LDN Video Interviews and Presentations

Dr Adam Sandford shares his experience about LDN (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Dr Adam Sandford shares his Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) experience on the LDN Radio Show with Linda Elsegood.

Dr Adam Sandford heard about Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) around ten years ago when a former professor recommended it to him. After conducting considerable research, he found LDN to be successful and began prescribing it in 2013.

Throughout his career he has found LDN to be especially useful in patients with autoimmune diseases. In this interview Dr Sandford gives an insight into some first hand case studies and how LDN has been successful in his patients.

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

Donna Seebo Interviews Linda Elsegood about LDN (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Linda Elsegood shares her Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) Story on the Donna Seebo Show with Donna Seebo.

In 1969 at the age of 13, Linda had glandular fever (Epstein-Barr virus). She was seriously ill and away from school for six months. 

Late 1999 Linda’s mother had a serious heart attack and the trauma affected her badly. She was working full time, travelling two and a half hours every day and running the home. This excessive workload and stress began to take its toll on her health, and by May 2000 she had lost her balance, lost feeling in the left side of her face and her head, tongue and nose were numb with pins and needles.

In early December 2003 Linda started Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN), and the results were incredibly positive. By Christmas Linda was functioning again, and her liver tests were back to normal. She felt like herself again.

Linda founded the LDN Research Trust in May 2004. In this interview she says that it is the most exciting thing she has ever done. She is able to give many hours a week to the Trust, helping people to get LDN and trying to get it into clinical trials.

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

Donna - US: Sjogren's, Multiple Sclerosis (MS) (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Today, we're joined by Donna from the United States and Donna takes LDN for multiple sclerosis and Sjogren's syndrome. Thank you for joining us, Donna.

Donna: This is Donna. I'm doing well. Thank you.

Linda Elsegood:  could you tell us when you first noticed there was something wrong with you?

Donna: Well, I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis amass 2006 this month. So it's spent this sentence.

Linda Elsegood: And what about the Sjogren's? When, when did you develop that?

Donna: Yeah, well, I always had something wrong. I knew with me. And just to give you a little background, it's been. Ten years or more before I was back most with ms. And I was always told her I was working too hard at witness stressful for situations. And I kept telling the doctors, no, that's not it. And so finally the test came back positive. Not, but they couldn't have a tell me 100% certainty. That's what I had, but all everything pointed to in Austin. So that's the name? They did it in 2006.

Linda Elsegood: Okay. How old were you when you first notice that, you know, you've got these symptoms?

Donna: Oh, gosh. I would say when I first started receiving, sometimes it happened then as far back as the 19 late 1980s.

So in 2006 is when I first was diagnosed, but it was intermittent from the 1980s until I was actually diagnosed. But it slowly to grow.

Linda Elsegood: How old were you in the 1980s.

Donna: Okay. Yeah. Okay. Well, now I have no problem with my age. I'm 57 now. So the 1980s, I was what? 30, the early thirties. So with that point, I was diagnosed 47.

Linda Elsegood: Okay. If it makes you feel any better im 60 this year Um, and I've got MS.

Linda Elsegood: so when you were in your thirties, and you had these symptoms, what, what were you experiencing at that time?

Donna: I was just For no reason, numbness in my feet and in my fingers. And I, as it progressed, I kept dropping things, and I would stand up and become dizzy. And we all know that if we stand up too quickly, it can make us dizzy, but. It doesn't matter what, no matter with me as it was quickly or slowly. And at some point, my husband had to literally push me out of bed because I couldn't move.

I would get a headache, my double visions, and my sense of smell changed acutely was either I could not smell. And then another day. Everything nauseated me. Then they smell nice here. I didn't mean my eyes; my appetite drastically change in which I didn't eat a lot at all. And I love food, and that turned me off the just general achiness and my, my headache.

I constantly got migraine headaches. They slid out of my words. I could remember. The day, the last day I worked, and this was ten years ago, and I wish I had a client. I a very effective job. And I was called a client service that then I was visiting a client, and we were talking and all of a sudden my tongue would not move.

And it was so I can remember thinking this is embarrassing. Not thinking where it's something that, which mom with me health-wise, but when I'm on video, that's this point. So I looked at her, thank goodness. She would have seen the front of mine, as well as the client. I looked at her, and I guess I had panic in my eyes and three really concerned.

And so it seemed like it lasted forever, but I'm sure it was less than a minute. And I tried to function my tongue. I tried to get worse to come out of nine. Now I tried to fall on your leg was, and anything I could do, but I could not. So eventually everything loosened up my tongue loosen up, and I turned to her and told us that I need to go.

I'm so sorry. I need to cut this short. And I immediately drove home. And that next day I have a doctor's appointment. I told him what happened. He did an MRI and tried the lesions on my brain. And he recommended to me. He called it. He called in a neurologist. He, it went up, and that'd be one of the top ones here in this part of this, the country.

And he agreed to see me. And that's when the lumbar punchy with Don. And that's not what happened. That's my story. So it was the motion does and thing Elva and think, okay, this is it because I would have worked hard and I've worked since I was ten years old. So, this was extremely devastating to me, very depressing I would cry every day.

I mean, I could not get ahold of my emotions. That was another side effect. And so those are the things that I had to deal with. I went to the Mayo clinic. You've heard of them, Minnesota. I went through this stage with my husband for a week and a half, and they also told me I have fibromyalgia. That was the first time it was diagnosed as fibromyalgia in conjunction with them.

They could never find out anything. Concrete about, well, maybe it's this, maybe it's that. And so, but that's the stood everybody's different with math. So, unfortunately, they could not tell me anything different. So I came back home, my husband and I, and we were just exhausted. We used to give up, we've had to find something we knew there was something out there that could help.

And lo and behold, this plan of my husband friend, who happens to live in Colorado, his wife has lupus. She was sent home, and she was bedridden, and they've heard about, and so she started taking it two weeks later. She was hiking. They gave her a death sentence. Two weeks later, with LDN, she was hiking in the mountains with her husband.

He called my friend, and he said, bonnet need to try this and see what happens. And I didn't Diana, I research so much, and I found it was able to do the research. And then what happened is that. At that point, I said, okay, let me try it. And I thought it was going to be something that was very simple to do, but I couldn't find a doctor who would prescribe it.

No doctor knew about LDN, and I thought, are you kidding? So I ended up having to go to a doctor that was close to Chicago, and that's about five hours away from where I live. So initially he's prescribed it over the phone, and he said, let me see everything that you have. And I did that. And lo and behold, he did prescribe it's for my insurance company, witnessed it.

So, but $30 was a nominal fee for me. So. I said, why not? I can tell you within two days I felt that definitely in my entire body, the way I was thinking, the way my limbs were working, the way I walk because my game was easy. I could fall. If someone blew on me. Okay. And so I was very active on the phone.

That's how I discovered LDN. And I used it. But to me, he is, and after three years, because I was shooting myself for ten years, what did nothing for me every single day. The quality of my life is going down, and with LDN, it was nothing but up with my quality of life, just shot through the roof and I'm thinking, you gotta be kidding me.

How can this miracle pill help me This quickly, and this much didn't drastically change my life, that too near Norman, Steve, that I am used to. So, my husband, I didn't want him to. We told everyone we could, he's heard about it. All the, you heard about this and. Yeah, she had problems with, um, for non they were heightening or if I can't forgive me again, I cannot remember what a prominent disease is.

And they said to her to death in six months. They said she would be dead. And I just so happened to she's a bed and breakfast owner with my husband and my husband. And I didn't go there. Awesome. And we've stayed ahead of that bed in park. And when she told us about what she was going through, and we just exchange voice, and I said, you need to try on the end.

And she wasn't resistant for almost a year, but I kept corresponding with her. You need to try this. You really do need to try this. So eventually she found a doctor, and she started it. She had told me on LDN, and her name is Lori Dawn. And she's on the LDN for him as well. She told me the second night, after 30 years of being in pain, she woke up one morning.

There was no pain in her fingers. And they wish because of the LDN right now. So doctors have no idea how she is living and functioning, and she's wonderful. Well, I can't say enough about it. I, I, I don't know what else to say.

Linda Elsegood: Well, that's an amazing story. If you had to have rated your quality of

 life on a score of one to 10 before you started LDN and ten being the best, what would it have been?

Donna: Oh, it's the lowest point. I mean the, before LDN, I was below a one with the idea IDN, I would say I can go from eight and a half to over 10.

Seriously. Wow. And it depends upon because I'm going through menopause right now. That's not too much information. And so my body goes up and down with that. If anybody out there knows about it, menopause, of course, we, most women do who is this age group, and it's sometimes, you know, just flushed it, but it's been more upward now with, and I thought out too, no complaints whatsoever.

And people look at me, you know, in us as I often did use. And it's. Also, you don't look sick type of statement. Well, as you're feeling miserable on the inside and your food and all of the time, 24 seven, I don't have that anymore inside of me every now and then other twins, but there's nothing to write home about it.

Nothing to complain about. I keep my doctor's appointment to most straighten that I'm addictive, how I'm doing. But other than that, am I new biologist? See the change, but still, to describe LDN, he wouldn't do it. He has one other patient besides myself who is on LDN. Now I, after three years, let's see, I would say about two and a half years ago, I stopped taking LDN, and I see a wonderful.

And I still, I just, I'm still on LDN, but I take no medication at this point in my life. And I was diagnosed, uh, on, uh, the last 20 minutes. So, um, I'm good. My doctors are astonished. You should be on a wheelchair by now. I'm not in a wheelchair. I can walk. I wear me still at hours. Sometimes I trip, but that's okay.

But, but I can't say enough about that's it that's a miracle drug this in college. Uh, my face had been asked to do this, so, I mean, it has increased my faith in my Lord and then increase my face and us, there is something out there, but. Autoimmune diseases for cancers for those type of things. I mean, suddenly I could drive.

Linda Elsegood: before we started talking, you told me about exercising. Would you like to tell everybody what exercises you've been doing?

Donna: Well, I use the leprechaun daily. And each day I do that with emails, and that takes about an hour. I don't push myself too high. I do a little weight lifting, not a whole lot. We wished I had 10 pounds.

I do. A lot of stuff is very important that keeps your tendons doable so that you. Won't hope. And your elbow is a bin. When you want them to bend your knees a bit when you want them to be on. I used to have terrible, terrible pains in my leg, which only casting with FIC. I don't have that anymore. So if the, you know, you keep your stuff, you are yoga.

He left the walk-in. And if you can learn, it's very important. It's important for your state of mind. It's also important to keep your body in as much shape as you can because your body will fight for you. If you fight for it, that's the only way you can beat this thing. And do you, and of course, That's the first and foremost, the number one thing I would, I would tell everyone in the distance, you have to believe in something.

If you don't, you're doomed, because if you don't believe that you can do this, if you're not telling your body, you can do this and keep a positive attitude, you've already defeated, just and used to come to this.

So that does not answer your question.

Linda Elsegood: Thank you very much for sharing your experience with us. We do appreciate it. And I'm so pleased that LDN has worked so well for you.

 

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.

Don - US: Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (MS) (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Don from United States shares his LDN for secondary progressive Multiple Sclerosis (MS) experience.

He started seeing symptoms around 2002 when he would go running he would constantly and have to stop and rest so he knew something was wrong.

He did research after his diagnoses and decied to try LDN. His qaulity of life before LDN was at a 5/10 now it is at a 8/10. He has improved by alot.

To listen to the full interview play the video.

Any questions or comments you may have, please contact us. I look forward to hearing from you. 

Dominique - Belgium: Hailey-Hailey Disease (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Dominique from Belgium shares his Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) story on the LDN Radio Show with Linda Elsegood.

Dominique recognised something was wrong in 2005, when he had a couple falls which led to him breaking both of his wrists. At the age of 48, he had never previously experienced major problems with his balance in the past. While his diagnosis took a while, he was eventually diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

Dominique’s overall health went downhill from this point, as his overall energy levels decreased and fatigue began to settle in. Fortunately, he came across Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) which has completely revived his health.

“LDN has completely transformed my life. I’ll never stop taking it. I’m back doing the things I was doing before and I feel great.”

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

Dianne - US: Hailey-Hailey Disease (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Dianne has a family history of Hailey-Hailey disease, a chromosomal defect.

Her skin first broke out in her 20s, and a biopsy determined it was Hailey-Hailey. It wasn’t much of a problem until her 50s, when she started having more frequent outbreaks and longer healing. Topical steroids, oral antibiotics, antifungals, antivirals all were used to treat the disease and secondary infections.

It’s made worse by friction, so it causes blistering in folds of skin and under waistbands. The blisters open, get fissures, and are difficult to heal. She would sleep with ice packs for the itching. She found a Facebook group on Hailey-Hailey and discussion of low dose naltrexone (LDN). She was familiar with naltrexone from working in the addiction field, and she researched LDN. Even though Hailey-Hailey is not an autoimmune condition, she thought it would help with the inflammation, and LDN seemed very safe to take.

Her dermatologist researched as well, and prescribed it during a bad breakout one April. She dreaded summer because how sweating and friction make Hailey-Hailey worse. She started LDN that September and persisted taking it despite wild dreams. By the third week on LDN she could see improvement in her skin, it wasn’t seeping, and she was sleeping better.

Currently she is greatly improved, but still gets some outbreak if she wears something that rubs; but her skin heals quickly. She does not find stress to be a trigger, however eating too much sugar or wearing something that rubs will cause some blistering. She recommends LDN for its effectiveness, lack of side effects, and low cost.

Summary of Diane's interview, please listen to the video for the full story.

Any questions or comments you may have, please Contact Us. We look forward to hearing from you.

Diane - US: HIV, Fibromyalgia, CFS/ME (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Linda Elsegood: Diane from the United States. You take LDN for fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and Diane has been HIV positive for 26 years. Thank you for joining me, Diane.

Diane: You're welcome. My pleasure.

Linda Elsegood: Could you tell me when you first started to become unwell with your fibre morale during your chronic fatigue?

Diane: Approximately 2008.

Linda Elsegood: And what were you noticing at that time?

Diane: Um, I was having several issues. Um, primarily though I, uh. Had passed out, they diagnosed as single P.  Here in the United States. It's an unexplained reason for blacking out. Um, and everything seemed to just go downhill from the day that I blacked out, fell and hit my head.

Um, and, um, was, I was put on, uh. Short term disability, so we could figure out what was happening to me in, in the course of, um, seeing doctors. Uh, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. Um, and along with that, uh, unfortunately, a seizure disorder due to the fall and hitting my head. Um, so that started my medical journey, uh, until I had several issues.

That don't necessarily, the seizure disorder doesn't necessarily relate to the ledges now check them, but the fibromyalgia is chronic fatigue. Certainly did. When I was diagnosed with the fibromyalgia, um, my doctor is very much a proponent of low dose naltrexone, and he mentioned it to me, but I did not take it.

Take the advice because it was very concerned about everything that was happening to me. So he mentioned it to me a few times and let me be comfortable with my decision. And then I finally, after a few years, once I got everything else straightened out, um, it was concentrating solely on the fibromyalgia in the chronic fatigue to perhaps give it a try.

And um. Yes. So, um, the winter of , uh, 12 December 2012

Linda Elsegood: and when you first started, did you notice any introductory side effects.

Diane: Well, uh, I have to say, I immediately felt a lot more energy and felt better, uh, within a couple of days. Mmm. Side effects. After a week reselling or first week, I noticed vivid dreaming and insomnia. So. Uh, I spoke to my doctor about it, and he suggested that I, um, just the dust, adjust the dose on my own, kind of play around with it and see what would work for me.

But unfortunately, at the same time, um, I got very sick with a virus that was going around members of my family. Got it. And um. I just became concerned about my immune system being getting so sick with this virus that I stopped the low dose naltrexone. Right. Um, well, when I, when you get very sick like that, and I didn't bounce back from it where my family members did, I was shipped for about six weeks.

With the HIV, even though I have a very healthy immune system, uh, and I didn't fully understand what the LDN was doing for me. I stopped it because I just wanted to get better again. Um, if you asked me today, would I stop it? I would say no, but I didn't know enough back then. Um, what the LDN was, was actually doing for me.

But then it happened again two more times. And it was coincidentally, we stopped the LDN and was off it for several months. I started again, and I got sick again. And I even, um, we sold to the Yahoo group and posted on there, if you have anybody ever, you know, uh. With this society act where you would get this upper respiratory lung, lung infection.

And everybody said, no, that's not normal. You know, nobody had experienced that. So I was concerned that something might be going on with me. So it just seemed that every time I took it, I got sick, and then when I went off it, I got better. It was purely coincidental. It was just a bad year. There was a lot of, uh, the weather was crazy, and there were a lot of germs going around, and so I just got sick a lot, which is not normal for me that year.

So moving forward, um, in the last, last six months, started with the LVN again, and I've been on it on a consistent basis, and it's been working very well for me. Fantastic. So what would you

Linda Elsegood: say now your quality of life is like?

Diane: Um, I would say that taking the LDN has given me back a good portion of my life. Um, prior to the LDN, the fatigue and the, uh, body. Aches and pains were so debilitating that I didn't do a whole lot. Now with the LCN, um, I feel wonderful. Um, and even though I might feel a little achy, uh, I still, it allows me to go out and exercise.

Um, I led to walk—a mile or two. I take yoga classes a couple of times a week, none of which I did before the load check stuff. Um, and socially I'm more open to going out and doing things, being able to, um, Nick commitments, which was something that I couldn't do prior to the LDN. Um. Fibromyalgia also comes with something called fibro fog, where you have cognitive dysfunctions and the inability to concentrate, or for me specifically, organized for an organized task to get things done with the LPN, fibro fog lifted.

And I was able to see my way through the day until you, okay, this morning I need to do this and this, and then this afternoon and that, uh, and to sit in the exercise, which is so critically important to me, the LTN allowing you to exercise that alone changed my life completely. And then it just gets better from there.

Well, it's amazing. Thank you very much

Linda Elsegood: for sharing your experience with us.

 

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. 

Diane - US: Rheumatoid Arthritis (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Linda Elsegood: I'd like to introduce Diane to the United States to takes LDN for rheumatoid arthritis. Thank you for joining me, Diane.

Diane: You're welcome. Linda beauty. A pleasure to speak with you again.

Linda Elsegood: Could you tell us when you started to notice the pain

Diane: from rheumatoid arthritis? Um, I began having daily pain with my feet, the week of labor day of 2012.

That would have been early September. I had been canning tomatoes, and I thought my feet just got sore from being on them. And I figured with some rest after a couple of weeks, the pain would go away, but it didn't. And after about six, four to six weeks, I said, this is not normal. I need to have this look at.

So I went to my doctor and talked to him, and he agreed that it's probably arthritis and he prescribed Tylenol, which was not acceptable to me. He told me it was safe to take Tylenol for the rest of my life, which it is not. And I had told him that earlier in the year, just a couple of months prior to my pain, my brother was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and I was concerned that I might have the same thing.

He dismissed my concerns. I chose to seek a second opinion. Um, I went to an orthopaedic doctor who did, when I went there and told me they didn't do feet only above the ankle. So I had pain in my knee. So I had him look at that, and he diagnosed me with osteoarthritis in my knees and told me I should go see a podiatrist.

So we have one that comes into the town where I live to the hospital as an outreach clinic, I made an appointment, and I went to see him, could not confirm rheumatoid arthritis, but did do an examination and some x-rays of my feet. He did say that rheumatoid arthritis can frequently show symptoms first in the feet.

Where I had the pain, and he referred me to a rheumatologist, and you basically have to be referred to a rheumatologist in order to get an appointment. You can't just call up and make an appointment yourself. A doctor will have to refer you. So I chose to go to the doctor where my brother had once and was diagnosed, which was in Sioux Falls.

It's about 90 miles from my home. And they did blood tests and some additional x-rays there. And the day, the Monday after Thanksgiving in November, I got a phone call from the doctor confirming that I had rheumatoid arthritis. He wanted me to take methotrexate Plaquenil folic acid. And potentially prednisone as treatment.

I refused. I asked him if it would harm me to wait to start treatment for a short period of time, so I could explore alternative treatment protocols. He agreed that a short timeframe to look into alternative treatments would be okay. We felt I was fairly early in my disease and that a short delay would not unduly harm me.

So I started to do research on my own, and I prayed, and I went to the library and requested some books. One of the books I found at the library. Um, I believe it was through an interlibrary loan was honest medicine written by Julius Shopee. Hope I pronounce her last name correctly, and I read that book after a very long heartfelt prayer.

And believed once I had read through the book that I may have found the treatment I wanted to try, and that was low dose naltrexone. I didn't stop just with her book. I further researched it online. Um, I Googled it. I found some Yahoo health groups. About rheumatoid arthritis and others about taking low dose naltrexone.

All of my research confirmed for me that this was a treatment that I wanted to try as an alternative to the harmful or biologic drugs normally used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. So I went back to my primary physician who I'd been with for many, many years. And I went back first to the rheumatologist in Sioux falls and ask about getting a prescription for low dose naltrexone.

The rheumatologist refused to prescribe it. He said that it's not an approved treatment based upon the American college of rheumatology. Treatment protocols for rheumatoid arthritis. He did say I could go and try to get it from my primary physician. And if, um, I would get the prescriptions and the physician would, you know, he would monitor my treatment from that point forward.

I then went back to my primary physician and. Asked about getting the prescription for low dose naltrexone. And my primary physician refused to prescribe it. He seemed to be more concerned with lawyers and any potential liability for giving me an off label prescription for a drug that's been approved by the FDA.

I did not like that response from my physician because he seemed more concerned with malpractice and liability that in treating me the patient, I then fired my doctor and have not gone back to him since. So I looked for a physician that would prescribe the low dose naltrexone for me.

 Through online support groups on Facebook, including your group, Linda and another group.

There is a woman who keeps a list of doctors that will prescribe. I was also doing acupuncture treatment in 2012, and the acupuncturist had recommended a doctor for me. And it was the same doctor that was on the list kept by one of our angels in the group. So I made an appointment, and I went to see the doctor in January of 2013.

He prescribed the low dose naltrexone for me. I started February 1st of 2013. With a three milligram dose for two weeks. And then I bumped up to 4.5 milligrams, and I've been taking that ever since.

Linda Elsegood: And what was your experience when you first started?

Diane: Well, when I first started taking it, um, I'm not a sensitive, a person that's sensitive to meds.

Some people are, but I seem to tolerate most medications fairly well. I had positive thoughts going into it. This was my treatment of choice. Prior to starting the low dose naltrexone, my rheumatoid arthritis was getting worse. Um, the fatigue and brain fog from the disease was not well, was not good. Um, I get up in the morning, and I'd feel I say about 80 years old.

Um, I was like 50, 51 at that time and I could barely walk. To the bathroom from my bedroom, which is just across a very short hall, um, six feet or less. And it was very difficult getting out of bed in the morning and getting to the bathroom when I started taking low dose naltrexone at nighttime before bed.

I could feel little tingles in my legs, almost like when your legs are waking up from being asleep. Um, If anybody, you know how it goes. If you sat on your leg too long or something, your leg will go to sleep cause of blood flows, net going. And when you get up in the blood flow is restored. You get a sharp tingling sensation in your leg.

As your blood flow is getting back and your nerve endings are waking up and so on. It wasn't that severe, that tingling I felt, but I could tell that something was happening. Um, by the time I jumped up to the 4.5-milligram dosage in two weeks, I felt a lot more like myself. Um, being a 50, 51-year-old woman, instead of 80 years old, I had more energy.

Um, the pain in my feet was less, it wasn't totally gone, but it was a lot more comfortable to walk.

Linda Elsegood: If you had to rate your quality of life before you started LDN on a score of one to 10 and 10 being the highest, what would it have been?

Diane: Well, I was still able to walk,  um, the rheumatoid arthritis was mainly in my feet, so I would probably say maybe a five at that 0.5 or six. The fatigue was pretty bad.

So a five or six seems fair. Um, I know that there are people out there in a lot more pain than I am, and some are using canes or walkers, or even in wheelchairs. And I would have to say there's just a lot worse than mine.

Linda Elsegood: What would you say your quality of life is now on that same scale?

Diane: let's go back to when I first started with the LDN and, and how it improved.

I would say it went from a five or six to maybe two or three because I did feel more like myself. 

Diane: Dan is good. Then I would say it went from. I kind of did that backwards. Then I would have said that my quality of life was probably like a four or five then.

Um, and then it improved to like a seven or eight. Um, I still had the daily pain from the rheumatoid, but it was better. And the brain fog and fatigue improved. So instead of feeling 80, I was more feeling my own age of 50. There's a big difference there. Um, to be fair, um, I have to say that LDN was not enough for me.

Um, it, it served me very well for months. But in the summer of 2013, I had a lot of stress at work. They were basically trying to terminate me. Um, there's a long process that they had to go through to do so. And I had requested reasonable accommodation at work to try and help deal with some problems caused by my rheumatoid arthritis.

Which were denied to me and the stress and the disease was very active and aggressive. It got worse for me in the summer of 2013. Um, I had to choose another treatment to go along with the LDN. It is again, considered an alternative treatment, but I have been taking antibiotics since the fall of 2013, and together the two are working very well for me.

Linda Elsegood: I mean, any condition where you've got an autoimmune disease, stress and trauma

are really big

triggers. So hopefully. Once your life calms down, things hopefully will improve tremendously as well.

Diane: I agree with you. Linda stress plays a very, very big role with my disease, and I'm sure with many others, such as what you have ms.

Um, in our online support groups on Facebook, you hear that all the time stress can trigger flares. Um, whether. For rheumatoid can trigger flares. There are different things that can trigger it for different people. It's been amazing. It's been quite a journey of learning and awareness since I been diagnosed in 2012, um, there's a whole world out there, not just my little corner of, of the earth.

Where people are suffering from these diseases, many doctors, not all of them, but many doctors are trained in medical school. How to treat symptoms of diseases. Some doctors look for causes. Some doctors try to treat the cause instead of the symptoms. It can be frustrating when a patient has a doctor that only wants to treat symptoms and not look at causes.

Um, I was fortunate in that I got to a doctor he's an osteopath where they try to treat the cause of a disease instead of the symptoms. And that's one reason I'm doing the antibiotic therapy in conjunction with the LDN. Um, for anyone listening to this interview with you today, I encouraged them to educate themselves.

Do your own research. If you don't feel comfortable with a treatment that is suggested to you, you have the right to refuse it and search for your own solution. Like I did. Um, look at side effects of medication that are prescribed for you. Decide. If you are willing to take that medication based upon what it can do for you and your condition and the side effects that could affect you at some point.

And if you're not comfortable with that medication, don't take it, find something else because there are alternatives out there. From the online community, Yahoo groups, Facebook groups, particularly, there are so many people that are successfully using what is termed alternative medication, low dose naltrexone, successfully to treat their conditions.

Um, I know you're doing interviews with many people with many different diseases, but I've seen people online testifying from firsthand experience of the success they're having with low dose naltrexone for multiple sclerosis, thyroid issues, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis. It's. Very individualized.

Your dosage may be different. Even 4.5 is considered an optimum dose for some things, but with ms and smother diseases, thyroid issues, the dosage can be very particular to you as an individual. And. One of the groups. I have an online support group for people taking or interested in taking LDN for rheumatoid arthritis disease.

And there's one woman that takes five milligrams per day. Some women do better at three; it's very much up to how an individual body works with medication. And I think for rheumatoid arthritis, diet can also play a very big part. It's not to be ignored. I have not done autoimmune protocol diets or gluten-free although, should I choose to do that?

At some point, I do believe it will enhance the treatment that I'm already taking.

Linda Elsegood: What can I say? What an amazing interview. Thank you so much, Diane, for sharing

Diane:  Yes. Are there any other questions that you would like addressed Linda?

Linda Elsegood: I'm going to ask is if you can write an article for our newsletter.

Diane: Yes. Um, I'll try my best. I, I'm not much into writing these days, but, um, I'll give it my best shot for you because it's worth it.

This medication low dose naltrexone is like a miracle for some people. It doesn't have harmful side effects. It may not work for everyone, but no medication does. Um, I applied you and your charity and the work you've done over the years to make this, um, more well known out in the world. And I attended for people listening.

I attended the LDN conference near Chicago in 2013. Because I was taking the medication and I wanted to, to go and hear from experts. It was well worth the time and money to attend. So if anyone wants to get more information, I encourage them to order the CD of the conferences that are available. Um, pays a small fee to listen to them online, do the streaming site.

Um, it's just, people call it a miracle drug. It's not really a miracle, but for some that are sick, it can seem like a miracle. Um, I find it an answer to a prayer that I found it when I did. And I'm so happy that it was available to me and I could find a doctor to prescribe it. Um, it has many health benefits, side effect benefits that people have experienced.

No more allergies symptoms after they started taking LDN for, uh, an autoimmune disease. Um, no more flu maybe or no more sinus infections, many, many different things are beneficial from taking this medication what's even better is longterm usage. There are no harmful side effects at this low dosage. And. So I just strongly encourage people that have an autoimmune illness of any kind to look at it as either an alternative treatment or something to take in conjunction with your other treatments.

Um, more information is becoming known through research. Um, hopefully, it will become more widespread with the doctors. It is up to us, the patient. To make our doctors aware of the medication and the uses for it and get them on board to prescribe it for their patients. So I encourage people to do that. Um, Julia halts, um, Teleseminars via phone for people that want to go to their doctor and talk about taking the low dose naltrexone and she'll have helpful articles and papers that you can print out and take to your doctor to help educate them.

Linda Elsegood: Thank you very much for sharing your experience with us.

 

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.

Diane - US: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Diane from the US shares his LDN story she takes for multiple sclerosis. 

She was 34 when she first got diagnosed with MS. She has trouble with vision that got progressively worse and had balance issues and fatigue.

She heard about LDN on the internet and decided to give it a try.  She has taken LDN since 2010 and had mild side affects with sleeping.

She found a lot of improvements with fatigue and balance. Her quality of life improved and she was able to do daily task again.

To listen to the full interview play the video.

Any questions or comments you may have, please email us at Contact@ldnresearchtrust.org. I look forward to hearing from you. 

Diane - Canada: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Diane from Canada shares her Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) and Multiple Sclerosis story.

I was very active socially and at work. I was actually a hotel sales manager, and that kept me on the road quite a bit. So I was very active.

One day, in a meeting at work,  I was making some notes, and everything came up as scribble.

I couldn't write my name. I couldn't spell D I A N E period. So I immediately went off to the hospital. I was seeing the Neurologist beforehand because I had one night double vision in my eyes, and they were doing some testing on me.

Anyways, I went to the hospital and they diagnosed me with Multiple Sclerosis. It was devastating. He sent me home and told me to come back and see him if any changes happened.

So, all of a sudden I couldn't lift my right leg and my speech was totally slurred. So my mom rushed me back to the hospital, and then I hadn't eaten anything but I was throwing up, I shook the bed, and I throw up, and I was doing this for a full day until the point where they were saying to my mother that I would never make it for the night.

And  by the morning, everything just settled down. My symptoms were still the same so I was there for a week. When they sent me home, they said I would have to order a wheelchair for me.

So I went home. We're a Christian family so my mother took me to the church. The missionaries prayed over me, and they were there for a few hours while I forget I had this really weird feeling afterwards.

The following week I left from this whole wheelchair-bound and going back to work in the hotel and being active.

And 14 years later I kept falling. I had really pushed myself to the max. And one day I tripped on the concrete and bang my back, my spine against this concrete wall and then thereafter I found I couldn't keep my balance and I got a call on my cell phone. I had a muscle spasm that lasted three weeks so I was bedridden.

Doctors took me off work. So I've been off work since 2001.

Because I am a computer savvy, I went on to the MS Resource Centre, and I was reading up different things and I found about Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN). So I looked further into it and then I noticed they had a pharmacy in Toronto.

And so he wrote me the prescription. That was November 2010.

I have been ok. I had to use a walker outside and inside and got a scooter now. And then I would say January, I was able to go upstairs.

I went upstairs, went to bed. In the morning when I woke up, I opened the door and looked, and there was no walker. The walker was all the way down to the entrance.

And I got up and started to walk. I was so happy. It has given me a little bit of strength in my mind. I have had problems with my bladder. My bladder is totally controlled and I don't take any bladder medications.

Fatigue is still there. I didn't have side effects from LDN except that I couldn't sleep right.

Summary from Diane's interview. Listen to the video for the full story.