Adam - US: Multiple Sclerosis(LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.
Adam: Hi, Linda.
Linda: Could you tell us when you first started to notice MS symptoms?
Adam: Well, I was actually diagnosed in January of 2007. I had a lot of symptoms that were unknown for years, prior to that, prior, before 2000.
Linda: Well, what were your symptoms at the time of diagnosis.
Adam: Well, I had a, a massive migraine kind of headache at the base of my skull. I had long-lasting carpal tunnel symptoms through my arms running up to my shoulders. I had a loss of feeling within my arms, excessive loss of balance, loss of muscle.
There was a kind of tight, extreme fatigue for years, sometimes paralysis when I'd wake up in the morning. Excessive sweating, twitching and bladder and bowel control.
Linda: so what medication were you offered at that time?
Adam: Copaxone daily injections.
Linda: And how old were you then, Adam?
Adam: 34
Linda: How did it impact on your life being diagnosed with MS?
Adam: Pardon me?
Linda: Having the label, MS.
Adam: Actually, it wasn't bad. The diagnosis was okay. It gave a reason for what was wrong. I didn't think I was crazy at that time. I think a lot of times, being misdiagnosed for, for years with so many different things. That was more of an impact on my life.
Linda: and how did you get on with the Copaxone?
Linda: Right. So I'll, I'll ask you that last question again. How did you find taking the, How did you get on with taking Copaxone?
Adam: It was a daily injection. It wasn't so bad, doing the injection. For me, it was more of an impact on the financial burden, to my future how I would afford to be on this medication if by chance I lost my job. Concerns like that.
Linda: How long did you take Copaxone for? Are you still taking it?
Adam: I took it through starting LDN, and I continued to take it probably about six months after. So I would say I was on Copaxone for at least a year and a half.
Linda: How did you find LDN?
Adam: My wife emailed me a YouTube video clip. She joined a support group, and someone had blessed her and sent her a, just a short little YouTube video clip, and she forwarded to me
Linda: easy to get a prescription for LDN?
Adam: For me, it was, I did my research beforehand. I went while prepared for my neurologist who was prescribing me the Copaxone at the time, and I basically laid it out in front of him and demanded that that's what I was going to try next. And I agreed to continue taking Copaxone at that time.
Linda: And was it easy to get the prescription filled at first?
Adam: Not necessarily because he didn't understand how to write it. He didn't know much about it. I found out more on my end, how to make it myself, which I don't recommend. Um, but then I think within the first month I was able to get him to write a proper way, you know, a proper script for it.
Linda: And when you first started, did you notice any introductory side effects?
Adam: Zero! My wife said that, that my leg twitched for a couple of or one night. Um, but I don't, I don't think that that was connected.
Linda: And how long did it take for you started to notice improvements?
Adam: Very next morning.
Linda: What did you notice?
Adam: I went from feeling like I was 85 years old when I would wake up, every day for the last ten years to feeling like I was 15 again. That was the main thing right off the bat. I, I wasn't fatigued. I had a ton of energy, and I couldn't explain why, other than the LDN.
Linda: Did it help with your other symptoms?
Adam: In time it did. In a very short time, actually, at the time when I started LDN, I had flu-like symptoms that wouldn't go away after two courses of antibiotics. And that flu went away within, I believe, three or four days. A lot of my bladder things like a bladder infection, that went away within two or three days.
Just about everything, all my symptoms that I had with the exception of anything that was permanent, like nerve damage, all of those symptoms went away.
Linda: If you were to rate your quality of life before LDN on a score of one to 10, what would it have been?
Adam: Probably about a two.
Linda: And what would you say it is today.
Adam: Probably about an eight.
Linda: That’s amazing. Isn’t it? that it's very good. It is. What would you say to other people who are contemplating trying LDN?
Adam: well, if you're contemplating trying LDN, you've already heard about it, which is the first part, and I think that's the most important part. For me, it works. I'm a strong believer in it.
I tell whoever I can about it. My biggest thing is, you know if you know about it, you should, you should look more into it and don't give up. Just because one doctor says, you know, I don't agree with that because it's maybe not FDA approved in the US or different places like that. Just be persistent and keep trying. For me, I lucked out, you know?
Linda: so how would you say your life is now? Would you say it's more or less back to normal?
Adam: I would say it's about 90% back to normal. My biggest benefit, I probably should have said this a couple of minutes ago, but my biggest benefit was I was able to get off of the Copaxone, which is a daily injection. And at that time, when I started at my insurance was paying 2,500 every month. And that fear of, you know, worrying about how I would afford to continue that treatment is away because now I'm able to not rely on daily injections. I don't take them at all. And the LDN costs me $65 like us dollars every three months without insurance.
So it's, it's affordable, and it's, you know, that worry has gone.
Linda: Did you notice any difference in your health once you stopped taking the Copaxone?
Adam: When I stopped taking Copaxone? Yes. No, it was, no.
Adam: Some of the other things that were, you know, leading up to my diagnosis of the ms, you know, those went away after I was diagnosed, but I think with the LDN, I pretty much don't have anything that I really worry about and have any type of symptoms.
Linda: What does your doctor think to improvements since you've been on LDN?
Adam: he's amazed. However, my doctor, you know, talks a lot and says he'll tell all his patients, but since March of 2008, he hasn't told one person.
Linda: More importantly, what does your wife think?
Adam: She's definitely happy and can't believe the change. We were actually able to conceive. We had our first son.
Linda: That’s a blessing. Thank you for sharing your story with us today.