventional medicine doctors who find that their patients need extra help, and they've tried everything, and there isn't anything extra. Many of these doctors have looked outside the box to see what else there is out there that they can prescribe to help their patients. I know of neurologists, dermatologists, gastroenterologists, a lot of consultant doctors, who are interested in using LDN. When I started LDN in 2003 there weren't that many doctors prepared to even look at LDN. There were pockets of doctors all over. But it's a lot easier now for people to get LDN than it ever was before.  Are you still with the same naturopath that you…? 

Tracey: Yes I'm with the same naturopath for, I believe it's 10 or 11 years already. People can still see a rheumatologist or endocrinologist or whatever, but it's really nice to also have a functional doctor or naturopath to run things by them as well, or to find a doctor that mixes alternative, western, eastern medicine, and looks at all sides. A lot of the drugs for RA, multiple sclerosis, etc, Crohn's are pretty serious drugs with hefty side effects. I like that you know rheumatologists that will start with LDN first instead of running to methotrexate or these other low-dose chemo drugs.

Linda Elsegood:  Methotrexate, I know there are people who have said it's helped really well initially, but as you were saying, the side effects are high. They're very toxic drugs. 

Tracey: Very much even at low dose. 

Linda Elsegood:  If LDN if it's not going to do you any good it's not going to do any harm. It's not a toxic drug. It's safe to try without running the risks of getting awful side effects. So, what would you say to people who are skeptical about trying LDN, because there are still people out there who like alternative therapies and LDN is still a drug, and some people are like no, I don't want to take drugs, any drugs, doesn't matter that it's a low dose and it's not harmful, it's still a drug. What would you say to people from your experience about giving LDN a try? 

Tracey: Well, I had an excellent experience basically. No side effects. But I do know that some people need to titer up more slowly, which they can do. I just feel like the side effect profile for LDN is so minimal, and from what I know, and I have read quite a bit of studies, nothing, no side effects are permanent, and it's such a low percentage of people that continue on and the side effects don't go away for them. It has such a high success rate versus side effects. I just feel that they should research that, and I know occasionally somebody will say naltrexone, you know they'll look it up right away and they don't understand low dose naltrexone is different than naltrexone. Everybody absolutely has to know the two different situations, and just read the studies. I haven't found one study that says really anything negative. Like you said, the worst thing that will happen is three months later you find it didn't work for you. It helped me greatly with Hashimoto's, and it basically changed my daily life, so I'm hoping that will also change my RA effects as well. 

Linda Elsegood: Well amazing story, and thank you very much for having shared it with us today. 

Tracey: You are very welcome.

Linda Elsegood: 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. 

 

 

The LDN 3: To Purchase with discounts before 1st September 2022 Go to ldnresearchtrust.org/ldn-book-3 for full details

 

 

Summary:

Ellen is from the United States and takes LDN for lupus, Sjogren’s, Hashimoto's and interstitial cystitis, and for pain. She is in her 70s, and began with autoimmune issues at 24. When she started LDN, she quickly had this overall feeling of feeling good, and was able to increase her activity levels greatly.

Full edited text:

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.

Today I'd like to introduce Ellen from the United States, who uses LDN for multiple conditions. Thank you for joining us today, Ellen

Ellen: You're welcome. Thanks for interviewing me.

Linda Elsegood: Could you tell us what it is you take LDN for

Ellen: I take LDN for autoimmune diseases. I have lupus, Sjogren’s, Hashimoto's and interstitial cystitis. But, I was hoping to take it to get rid of pain

Linda Elsegood: Right. When did these conditions start? How long have you had them?

Ellen: I got Hashimoto's when I was 24 years old, and interstitial cystitis in my 30s, and I think I might have had lupus in my 40s, but I don't know, you know, people would say, why is your face… So I think it was the butterfly rash. I was tired all the time. I had pain all the time. I just thought that's what everybody lived with. Then the <rainy> started in my late 30s and early 40s, and we moved away from this small town in north-central Pennsylvania, and I moved to Savannah, Georgia, and I began to play tennis every day for hours, and I didn't use any sunblock, and all of a sudden, my head, this terrible rash itching, and then I got really tired. I was diagnosed with lupus actually at age 61. Then, in my 40s, I got ulcers on my cornea from dry eyes, but nobody picked up on that, and so recently, my eye doctor said I had Sjogren's, and I had another rheumatologist say yes, you have Sjogren's. So it's just like, everything kind of, just every decade, it’s something new.

Linda Elsegood: What did the medical professionals do to help you cope with what you were experiencing?

Ellen: Oh, nothing, because I don't think I told anybody, because they thought I was normal. This was normal. I know I had two young children 21, 20 months apart, and my husband was a lot older, so I did everything, and it was very stressful, the Hashimoto’s. I think I know that my aunt and two uncles had Hashimoto's, so that was sort of, I guess inherited. I'm not sure if you can say that. But the other things that came on, I think it was I had very high-stress in my 30s, in my 40s, and my 50s, and then when my husband died, I don't know. It was kind of a relief, but he was older, and he was kind of stressful. An interesting thing is that I moved to Savannah, Georgia, when I met my third, but I was never too sure.

So, what LDN has done for me: the very first time I took it, I just had this overall feeling of feeling good. I felt positive. I felt like I could do the laundry, I could cook dinner, I could swim, I could play tennis. Yeah, it was just wonderful, how easy was it to get a prescription. Well, I thought it was easy. Even though I was in my 60s - a lot of people aren't familiar with the internet and stuff - I just went on the internet. I looked at your webpage, and I found how to find a doctor, and I arranged an interview and paid my hundred dollars, and he prescribed it for me. It was real easy.

Linda Elsegood: And how long ago was that?

Ellen: the only time I had side effects is when I went up to six milligrams. I thought if I took a larger amount, maybe the pain would be less, but I kind of had hot flashes. I was really hot and sweat profusely, and then I would get real cold, so I went back down to three. Now three seems to be okay.

Linda Elsegood: And what are your pain levels like on three?

Ellen: Well, my pain is not too bad, but I think it's some other things that I'm taking. I am not really sure if yes, low dose naltexone is reducing the pain, but I feel good on it so I just keep taking it. Yes, I feel good. I feel good,

Linda Elsegood: If you were to rate your quality of life prior to starting LDN, what would it have been?

Ellen: My quality of life was pretty low. I didn't feel well. I was so tired and just lethargic, and I just kind of did a lot of sitting around, and all of a sudden, I took it, and it was RESULT. I feel good. I think the release of the endorphins just makes you feel better. It could be, I just don't know, but I don't have a lot of pain right now. I don't, so it's good. It's good. It could be the LDN, it could be, yeah.

Linda Elsegood: Do you have any thyroid problems, and what about the cystitis, is that under control?

Ellen: I cope with it; I don't notice it during the daytime. When I go to bed at night, I have pain; I take two muscle relaxers at night and the low dose naltexone, and it's not excruciating pain. I'm so used to it. I just sort of go okay, take a deep breath. It's just a nuisance, basically. I did have treatment for that at one time, and I'm thinking about doing that again, but for now I’m just trying to ignore it, and to be frank with you, I eat too much citrus things, and that's a real irritant. If I would cut down on that, it would be better. Coffee isn't good even for bladder, and I love my coffee. I'm just going to be 73 in August, and I just don't want to do certain things. I just want to live my life, and I'll put up with the pain. But I told you, I play golf and I play tennis, and I swim on the swim team, so to speak - I go to swim, me! So yeah, I'm doing okay lady!

Linda Elsegood: What about the dry eyes? How are you coping with that?

Ellen: That is really amazing. I have been doing my drops twice a day now, and if I do that, I seem to be doing well. I also have a prescription in the refrigerator from my eye doctor, with the prednisone drop, so if my eyes flare up, I'll use the drops, and the eye doctor is okay with that. She will check the pressure in my eyes to make sure it's okay, but the dry eye can be really bad. And then the dry mouth is a nightmare, which is… So, I have a lot of things that could make people depressed ,but I guess I've just sort of gotten used to it, and I just get up every day, and I try to do everything I can do and try not to overdo it.

But today, I did. I went to my garden, and I stayed too long. I am in bed.

Linda Elsegood: I hope you recuperate quickly. I mean, we, it's something I think we all tend to do when you feel good. You want to do as much as you can while you feel good, and then you have to pay it back with interest. Do you manage to bounce back quickly? I mean, would the next day, like tomorrow, be okay or would you still be really fatigued?

Ellen: Well, I was so bad when I got home. We decided to take another five milligrams of low dose naltrexone in the hopes of keeping a square away, so I did that. And I won't be on that one, but I take five milligrams, I took an extra one.

Linda Elsegood: Thank you for sharing your story with us today. I hope you get enough rest today to feel fighting fit tomorrow.

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

Ellen takes LDN for Lupus, Sjogren’s, Hashimoto's and interstitial cystitis, and for pain. She is in her 70s, and began with autoimmune issues at 24. When she started LDN, she quickly had this overall feeling of feeling good, and was able to increase her activity levels greatly.

 

LDN Webinar Presentation 18 May 2022: Dr Mathewson - LDN as supportive care for Oncology and Autoimmune patients: Case Reviews

Sponsored by Innovative Compounding Pharmacy https://icpfolsom.com/

 

 

LDN Webinar Presentation 18 May 2022: Dr Sato-Re - How and why I prescribe LDN in my integrative and general practice

Sponsored by Innovative Compounding Pharmacy https://icpfolsom.com/

 

LDN Webinar 18 May 2022 (LDN; low dose naltrexone)

LDN Questions Answered Live by

Pharmacist Dr Masoud Rashidi - LDN Specialist
Dr Sato-Re
Dr Mathewson

Sponsored by Innovative Compounding Pharmacy icpfolsom.com

 

Sakina Davis, MD - Hashimotos and LDN (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Dr. Salina Davis practices Functional medicine and knows the heartache of Hashimoto’s as does her daughter. She describes the testing process and the various treatments for it. She prescribes LDN (Low Dose Naltrexone) to her patients and utilizes it herself. During this interview, she gives great suggestions on diet and nutrition and life style changes.

Review by Ken Bruce

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A fellowship-trained physician, Sakina Davis MD, FAARM, ABAARM, provides outstanding care to her patients. At Woodlands Wellness and Cosmetic Center in The Woodlands, Texas, Dr. Davis delivers a wide range of medical spa services. She takes pride in helping patients achieve each of their medical and aesthetic goals.

Dr. Davis graduated from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, Georgia. She completed her internship in internal medicine at the University of Florida College of Medicine –Jacksonville. Later, Dr. Davis performed her residency in family medicine at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Los Angeles, California.

For many years, Dr. Davis specialized in family medicine and general practice. But she always held a passion for functional medicine and anti-aging care. In 2005, she established Woodlands Wellness and Cosmetic Center so that she could help patients prevent illness and achieve optimal health.

Dr. Davis believes that hormone balance is the key to wellness. At Woodlands Wellness and Cosmetic Center, she specializes in hormone optimization like hormone pellet therapy. Hormone-balancing treatments can help stimulate weight loss and boost energy levels. Dr. Davis is also proud to offer a wide range of weight-management services to help patients feel their best.

Dr. Davis takes pride in delivering a cutting-edge approach to functional medicine and healthy weight management. She’s fellowship-trained in metabolic and nutritional medicine and board-certified in anti-aging and functional medicine. Dr. Davis has also developed her own skin care line, available at Woodlands Wellness and Cosmetic Center. Sanavi skin care products use natural, botanical ingredients to deliver exceptional results.

When she isn’t assisting patients, Dr. Davis enj oys spending time with her family and giving back to the Woodlands community. She is involved in the Montgomery County Food Bank, Interfaith of The Woodlands, and CASA Advocates for Children. She has also chaired the American Heart Association Luncheon.

Please visit our website 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 facebook.com/groups/LDNRT/

Charlotte - US: Hashimoto's Thyroiditis 03 July 2019 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Linda Elsegood: Today, my guest is Charlotte from the United States, who takes LDN for Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Thank you for joining us today, Charlotte. Could you tell us how old you were when you noticed there was something wrong with you? 

Charlotte: So I noticed something was going on with me around the age of 30. After I had my daughter, I started to have some symptoms of rashes and extreme fatigue, and then I just thought it was just age. I really didn't know what was wrong. 

Linda Elsegood: So what did you do? Did you tell your doctor at that time or did you just grin and bear it? 

Charlotte: At that time I talked to my doctor and of course I got the typical treatment. “We'll put you on some allergy medicine for the rash. You're a young mom with two children. You're tired for that reason.” I lived with the symptoms, and it wasn't actually until about a year ago that I started to really consult with my doctor to dig deeper and find out what was wrong with me. So I actually got diagnosed with Hashimoto's in the fall of 2017, so fairly recently.

Linda Elsegood: So when you were diagnosed at that point, what would you say a normal day for you was like? 

Charlotte: Oh, it was completely awful. A normal day would be sleeping for 10 hours through the night, but waking up around 3:00 AM, feeling completely exhausted after sleeping 10 hours. I remember almost falling asleep on the way to work. So even after sleeping all that time, I can only really describe that as debilitating fatigue. By the end of the day, I just wanted to go to bed. I became kind of antisocial. I didn't really want to do much. Everything felt very overwhelming. So even small tasks were very overwhelming.

I was always cold. So at this point in my journey with the disease, I was freezing all the time. I didn't sweat when I worked out, which I thought was kind of interesting and I didn't realize later that was part of Hashimoto's. So I was pretty much at a point where I was not feeling human.  But my thyroid levels were coming back normal. So my regular primary care doctor said, “There's nothing wrong with you. Your levels are great.” But I sought out a different doctor who was willing to explore other options.

Linda Elsegood: How long ago were you diagnosed, you said 2017, is that right? 

Charlotte: Yes, that's correct. 

Linda Elsegood: At that point, when you were diagnosed, what medication were you given?

Charlotte: I was given a natural desiccated thyroid hormone. So I started at a very low dose and I eventually went up to 4.5mg, but switched to another and that's what I still take to this day. But at that point, other than the vitamin D prescription I had, those were the only two medications I took.

Linda Elsegood: And did you adjust your diet at all? 

Charlotte: Yeah. So I'm actually a corporate wellness strategist, so wellness has been my whole life for the last decade. So I was already doing a lot of lifestyle factors, like working out, avoiding gluten and dairy. I had done that for years already. At the time of diagnosis, I found another Hashimoto's Facebook page that talked about autoimmune illnesses. I did try that diet. That diet proved to be a little bit interesting for me. When I reintroduced nightshades, in particular, I started to get a new symptom of extreme joint pain. Also on that diet, I gained weight. I gained seven pounds. Most people lose weight. It is actually after that diet that I went back to my doctor and talked about LDN. 

Linda Elsegood: How open was your doctor to prescribing LDN? 

Charlotte: Actually this doctor, in particular, mentioned it to me first. At that point, I didn’t know very much about it. So upon my diagnosis, he talked about it a little bit, and I said I don't want another medication. So when he talked to me about it, that's when the diet wasn't working for me, that's when I went back and did some research on LDN and actually found the LDN Research Trust Facebook page and really dug deep. When I realized the benefits and the stories behind it, that's when I went back to him and said, “Okay, I want to try it.” So he was more than happy to prescribe it to me. He actually told me one of two things will happen according to what he'd seen in his practice. Either nothing will happen at all, or you'll feel better. So he started me off at 1.5mg. I started right there, and I took it for about two or three weeks. Then I started to feel kind of bad again. I felt really great in the first two weeks. I felt like I never felt before:  energy. I was sleeping really well through the night. I wasn't cold anymore. I started to sweat during my workouts.  And then I started to feel kind of blue and tired again. I had actually reached out to the Facebook page, which is a huge lifesaver. I wrote what I was, my symptoms, and how I felt. Someone said to skip the night and if you feel better the next day, you just needed to skip a night and clear your receptors. I did just that. I felt a hundred per cent better the next day, probably better than I felt ever since I can remember. So that's kind of the approach I took from then on out.

I think that actually gave my doctor a bit of knowledge in that area because I told him what I learned. I'm so happy for that page because I think if I would've kept feeling that way I would have just stopped the medication completely, not skipping a night. So once a week I would skip a night, and then I would never have that same experience. So I've been taking it then for nine whole months. I'm up to 4.5 milligrams, and I only skip a night once a month now, if that. It's been an amazing life-changing experience. 

Linda Elsegood: So what would you say a normal day for you is like now? 

Charlotte: A normal day now is seven hours of sleep. I can actually go to bed later and enjoy my free time. After my kids go to bed, I wake up with energy, so I wake up and I’m ready to take on the day. I actually don't even need caffeine anymore to get me through it. Just drink tea, like green tea, in the morning. I can think clearly. I can actually process what people say, which is huge. The brain fog was so bad before, I might not even understand what someone just said. I can find my words. So before I would be conversing with someone and I wouldn't even know the word I wanted to say next. Brain fog has been eliminated. I have energy, I sweat. I'm not cold. The only thing that hasn't changed is the joint pain that I get. So it's getting better. But other than that I have almost complete resolution of my symptoms.

Linda Elsegood: Well, that's amazing. How did you manage with your children when you were having to sleep 10 hours? Did they ever wake up in the night? You know, when you've got a new baby, they tend to do that and need your attention; and when they need it, they need it now. How did you cope? 

Charlotte: Well, it was really, it was really rough. I have to say, I leaned on my mother for support a lot. She helps me with my household stuff because I work a lot. I'm also an army reservist, so I spend one weekend a month away from my kids and my house. So she really helped pick up a lot of things; the chores that I just didn't have the energy to do she would do. I have to say I wasn't the best mom. My children had the iPad in front of them or the TV on, so I could lay there. Then my husband, who now joins us, was actually active in the Army, and now he's retired. But he’s got the best of me because when he actually gets to spend time with us now, I'm actually better. I really leaned on other people a lot to cope. But now I feel like a great mom because if they want to play a board game in the evening, I'll do it. If they want to go outside and play, I'll do it. I have the energy to do that. I remember laying in bed after getting home from work at five, and laying in bed and not being able to move. That wasn’t the best feeling. Now it's like, yeah I'll stay up till 10. I'm good with that. I have the energy to do that. It was really hard for me. But you manage, and you just get through, and that's kind of how life is. I guess I didn't realize how bad it was until I got better.

Linda Elsegood: Well, I'm sure your children really appreciate having a mum that can play and join in, and not just lie on the sofa; and feed them real meals, and be attentive. 

Charlotte: I noticed that before, I just couldn't do much, so I would just be whatever they needed, I’d make sure they have it, but I wasn't involved. 

Linda Elsegood: Of course for your husband, having his wife back is a big thing as well, isn't it? To actually be able to socialize as well. 

Charlotte: Yeah. That's another thing, I'm naturally an introverted person. I didn't realize how the Hashimoto's had made it worse. Just the thought of doing something outside of my normal activities of going to work and coming home was completely overwhelming. So I was like, wow, I didn't realize I actually like to do this. 

Linda Elsegood: Well, what an inspirational story, and thank you very much for sharing it with us today.

Charlotte: Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity. I know when I was in my journey of trying to figure out solutions, the LDN Research Trust, the page, the interviews that you do, really helped me. I appreciated that so much. So I hope that somebody has the same thing from hopefully, my story.

Linda Elsegood: Thank you very much. Thank you. Have a wonderful day. 

This show is sponsored by our members who made donations. We'd like to give them a very big thank you. We have to cover the monthly costs of the radio station software, bandwidth, phone lines, and phone calls to be able to continue with the radio show.  And thank you for listening. 

Any questions or comments you may have, please Contact Us.  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.

Dr John Kim, LDN Radio Show 2016 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Linda Elsegood: Today I'm joined by Dr. John Kim from Georgia Integrative Medicine Clinic in the US. Thank you for joining us today. 

Dr John Kim: Oh, you're welcome. It's my pleasure and honour to share this wonderful therapeutic known as low dose naltrexone. 

Linda Elsegood: Thank you. So could you tell me your qualifications, please? 

Dr John Kim: I am a physician originally trained in family medicine, then Chinese medicine, integrative medicine, preventive medicine, public health. I think before I went to medical school, I was doing basic science research in biochemistry, and I was a Howard Hughes Medical Research Fellow for pharmacology. 

Linda Elsegood: And when did you first hear about LDN? 

Dr John Kim: So this interesting part is that I have gone through two residencies, two fellowships; including an integrative medicine fellowship with Dr Andrew Weil at the University of Arizona. Those times spent in training I'd not heard of LDN. I did not learn about LDN actually until a patient of mine came to me and said, “Hey, listen, I have a thyroid issue, and I've done this research, and I just can't get a doctor to prescribe me LDN or low dose naltrexone. Would you at least do the research for me? Because you're one of the few doctors that listen to patients. And you have an open mind?” So I said, sure, let me do the research. And when I did the research, I was very surprised by the fact that this has been well-documented and utilized extensively since Dr Bihari’s use in New York, and all evidence seems to indicate very little risk and all possibilities of benefits.

So I told the patient, yeah, sure, let me go ahead and I'll prescribe the medication, and it's going to be a bit of an exploration on both parts. And amazing things began to happen. Not only her thyroid issues began to reverse and over several years not only her thyroid issues reversed, but she conceived and delivered a baby.

And so. That person made me think a lot about the possibility of what else is possible with LDN. Me being a cautious practitioner I had to go very slowly for the next about five, six years; and I would target other patients with thyroid conditions. And I began to see a pattern that I can't do with other medications. Because with all the medications in conventional medicine, we can replace thyroid hormone in different forms, but I don't have a possibility or ability to reverse illness, reverse thyroid disease. We just let it go until it goes into total failure, and you just up the dose. And in this case with LDN, I began to see patients whose doses can be halved, and other patients would basically become drug-free. And then other cases I would see the antibodies related to hypothyroidism lowered in number.

Linda Elsegood: And did any of your patient's experience negative side effects when first starting LDN?

Dr John Kim: In the beginning, none of the people really experienced any of the side effects, but as I began to use LDN more in-depth, I began to see side effects. One of the things I've run into is that typically the LDN low dose naltrexone in the literature is considered between 1.5 and 4.5. But I've noticed that in patients with what I call low endorphin reserve, where a patient has been sick for a long time, patients not feeling well for a long time, their daily activity is compromised; in those patients, I've seen that the 1.5 milligrams can have a paradoxical effect. Patients can not sleep. You tend to create insomnia. And I think that's well documented. In patients with PTSD, the LDN also can cause vivid dreams related to the PTSD; or further, create trauma. And in such cases, I began to experiment with lower doses. So I would begin using 0.5 milligrams or even lower. Now today I start even at 20 micro micrograms, and then I'll do a rapid ramp to get them to 1.5 milligrams. 

Other side effects that I've seen is some nausea. I have patients that could not even tolerate one microgram of low dose naltrexone; they just feel really, really bad and in pain. So again, I think that their endorphin reserve is quite low and they’re not tolerating this dose. 

Linda Elsegood: And you were talking about thyroid conditions. Have you prescribed for other autoimmune conditions now? 

Dr John Kim: Yes. Oh, you know, it's thyroid Hashimoto's thyroiditis. One of the first things that I started treating when I saw the effectiveness of LDN for treating thyroid conditions - I said, Hey, if it works for Hashimoto's thyroiditis and the mechanism is through correction or modulation of our immune system, why not? Why wouldn't it be a shift in theory, work for Graves’ disease? So I began to treat patients with Graves’ disease.

Graves' disease is very interesting because the response to LDN in Graves' disease is maybe somewhat lower than with Hashimoto's thyroiditis. I have several patients who are doing very well, and they are in remission from Graves' disease with using nothing more than low dose naltrexone.

As I can understand the mechanism by which LDN works I decided that maybe we can do more. Again, the literature also helps us. So I began to treat patients with MS and we just got some amazing results, including one patient who is actually in remission from MS. She almost was not able to walk, and now she's climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and travelling all over the world and being able to enjoy a very high quality of life. And then other rheumatological conditions, such as psoriatic arthritis and many, many other conditions. 

One thing that I really noticed is that through my practice I'm beginning to see LDN beyond just what we accept in literature. For example, I have some patients with dementia and Parkinson's disease and LDN I believe has helped to mitigate or slow down, or some cases reverse - not fully - but some effects of dementia and Parkinson's disease.

Linda Elsegood: What about cancer?

Dr John Kim: Cancer is one area that I think - I recently accepted a position with Miami Cancer Institute with the Baptist Health of South Florida, and the reason for that is that in my current private practice, I think that my experience with autoimmune diseases have been extensive and I've seen excellent results with low dose naltrexone for treating autoimmune conditions. But for cancer, to be honest, I just don't have enough patients coming to me who have cancer, and the patients that I've treated with cancer, I am not able to say that it works or doesn't work with cancer.  What I have seen is studies, especially by Dr. Berkson in New Mexico, who is combining the low dose naltrexone and alpha-lipoic acid. So I began doing that as generally part of my treatment of cancer, but I'm looking forward to my new position where I will be able to see more of those patients.

Right now, I have developed a bit of reputation to help patients with autoimmune conditions. I see a lot of patients with autoimmune and different kinds of autoimmune conditions, and that has really helped me to understand the function and utility of LDN for autoimmune diseases. So what's interesting to me is all the cases where I am using LDN may be somewhat different from other people. One of the things that I've utilized LDN for is the gene for insomnia because one of the things that LDN does is to increase REM sleep, decrease sleep disruption; and also enhances people’s ability to fall asleep. And that's one of the reasons I think, unfortunately for the patients with PTSD, that doesn't work as well, because these may get them back to the conditions or memories that are very traumatic because it's very, very vivid. 

The other things that I’m treating are things like tinnitus, migraine, endometriosis, and infertility. What I'm seeing is that LDN has multiple chemical functions. So one is, its modulation of proinflammatory cytokines through the clear cell in the central nervous system. And that's the primary response to invaders if you will, in our central nervous system. And as such LDN is a very valuable tool. 

But in addition, it seems like LDN has other functions, such as it seems to have a very calming effect on the nerves. So LDN can be, I think, used very effectively for treating neuropathies of all different kinds. Also, as I mentioned earlier, it's almost like an adaptogen all by itself, so I often use LDN to treat patients with a mood disorder because having more endorphins seem to make patients respond better to the conventional and nonconventional treatments of depression and anxiety. Because it's kind of hard to feel depressed when you're feeling good, and endorphins give you that edge that feels good. So while you feel good, it's difficult for you to feel either anxious, or feel good and depressed at the same time. 

Linda Elsegood: What do you do with patients that are already on strong opiate painkillers when they come to you? 

Dr John Kim: So those patients are very interesting. About 50% of my practice is treating patients with severe pain using neuro-anatomic techniques, and I don't prescribe any narcotics at all. But we have a good track record of helping patients to get off narcotics, and in this case, we use a phenomenon of low dose naltrexone, utilizing microdose naltrexone, also known as ultra-ultra-low dose naltrexone. And in this case, we use micrograms of naltrexone. Again, as I said, the usual dose that people use of naltrexone is about 1.5 milligram to 4.5 in LDN amounts. But it's very interesting because you can take microgram doses, which is a thousand times less than milligram doses, and there are studies that demonstrate that a microdose of naltrexone results in better pain relief, and it also lessens the side effect.  I have a couple of patients treated with this ultra-low dose of naltrexone, and they’re doing great. Great, great, great response. Because I have chosen not to prescribe for narcotic, they still go to their pain doctor, and the pain doctors are quite pleased because usually if you just give narcotics alone, the doses have to go up, up, up, up, up, and that's when you have overdose phenomena and people get in trouble. But in this case, what happens is that with the combination of the low dose naltrexone and the neuro-anatomic approach to pain that I developed over 20 years, we can actually reeducate their central nervous system and lower the dose of narcotic, while the patient is reporting much-improved pain. Such techniques, actually, I think to warrant a lot of research oncoming because of the obvious problem with the narcotic overdose that is going on in our country. As a matter of fact, there's medication right now that is being studied combining ultra-low-dose naltrexone and narcotic medication. It's not been approved yet, but there'll be interesting how the Oxytrex will work for patients. 

Linda Elsegood: Do you keep them on the ultra-low dose, or do you increase it over time? 

Dr John Kim: As their narcotics amount goes down, then I march it up because, with low dose naltrexone, I think that there is a benefit. I think the key is to start the patients depending on their narcotic history and narcotic use history and their functional assessment of the endorphin reserve status, and then trying to match that clinically. And then generally I march them up. LDN really has been an invaluable partner for me to get my patients well, 

Linda Elsegood: You also mentioned alpha-lipoic acid. What do you use as a protocol? Do you have a general protocol for it?

Dr John Kim: Absolutely. Dr Berkson's protocol of using LDN and alpha-lipoic acid is published; anyone can look it up. I believe that he uses IV though, so I researched more talking to pharmacists, and it seems like that protocol has a side effect that people can pass out. Also, if the GI system is working, I feel like that is the first thing that we should do.

So with alpha-lipoic acid, I generally like to utilize the controlled release form or slow-release form, and that also depends on the person's ability to take alpha-lipoic acid, because if you give 600 milligrams to everybody, some people who are very sensitive to it may pass out or get hypoglycemic symptoms because alpha-lipoic acid can be a powerful agent to lower blood sugar levels in diabetic patients. It also helps with neuropathy. I know that alpha-lipoic acid and LDN are a very powerful combination to reduce inflammation in the nerves. 

And that makes it interesting because most of the medications that we use do not necessarily work well in what we call a high-hydrophilic or -hydrophobic environment. A hydrophobic environment means that it's not easy for charged molecules to enter and do its job. LDN seems like it can penetrate very easily. Alpha-lipoic acid also is fat-soluble, so those two are very important. I believe that Dr Berkson’s protocol for utilizing alpha-lipoic acid may have to do with the function of keeping the blood sugar low, therefore allowing the tumour growth to be inhibited. But I think that again, a lot of studies need to be done. And that's one of the reasons I have accepted this new position in Miami for the Miami Cancer Institute. And I'm hoping that as the director of integrative medicine I will be given permission to explore the possible roles of using low dose naltrexone and other proven therapies in a system-wide manner. 

Linda Elsegood: Do you use vitamin D as well? 

Dr John Kim: Yes, of course, of course, I do use it. If it's low, I do supplement it. It's not a part of my protocol. Part of my protocol for cancer also includes fat-soluble vitamin C, that would be ascorbyl palmitate, because otherwise, you have to go through the vitamin C injections. I think that there are multiple responses you can get from vitamin C. So for example, high doses of vitamin C injections, that's been documented by Dr. Jeanne Drisko in the University of Kansas medical centre - I think that that research shows that the vitamin Cs can help the formation of hydrogen peroxide. And then the hydrogen peroxide goes after the tumour cells. In the dose that I'm using, I don't believe that vitamin C dose is high enough to do that. So it doesn't replace the need for IV vitamin C treatment. But again, it has to do with my current practice setting, that IV therapeutics is not very easy for me at this time. And by using the fat-soluble vitamin C, what I'm doing is overcoming the required amounts that can be taken in by the body.  There are no formal studies that fat-soluble increases the amount yet, but it makes sense to me. I think that fat-soluble forms of therapy can be extremely valuable.

Oh, another example of that is S-Ethyl glutathione where the ethyl group is attached to glutathione. Multiple people have tried to play with the different formulations, but I think that the actual chemical alteration to make the molecule more hydrophobic is probably cost-effective and the best solution for some of the molecules, to encourage them to go where they need to be going to do their job. 

Linda Elsegood: And you were saying that you weren't taught about LDN in medical school. Do you think that's likely to change anytime soon? 

Dr John Kim: I don't think so. I think about integrative medicine and how it is now being discussed, or at least covered more in elite medical schools. So if you look at the distribution of integrative medicine in the United States alone, really it's reserved for what I call first-tier medical schools like Harvard, Vanderbilt, Duke, Yale. But it has not really penetrated a lot of the regular schools with the exception of maybe the University of Arizona, where Dr Andrew Weil started the program. Even there, I think medical students have a lot on their plate. I don't think they get enough about nutrition. I think that the medical education system is arcane. What I would like to see is breaks in mores in residence level, where after doctors graduate medical school, they get trained. That's where the doctors learn to be doctors.

What I've done with my recent book, in some sections, I've even published the patients’ lab results - not patient's identity - but their lab results, so that they can see after treatment with LDN that the TSH would start low, and then the TSH would normalize. T-3 would be high and then it would normalize and then it would also see the antibody levels all responding. 

Linda Elsegood: I understand that there is a medical school in Oregon that actually teaches LDN to the medical students. So that has to be a start, probably. 

Dr John Kim: It has to start somewhere. I think that for me that integrative medicine means working with patients, and that has really helped me to learn about an LDN. The nature of my practice is about 50% dealing with intractable pain. The other 50% is dealing with patients who have complex problems that they really can't get answers on. And what I found is that LDN doesn't cure everything. I think that it's dangerous to say one thing can do everything. Like, if you do LDN, you don't still need to practice good medicine. 

But LDN can be an amazing tool for autoimmune diseases especially. A lot of the tools that we have are not benign tools, or you cannot use steroids forever, you cannot use immunosuppressants forever. And I think that LDN also helps you to understand the nature of the disease. I'll give you an example. I had the longest time thinking why, how can LDN work for HIV? So when I began to read more about HIV, I found out that HIV actually is not strictly an immune deficiency condition. It's really immune derangement, meaning that the immune system is not functioning the way it's supposed to be functioning. So similarly we can postulate, we can guess we can think about cancer. Is it also possible that a cancer patient's immune system is deranged? It's not doing what it's supposed to do?

So in my practice, in the beginning, when people have an autoimmune disease, we would just use LDN. And then inevitably we would have patients for whom LDN isn't good enough. It's not doing the job by itself. So what I have done is more research, more reading, and more talking to other people, and I found out something very fascinating. What I found out is that if you have an autoimmune disease, it makes sense to check the person's autoimmune profile. And what I mean by this is not by doing conventional testing of things like C reactive protein, doing and an ANA check, or ordering an immune profile. And of course, I do that. Part of my assessment is to screen for their developing other autoimmune conditions before placing them on LDN. 

But if the patient does not respond to LDN, I think that sometimes, doing additional testing, either allergy testing to see if there’s an allergy to both respiratory allergens -  things like fungus, trees, grass, as well as food allergens. Both IgE and IgG can make sense, because again, if we're looking at autoimmune diseases as immune derangement, then you're looking for places that immune system is not functioning the normal way. I think the LDN is a powerful tool, but as I said, there are patients who don't respond to LDN alone. 

One patient had a double rheumatoid condition, and LDN alone wasn't doing it, acupuncture wasn't doing it. So what I finally did is testing on the food section, and the patients stopped eating that food; and I used immunotherapy to reteach the body to forget, to let go of the allergens that person had. And the amazing thing happened. Both of her rheumatologic diseases disappeared to the point when she went back to her rheumatologist and said, Oh, we made a mistake. We're sorry. And the patient said, Hey, you mean to say that my lab and my x-ray were all conspiring together? That's unbelievable. That's not likely. I think it's more likely the LDN plus the immunotherapy that Dr Kim asked me to do, is working together. And it's resulting in this remission. 

Linda Elsegood: You've mentioned your book. Would you like to tell us the title of the book and when it will be available? 

Dr John Kim: I'm hoping that the book will be available in December. The press release went out some days ago. The title of the book, I put it as “Understanding Low Dose Naltrexone Therapy” and then its subtitle is “A Cure For All”. I mean the illnesses of cancer, and chronic diseases.  I have to contact my old editor and see if she is available to take the job, because she edited my first book and she did such a great job, so I want to see if she can edit this book as well.

Linda Elsegood: Do you expect that you're going to be moving? Can patients still come and see you before you move, or are you fully booked? 

Dr John Kim: I think patients are still coming to see me, and my understanding is that - when I interviewed with them, they assured me that even though I'll be in the cancer centre and seeing mostly cancer patients, I will not be forbidden to see other patients. I'm really hoping that it will be the case because I feel like the autoimmune approach that I've developed can help patients, and especially patients who are not good candidates for conventional medicine in terms of long term steroid use, or the immunotherapy itself can be very harsh to some patients. So I'm hoping that I would be allowed to do that. 

And the other part is that I have this idea that some forms of cancer may involve the host, the patients. Developing all that I said about the immune derangement, that maybe their immune system is obsessing over something else, maybe food allergens; or they have an undiagnosed autoimmune condition. I've seen that once you develop cancer, you stop looking because cancer is such a deadly condition, you want to zone in on that. What I'm hoping to do is be allowed to do other observations, observe their autoimmune conditions. It can be more formal in terms of formal research, or it can be just the clinicians’ observations.  

I  remember a long time ago in London, the cholera epidemic was controlled by a Mr Snow or Dr Snow, that did not know the mechanism. He just used epidemiology to isolate the wells that were likely to be responsible for cholera. He didn't know the exact mechanism, but all he had to do is shut down those wells, the old water pumps, and then he was able to help. The field of medicine relies on collaboration and cooperation, and that's part of the reason I've accepted the position in Miami. But I think there's still room for one person to make an

observation, then through communication through books or through organizations like your organization, to reach out and ask these questions that no one else has asked. 

Linda Elsegood: Thank you. And thank you very much for your time, and sharing your experience. 

Dr John Kim: Thank you for the opportunity.

 

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.

Wilma - Netherlands: Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, Hypothyroidism (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Wilma from the Netherlands shares her Hashimoto’s and Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) story on the LDN Radio Show with Linda Elsegood.

Wilma first noticed problems with her thyroid in 2011 and was swiftly diagnosed within a year with Hashimoto’s, which had a big impact on her life. Wilma could no longer walk, and things worsened when her appendix broke.

Around 2014, Wilma discovered Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) and has not looked back at any treatment since. 

She said “It’s completely changed my life. I was probably operating about 30% beforehand. I felt better within six weeks of starting LDN. My life’s gone from 3/10 to 9/10.

Don’t be afraid to try LDN, especially if your own GP won't prescribe it to you. Be persistent and try somewhere else, because the benefits are there to be seen.”

This is a summary of Wilma’s interview. Please listen to the rest of Wilma’s Hashimoto’s story by clicking on the video above.