LDN Video Interviews and Presentations

Dr Paul Anderson, LDN Radio Show 19 May 2017 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

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

Dr Paul Anderson started 40 years ago working in medical labs and eventually started up his own lab. Bored with this, he sold the business to go back to school and become an MD. 

He observed that most family practitioners don't have time to delve deeply into the more complicated and difficult illnesses like Cancer and autoimmune diseases. Thus he studied further to become a Naturopathic Doctor and started up his clinic. 

He learned about Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) approximately 15 years ago and treats his patients with a synergetic approach. He finds that LDN is his first line of treatment, but it is accompanied by diet, exercise, and lifestyle changes. Vitamins, supplements and herbs are utilized as an important part of treatment.

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

Dr Jill Cottel shares her LDN experience, LDN Radio Show (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Dr Jill Cottel shares her Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) experience on the LDN Radio Show with Linda Elsegood.

Dr Jill Cottel is a medical advisor for the LDN Research Trust and was a presenting doctor at the LDN Conference in Portland Oregon.

Now, she has developed a tele-medicine system in her practice whereby she can do medical appointments by phone in the states of Virginia and California. This added service is invaluable for patients who cannot travel for one reason or another. 

She has been a solo-practitioner with a private practice for over 20 years with a focus on holistic medicine. Dr Cottel is very knowledgeable not only of how useful Low Dose Naltrexone can be in treating autoimmune diseases, but also for treating alcoholism through alternative methods such as the Sinclair Method.

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

Linda Elsegood: Today I'm joined by Dr Jackie Silkey, who's from just North of Salt Lake City in Utah. She's a functional medicine practitioner. Thank you for joining us, Jackie. 

Dr Jackie Silkey: Thank you for having me. 

Linda Elsegood: Could you tell us how long have you been prescribing LDN? 

Dr Jackie Silkey: I've been prescribing LDN for about five years now. I’ve treated quite a wide range. I started out using LDN for all autoimmune disorders including Hashimoto's, lupus, and now have branched out into other areas and using LDN for other applications as well. 

Linda Elsegood: And what kinds of results have you seen so far? 

Dr Jackie Silkey: I've seen very good results. I always use LDN as part of a program where I'm addressing more of the root causes of what's going on and putting a comprehensive program, both nutritional exercise, stress reduction, those type programs into place, as well as doing quite a bit of a functional medicine testing. And then I bring LDN as an anti-inflammatory as the extra treatment arm. In most of my patients, I see they are successful in implementing base therapy. 

Linda Elsegood: Have you seen any negative side effects?

Dr Jackie Silkey: Yes. When patients first, start LDN. Sometimes patients will complain of vivid dreams or difficulty sleeping—those sort of common complaints. I'll either move them to morning dosing or depending on how significant the symptoms are, I'll dial back on the dosage or just tell them to go ahead and push on through. And  I find that it improves easily within a week. 

Linda Elsegood: Have you any people that you have treated who have had marvellous results? Do you have any case studies you could quote? 

Dr Jackie Silkey: Most of my patients actually come to me to get a comprehensive program put into place, and then. I actually don't see them routinely. They go back to their primary care physician once I'm able to get them improving in the right direction. And so I don't have patients that are coming in monthly for checkups or checking in with me. So most of my patients will go back to their primary care physician once I feel like that they have plateaued on their healing with me and have put into place all of the aspects of healing that  I find to be important. 

Linda Elsegood: Well, that's good, isn't it? So if so, when a patient comes to you, you, you look at everything, that lifestyle, that diet, exercise, supplements, all this kind of thing to try to get them.to have a healthy lifestyle as well as treating the disease. Is that right? 

Dr Jackie Silkey:  Most definitely. Yeah. In fact, a lot of times I try not to even look at the disease per se. I try and look more at the patient and say, you know, why is this disease happening in the first place and see what we can do as far as reinforcing them foundationally.

And that's where I think LDN really plays a significant role,  is to reinforce people foundationally.  You know, just like we do with nutritional aspects that exercise aspects, stress reduction aspects, all of this just to reinforce not only a nice environment for healing to take place, but also to prevent relapse.

Linda Elsegood: What would you say is the best diet? We're always being asked this for people with autoimmune diseases. 

Dr Jackie Silkey: Well, it truly depends upon the person in my opinion.  I don't even like the word diet. There are so many negative connotations associated with it  I try to use nutritional plan because I really want people to think about this being a nutritional plan, one that they don't come on and off of. So diet, we always think of, I'm going to go on a diet and then I'm going to come off of the diet. And those things tend to be, you know, somewhat more extreme.

When I set up a nutritional plan, let's say for somebody with autoimmune disorders, there are some people that come to me and have read every book and have tried, you know, multiple nutritional plans have had limited success with them. I don't go back and try to recreate those. I just learned from what they've worked on and what they haven't had work in the past. Sometimes they'll do some functional medicine testing, some food sensitivity testing to dive deeper into that person's metabolism of foods and, and their sensitivities and what their blood is doing when they eat certain foods. And that way, I can kind of make a more personalized approach. 

Linda Elsegood: Are you a fan of vitamin D? 

Dr Jackie Silkey: Oh, yes. You know, we can get a lot of sunshine in the summer, but I would say the majority of patients that I test, and I do test everyone, are low. That may be an absorption issue from the GI tract. They're not absorbing it. A lot of people don't know about vitamin D,  that it's a fat-soluble vitamin and that you have to take it with fat. Otherwise, you won’t absorb it.  And there are some people that I don't think absorb their fats very well, to begin with, and so they can have absorption issues. I try and address all of those things. Testing vitamin D levels,  also taking a look at the GI tract and how well they're absorbing their vitamins. 

Linda Elsegood: But I would have to say both my husband and myself, after listening to Dr Tom O'Brien at the conference last year, we both stuck to the diet religiously and I have been a diabetic type two, and I was diet controlled for four years. And then I was on Metformin, and I was told a few months ago after being on a diet, say six months or so, that my sugar levels were prediabetic, and I was told that I could stop taking the Metformin.

So I'm thinking, Oh if you're going to take the medication off me, what happens if. They go upon, I don't know, and I have kidney problems. I was really panicked, and they said, don't worry, we will take your blood again. And it showed that I was at serious risk of becoming a diabetic, but I was prediabetic, and I didn't need to take the Metformin.

I've been assured enough seeing the results, and I'm not worried about it. And I'm sure if I keep my diet. As it is, but apparently once you've been diagnosed as a diabetic, they can't remove that from your records. So I'm now a diabetic in remission. So I'm, I'm really pleased about that. You know, one less drug.

Dr Jackie Silkey: I think that there's a lot of people they can say that they are diabetics and in remission as well, you know, or a diabetic, in the, making one or the other.  I think that you know, nutritional plans play a significant role as well as exercise plans and then implementing those exercise plans and then stress. Obviously, stress is going to play a significant role.

Linda Elsegood: Let’s briefly talk about exercise. Now one of the questions that we are always being asked, sick people, can appreciate the fact that they should be exercising people with, say, someone with MS who suffers from severe fatigue, where any exercise, just moving, showering is too much for them, and they spend a lot of the time in bed. What can people do too? Try an exercise when they are that fatigued. What is your suggestion? 

Dr Jackie Silkey: You're absolutely right.  I want to make sure that your listeners know that we always talk about implementing exercise programs and try not to make people feel guilty for not implementing exercise programs. But there are some people that that can actually be quite detrimental for. And, and you know, if you do an exercise program and you're recovering for two days because you did too much, then obviously, you have to build up your base before you’re ever able to really do a formal exercise program. You really have to spend quite a bit of time working with the patient and talking with the patient about what they've done in the past. What was too much for them in the past and if you can dial into what it is that their body needs. Because you take the same person with MS, and then you take the person down the street with MS, they're going to have two very different exercise tolerances, and they're going to have two very different levels of benefit from any sort of a formal exercise program. So you have to make it, in my opinion, very individualized. And that's where I find that it can be very difficult and, and can make people worse initially if physicians to a physical therapist or nurse or anyone is not listening to the person about what's been too much for them in the past and, you know, starting low and going very slow.

Linda Elsegood: So you learn to become fit enough to start to exercise basically very slowly and gradually and not to give up. Forget the idea that you're not achieving anything by baby steps. You do get there. It just takes a while, doesn't it? 

Dr Jackie Silkey: That's exactly right. And everybody has a very different starting point, and so it doesn't really matter where your starting point is, it's important that you start there and that you move forward from there.

Linda Elsegood: I think it helps to keep a diary of what you can do and try and improve on that. If you've only managed to do an extra five steps in a week, at the end of the month, you know, you may have done 20 steps or something like that. It's all just very, very slowly and gradually. And then once you become fit enough, you can then, as you were saying, do a plan. You won't fatigue yourself too much, doing 

Dr Jackie Silkey: too much 

Linda Elsegood: too soon. 

Dr Jackie Silkey: You're absolutely right. And I think that's where pedometers, you know, really play a significant role is then measuring steps and, and there's a lot of things that people can do and in their homes, just depending on where they are. Other things, you know, take more pressure off of the joints, sign up for a program that's actually done in the water, taking some, some of the pressure off of the joints themselves. So if somebody tells me that they had quite a bit of soreness and joint pain, well, there are supplements that you can take before then there's hydration that you can do before them. But there are also ways in which, if their joints are quite uncomfortable that you can do exercise in the water. Even just some gentle movements and walking within the water itself can take the pressure off of the joints enough to where you can slowly build from there. And there's actually a treadmill that's available, it's almost like it's built into a shower and certain physical therapy places will have it and where you can get in there, and you can just very slowly walk on the treadmill,  and water just to take some pressure off. Those are just some examples of different things that I'll have people do. 

Linda Elsegood: I went to a class to do cross therapy, and I was in my fifties, and I turn up, and I was the baby. They were people who were 70. It really made me smile. They were all so kind to me. And you wore a band around your, your middle. So you floated like a cork no strain on your arms and your legs, and you just bobbed. And it was difficult. It was really, really difficult. So I was saying, you know. I don't think I'm going to be able to do an hour so that I did set it all up, but that's fine. We'll just do it gradually. I could only do 20 minutes.

Dr Jackie Silkey: For some people even just going to the facility, changing into a swimsuit, getting into the water, getting out of the water and going back home, wipe them out completely. It just depends on where people start. If people are quite ill, and then you obviously cannot start with a formal exercise program. 

Linda Elsegood: I couldn't walk when I got out of the water suddenly, suddenly all the weight was on my legs, and it's like, Whoa, I can't do this. I went home, I went to bed, and I couldn't get out of bed and move without really severe problems until Thursday.  I did too much, but I didn't realize it. It just seems so easy, but my legs just, Oh, it was unbelievable. We will just go to a break, and we'll be back in just a moment. 

Today's show sponsor is Care First Speciality Pharmacy. They're leading compounders of LDN and other custom treatments servicing patients in over 18 States coast to coast. They're credited to provide you with the highest quality demanded by the industry and the expert service. You expect to learn more. Call (844) 822-7379 or visit CFS pharmacy.com. 

Back to stress, that's another thing we've never talked about so far on the radio show. What do we do when we're stressed and maybe defining stress versus depressed. I mean, when you have a chronic condition lots of things become a problem to you mentally. 

Dr Jackie Silkey: Yes. I think that you know, when we talk about, it's really important for me to teach patients when we're talking about implementing a stress-reduction plan, is that it's not at the moment necessarily to relieve stress. It's about implementing a plan. It's like a nutritional plan. It's not like you implement a nutritional plan that day, and you lose 10 pounds that same day or gain 10 pounds of muscle that same day. It takes time for you to see the fruits of your labour, but by implementing a stress-reduction plan you're putting more resilience into people's lives and into their body to be able to, to be more resilient with relapses or more resilient with a major stressor that comes along, a car accident, anything that's gonna be a big stress in somebody's life. Stress reduction versus depression, I believe you said stress versus depression, they tend to in a lot of people go hand in hand and that's where these comprehensive programs, including low dose naltrexone,  really helps. People with mental health issues and, and with depression. Now, did they have a formal diagnosis of depression?

Maybe or maybe not, but still low dose. And by reducing inflammatory factors within the brain is able to help. Most people that are dealing with a chronic illness because a chronic illness, by definition, is depressing to the body. It's stressful for the body. It's living in a body that's inflamed and living with a brain that's inflamed is very difficult.

Linda Elsegood: Let’s get to some questions and answers. 

Dr Jackie Silkey: Yeah, that sounds good. 

Linda Elsegood: We have a Marie, and she says she has a seven-year-old who was diagnosed with Crohn's four months ago, and she would like to ask, are the children taking LDN with success and when would she expect to see improvements? And what would the improvements be besides better sleep? Would it assist with pain and quality of life? She was hoping that he would have more energy and be able to go through a normal day at school. 

Dr Jackie Silkey: Well, we were talking earlier about patients that I have on  LDN and my success stories, and. You know, a lot of times I won't see them routinely, but one of the success stories that I have and that I still speak with this patient often is with a Crohn's disease patient.

So Crohn’s disease  you know, quite a bit of  inflammation within the gut. So people that are dealing with a fire brewing inside their body, whether it be in their gut or their brain or their blood or wherever. It's going to fatigue them. It's going to decrease their energy levels. Initially, it might make somebody more agitated, but initially, what initially fires somebody up and makes them hypermetabolic then to close them down later in the disease process. What I tell people what to expect is variable. I put patients on low dose naltrexone and we watch, we take a look, we dial them up.  I do tend to increase their doses slowly and watch for their most prominent symptom, for example. And the patient that I was referring to earlier, one of the hallmark symptoms she would have was diarrhoea, and so she would be having eight or nine loose bowel movements per day when she was in an active Crohn's flare, she also had some abdominal pain. 

So once we were able to start her on low dose naltrexone and then dial-up her dosing, we ended up doing something a little bit different for her. We ended up doing twice a day, smaller doses instead of once a day, larger doses. So you have to keep reassessing. But I will tell you that for some people the response is dramatic and swift. But just because somebody does not have a swift or dramatic response doesn't mean that they aren't going to have a response either later or that it be kind of this slow uptick. I would  say that, what I would tell the mother is, you're absolutely doing the right thing. See what the symptoms that are most predominant at the beginning of starting low dose naltrexone. And then always stay in contact with whoever's prescribing it so they can help guide you on the correct dosage, the correct frequency.  We were talking about stress earlier. Here's my patient who was a student and every time finals would come around, she would have a flare. And so knowing this, we knew how to put into place a stress-reduction program that really dialled up a week or two before she started studying for all of her finals. And preparing earlier for her tests. So there was less last-minute stuff. So we were able to, you know, figure out what her relapse risk factors were, and then specifically guide that around my plan. We ended up not needing the plan, but my plan was also going to think about going towards a higher dose two weeks before those stressful events, but we ended up not needing it. She was able to keep the progress that she had made for throughout the rest of the semester into final examinations by just preparing earlier and knowing what she needed to do would affect what her final result was. So, I don't know if I've given any specific timeframe. I will tell you, it varies from person to person.

I would definitely take a look at the symptoms that your son is having and that energy, in my opinion, energy usually comes around quicker in kids. But it tends to lag behind the other symptoms, their GI symptoms. So if he's having quite a bit of abdominal pain, an improvement upon the abdominal pain might come first. Then energy might come after that. Imagine that the fire that is brewing inside the person's body is sucking them dry of energy. Well, you have to first, turn off the propane to the fire, and then you have to extinguish the fire and then with time, then that energy will then come back. There are really very few side effects. The only time that it really plays a significant role is if  I tell people about  they have to have surgery or if they accidentally fall out of the tree and break their arm and they have to go on pain medicine, any of those sorts of things where you're going to be stopping the LDN for a period of time.

Or I am trying to use no narcotic pain medications, which would be even a better choice.

So, do I feel that,  LDN is safe in children? Yes. And, even in pregnancy I have a couple of patients that are pregnant, and that stopped LDN during their pregnancy, and resumed it, after they deliver the baby while they're breastfeeding. And  I personally, don't even think that there's any reason why anybody needs to stop it during pregnancy.

But there are no studies  that have looked at LDN in pregnant women because there's, you know, there are no studies that have looked at other medications in women, but we use them. You know, and people that are addicted to opiates will use high dose naltrexone and sustained release naltrexone because the risk to the baby is much greater than the potential risk at high dose naltrexone. Low dose naltrexone is an immediate release Naltrexone compounded formula that can be used in children and young women. 

Linda Elsegood: Well I think many of the listeners will have heard of Dr Phil Boyle using it in his paternity clinics where they use LDN to get pregnant during pregnancy and during breastfeeding. He did a very good presentation for the conference last year. And it showed that babies born were of better weight, had less need for antibiotics. Apparently, some babies need, antibiotics for chest infections and the like, and they weren't contented. And I thought that has to be good  if you've got a baby that cries all the time. So in his experience, LDN has been really good, and he did a small study. I'll have to send you the link to it, which was very interesting. Very interesting indeed. Okay. We have another question here from Lucy, and it's with atopic dermatitis. I know that you do a lot of skin conditions in your practice.

Dr Jackie Silkey: Atopic dermatitis. Cyclosporine is a common Western medicine drug that is used for autoimmune. So it's going to, you know, decrease somebody's immune system reaction to themselves. So the thought is, is that you know, that autoimmune disorders are really yourself, you know, attacking oneself, you know, the whole idea of that, without looking at their foundational, a lot of times what I find is foundational people with autoimmune disorders. Really, their immune system is woefully inadequate for foundational reasons instead of hyperactive, if that makes sense. So people on cyclosporine can take low dose naltrexone . Now, cyclosporine levels are normally checked for somebody who had a transplant who was trying to keep their levels at a certain parameter. And I would say initially when starting any new medication or any new supplement I tell everyone that is taking  for transplant reasons to have their levels checked after starting any new medication or any new supplement because everybody's going to react a little bit differently. So would it, would it potentially affect their levels? Possibly, but not usually. 

Linda Elsegood: Okay.

Linda Elsegood: And we have another one, about eczema on steroid treatment. This lady has been using it for 30 years, and she says, my skin is very inflamed. I have no quality of life. My dermatologist's about to put me on what  the drug we've just been talking about, and she's been off topical steroids for 18 months. And do you think LDN would help?  

Dr Jackie Silkey: As part of a comprehensive program? Absolutely. I find that part of a comprehensive program LDN plays a significant role in all of the autoimmune disorders that affect the skin, that affects the brain, that affects the GI tract.  I try not to treat a disease with a drug or a supplement. I try and treat the person who is having symptoms associated with the disease and look for what their rate-limiting stuff is. So, you know, there are some people that are not absorbing their fats well. They're not digesting. They've got some digestive enzyme insufficiency. They've got  maybe some small intestinal bacterial overgrowth symptoms. They've got a lot of  gas and indigestion, fatty stools, things like that. Well, with that person, I'm gonna think about why the eczema is just being a symptom of the problem. And by far and away, I find that things like eczema, psoriasis, all of these things tend to be more of a symptom of the problem.  Instead of me worrying about labelling people with their diseases, I say, this is a symptom of the problem and we're going to follow this symptom as we address, you know, your insufficiencies as we find them. And that's where functional medicine testing, I believe, plays a significant role. 

Linda Elsegood: And at the time you've got the body working correctly. Do you find a lot of the symptoms resolve anyway? 

Dr Jackie Silkey: Oh yes. That's exactly, that's when you know. There can be several things that you uncover that may not be directly related. Let's just take eczema. It might not be directly related to their eczema, but yet play a very significant health benefit if you can address those things as well. So, but yes, I mean, anytime I'm seeing anybody with anything from acne all the way to psoriasis. I'm definitely treating internal parameters instead of just treating, okay, is your acne better? I'm following many different things, but I think the skin makes it nice because you have an external way of evaluating how well your treatment is going. You just look at your leg, and you say, yes, the treatment seems to be doing much better. 

And people do that with depression. People do that with  getting pregnant. You were talking about infertility treatment. I mean, that's  obviously the goal and obviously the goal is to improve eczema to where it's completely asymptomatic. But. I don't  find that putting topical treatments or putting people on a cyclosporin to be that helpful in getting down to the root cause.

In fact, I think it just masks the symptoms.  I have people come in all the time that are on steroids or cyclosporin or other autoimmune medications. Humira is big here in the United States, and it just masks the symptoms, even if it controls the initial disease or the initial symptom that you're trying to control. Your body just has a way of showing that in some other area. 

Linda Elsegood: And what's the downside on using. Steroid creams longterm over the years? 

Dr Jackie Silkey: Well, first of all, it changes the quality of the skin you're using it on. And second of all, you absorbed some of the steroids through the skin. So, you know, you're interrupting the barrier protection of the skin. Are you making it less of a good barrier to disease and to infection and all the rest? Depending on  if you're just using a small amount of steroid on one area, but some patients have to put steroid creams on multiple areas of their body, and so that ends up being a  fairly large dose of steroids. Some of that is going to get delivered systemically as well as just on the skin. So the problem with steroid creams is that they can thin the skin. So we use the thickness of the skin as a measure of. Health. So think about somebody's face. Think about an older woman's face versus a younger woman's face.

Part of that ageing process is this thinning of the skin, and so it, therefore, can't withstand pressures as well. 

Linda Elsegood: We will just go to a break, and we'll be back in just a moment. Today's show sponsor is Care First speciality pharmacy a leading compounders of LDN and other custom treatments servicing patients in over 18 States coast to coast.

They're accredited to provide you with the highest quality demanded by the industry and the experts' service. You expect to learn more: call eight four four eight two, two seven, three, seven, nine or visit. CFS, pharmacy.com welcome back. Another thing I wanted to ask you, there's a lot of buzz going around at the moment about detoxing teas that you can have to flush out all of the builds up that you have in your bowels. Are they a good idea? 

Dr Jackie Silkey: Well, I think. When we talk about detoxification, we talk about trying to find out, first of all, what you're detoxifying from, trying to get down to kind of a root cause. If it's, you know, just general toxins that we're exposed to, then I think, you know, ramping up your own detoxification pathways is the best way to do it and pooping every day is an absolute mandatory in my clinic. Everybody that comes in, whether they're coming in for eczema or low dose naltrexone or functional medicine. One thing that I always talk to them about is how often they're having a bowel movement. To work on detoxification when you haven't worked on proper bowel function is not gonna work. You're going to do one flush of tea and they might feel better for a day or two, and then they're going to go back to their regular bowel habits. And so, sorry. No, no, no, no. So it's like anything else, doing it once might be enlightening but you want it to be something that they implement from now on. It's not a diet that they go on and off of, but something that is going to stick with them can be life-changing. 

Linda Elsegood: Out of interest. How would you make yourself go every day?

Dr Jackie Silkey: A bowel movement?  Oh, well, it depends on where I feel people are deficient in, you know, so if they're magnesium deficient, which I would tell you that the majority of us are, even our soil which we grow our vegetables are magnesium deficient. People tend to be very deficient in vegetables in general. So I try to calculate, I try and get an idea of how much, um, how much fibre people are taking in during the day, and, um, what sort of bowel, um, irritations they've had in the past. So treating somebody with irritable bowel syndrome, they've had multiple episodes of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, and it's a very different process than treating somebody who comes in and just says, yeah, I have chronic constipation, but they don't have any abdominal pain, so you have to, you have to treat them very, very different. But somebody who's not having any abdominal pain, not having any abdominal symptoms, then I start, usually start with magnesium and ramp up their magnesium dosing and see if I can't either tests them to find out on a cellular level, what their magnesium levels are, or see what sort of improvement we get from, ramping up their magnesium, but ramping up also fibre intake, water intake.  

Linda Elsegood: So keep flushing and eating those vegetables. 

Dr Jackie Silkey: Yeah. I love magnesium too. Magnesium is great, and it's great to help people sleep better. It helps. It's helpful with nighttime leg cramps. It's helpful with bowel movements. It's helpful with slight blood pressure elevations. 

Linda Elsegood: Oh, sounds a good one to take, doesn't it? Does that come in like pill form? 

Dr Jackie Silkey: Yeah, it comes in pill form or in a granular form as well. 

Linda Elsegood: We'll certainly have to look into that.

Dr Jackie Silkey: Maybe we can start combining that with low dose naltrexone, low dose naltrexone and magnesium together. Maybe we can get one of the pharmacies to compound that for us. 

Linda Elsegood: That’s food for thought. We have a question here from Elisa. It's about allergies and fibromyalgia. She says, I stopped LDN for a few months but again,I feel tired and cannot sleep. I wanted to start again, but at this moment in time, I use melatonin. Come melatonin be taken with LDN, and I start at 1.5. 

Dr Jackie Silkey: Yes. Both of those, LDN, melatonin can be taken together. You can also take melatonin  I mean, take LDN during the day if it's affecting your sleep. You know, I think the majority of people have been using it at night because that's the original way in which it was prescribed. But I think that a lot of physicians now realize that we can use it during the day in effect, depending on what your goals are for therapy. They can sometimes be even more appropriate than night use depending on what your goals are. The first time I took it, I had a nightmare the second time I had the best dream. I mean, it was kind of more of an intense dream, but it was, you know, worthy of a book when you could have written a book about the stream and it would have been a bestseller. And the third night I was so excited to get back to that dream and nothing. So it just depends. 

Linda Elsegood: I had no vivid dreams at all, so I feel I've been roped even though only one you had one 

Dr Jackie Silkey: and I still talk about that dream, and I still try and recreate it, and I think in my spare time, may need to write a book about that.

Linda Elsegood: Melatonin is easy to get over the counter in the US, but we don't do that over here.  I don't like medication at all. And when I flew to Las Vegas for the conference, my body clock was complete upside down. It was an eight hour time difference. And the first night I woke up at three o'clock in the morning.  I had to work, I had to see people, and I was on breakfast television on one of the television stations. And I think the next morning it was like four o'clock. And then the next day, it's like half-past four. And I went into one of the local pharmacies. And the. The gentleman said, how can I help you?  I said, can you give me anything? I don't care what it is, anything.  I'm just so tired, I can't function. And he said I didn't need a drug that I could actually have melatonin and take it an hour before I went to sleep. And to try and relax.  It worked really well.

Dr Jackie Silkey: Well, with prescription medications there's this whole degree that really we should have to put medications, you know, on this grading scale. You know, one is a very benign medication, one that potentially has a much higher benefit to risk ratio all the way up to 10, where those are the riskiest drugs. And the benefit is lower than the risk. And that way it would provide patients with an idea that not all pharmaceutical medication is bad. Not all supplements are bad, but there is a whole grading system, you know, and I think it would be very helpful. I know I have a lot of people that are concerned about taking supplements on a daily basis. And I completely understand. I think as we age, melatonin is one of the hormones that really starts dropping off. There's a lot of good things that melatonin does. We have a way of measuring it. You can do a salivary measurement with people, and it's very helpful to get that sort of salivary measurement from people who are waking in the middle of the night to look at salivary cortisol and look at salivary melatonin. Who would go, drive to get their blood drawn, in the middle of the night? But by looking at salivary levels, we're able to see, you know, what, what's going on in the middle of the night. And as people age, our melatonin levels do drop off. I really feel like melatonin can be very useful in some people, and some people don't even realize. I mean, it can increase what we call the lower oesophagal sphincter in the oesophagus. So if people are having a lot of reflux at night, melatonin is helpful and in decreasing reflux at night. 

Linda Elsegood: Hmm. I used to have to take medication for reflux, but since I've changed my diet, that's another medication I've stopped.I don't need to take that anymore. So that was a really big plus.  I think people who can't sleep and then go to bed thinking, I've just taken my LDN, and I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight because I didn't sleep last night and get stressed about it. 

Dr Jackie Silkey: Oh yeah. 

Linda Elsegood: It's a cycle, isn't it, where you're thinking, I can't sleep, I can't sleep.

And that's on your mind when you lay down, and I think. Yeah. You need, I don't know what techniques you tell people when they can't get to sleep. I used to do yoga I meditate and I can, put myself to sleep ordinarily  that way without having to take anything. But just by deep breathing and relaxation and, and that kind of thing. What do you recommend? 

Dr Jackie Silkey: Yes. So I always find out what the person's tried in the past. So I'm not, you know if they haven't tried anything, then yes.  I do always start with trying to learn something that you will have with you, whether you're travelling to Las Vegas or not. You know, I mean, people can't just run out and go and get melatonin in the middle of the night, at 11 o'clock at night,  They're in a  strange environment. So I think that having any sort of programs within our own body that we have at our disposal is by far and away from the best way for us to put those plans into place. A lot of times what I'll have people do is trying to associate some of the meditation techniques that you're talking about, counting backwards, you know, starting at a hundred and counting backwards by three, and really focusing on the breath, doing a, what we call four, seven, eight breathing technique where you breathe in for four, you hold for seven, you blow out to eight, where you're really kind of tying up the mind and trying to get your mind off of, Oh, I really need some sleep tonight. I can't believe this. I didn't sleep well last night. No, it's going to happen again. That sort of cycle that sometimes our brain gets into is very detrimental, and so the more that you can kind of tie-up that aspect of the brain, those racing thoughts, those, Oh, I really should be asleep now. I've got this big radio interview tomorrow—those sort of things,  and, and tying that in with relaxation. If people feel that they, they still cannot sleep. Then, getting up, moving food, different room. You know, I'm reading a very boring book. You know, people don't even talk about trying to, trying to, you know, read a dictionary or something that you would find to be very boring, very mundane. Just again, trying to get your mind on paying attention to something else instead of what you're, what you feel like you should be doing.

And then once you start feeling a little bit fatigued, then you go right straight back, and you lay back down and you stay in that quiet space there. People that try all of the self-regulation techniques and they're still not sleeping well. And for those people that have tried all of those things, obviously we check hormones. I checked melatonin levels. I check progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone. I want to see specifically what sex hormones are doing what their thyroid hormones are doing. Then we go from there  instead of me just basing that on guesses. I like to. Individualize the treatment for the patient based on specifically what sort of issues they're having. Obviously, the treatment for high cortisol at night if somebody is going to sleep is very different than somebody who has hormones that barely work. .Those people need, you know, to consider hormone replacement, whether it be melatonin or progesterone, whatever. 

Linda Elsegood: And that leads me to another question we’re frequently asked now when I go abroad, I always take my LDN before I go to bed.

Regardless of what time zone I'm in, and some people say that they are a night shift worker, should they be taking LDN when they get up? Should they be taking it when they go to bed? Does it matter? How would you address that question? 

Dr Jackie Silkey: Well, I addressed the question of we don't really know whether it matters or not. What I tell people is that we have to get to a point to where you're a responder. So that's my initial goal is to start people on it, to get them to be a responder. Not to say, well, you know, you must be, you know, that percentage of people that don't respond and how do we get you to be a responder to LDN?

Once I know that you are responding to it, then I say, you know, now we get a chance to see if it makes a difference in you because it may not make a difference in you whether you're taking it. At the same exact time every day, or whether you're taking it right before bed, whatever time that is, whether it be one o'clock in the morning or 8:00 AM but you, you don't really know how that person until you get them to be a responder. But once they respond, then I think people will tell you that, you know?  I think this is where journaling like you were talking about, journaling can play a significant role. And there's the LDN app, as you know, which can be very, very helpful. And in and helping people out you know, the symptoms that they're having and what sort of symptom improvement that they're having. t I tell people, don't get so hung up on having to take it. Before bed that you end up missing a dose or you know, take it. When you feel like that, you're going to remember every single day to take it.  I like the idea of taking it before bed because I like to think about all of the hormones that are going through our brain and, you know, increasing growth hormone and, and trying to optimize the brain to provide healing hormones to the rest of the body. But,  I find if that is a stumbling block to somebody taking all the end, then I would much rather they be taking it at other times the day.

Then I'm not taking it at all. And for some people too, you know, you can find out that the right dose, you know? I've had some people that I've changed over to twice a day dosing if they weren't getting a good response with once a day, dosing. So it varies from person to person, just like all of medicine, you know?

Linda Elsegood: I'm going to have to stop you there. We've come to an end. I'm sure we could have gone on for another couple of hours. It's a joy and a pleasure to talk to you now for our listeners if they would like to come and see you or a consultation, how did they go about doing that? 

Dr Jackie Silkey: They can just call the office or send me a quick email and we can talk about scheduling that appointment either in person or online or something.

Linda Elsegood: We haven't yet told them how, where your office. 

Dr Jackie Silkey: Our office is just north of Salt Lake City. It's in a city called Keysville, Utah. And the office number is area code (801) 882-2200. An, the website is www Utah functional med.com. 

Linda Elsegood: And thank you very much for being with us today.

Dr Jackie Silkey: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Linda Elsegood: Any questions or comments you may have, please email Linda, L I N Dat, LDN.org I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for joining us today. We really appreciate your company. Until next time, stay safe.

Today's show sponsor is  Care First specialty pharmacy by leading compounders of LDN and other custom treatments servicing patients in over 18 States, coast to coast. That is why they are accredited to provide you with the highest quality to mandate by the industry and the expert service. You expect to learn more.

Call eight (448) 227-3790, visit CFS pharmacy.com.

Dr Deanna Windham, LDN Radio Show (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Dr Deanna Windham shares her Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) experience on the LDN Radio Show with Linda Elsegood.

Dr Deanna Windham currently works in the Whisker Wellness Institute in California, the United States. She and her institute first heard of Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) around 12 years ago while establishing their adjunctive cancer treatment program.

However, the process by which she could obtain LDN was difficult. Nevertheless, Dr Bihari phoned Dr Windham to explain the many benefits LDN can have for cancer patients.

At her institute, Dr Windham has established a tried-and-tested prescription program of LDN to ensure that each individual patient starts on the correct dosage of LDN for them personally in order to reap the best possible benefits.

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

Dr Brian Udell on Low Dose Naltrexone, LDN Radio Show 17 May 2017 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Today our guest would be Dr. Brian Udell who is the medical director of the Child Development Center of America in Florida.

Linda Elsegood: Thank you for joining us today Dr. Brian Udell!

Dr Brian Udell: Thank you for having me.

We're really looking forward to hearing your experience with LDN for Autism. First of all, when did you first hear about LDN?

Dr Brian Udell: I heard about LDN through the, at the time it was called the Defeat Autism Now Protocol. It was called the Dan movement, which started many years ago, in the late 1960s, and that was the first time that the doctors tried to do anything medical to address the Autism that they were seeing.

First of all, it was a very rare disease. Right now in the United States, one in 68 children have it and 2% of boys. So it's five times as prevalent in boys than girls. So 2% of the boys in the United States that have AASD diagnosis. At the time, I first started I think it was one in 110 and the Autism Research Institute became the next version of Defeat Autism Now. And in that time, treatments such as this were beginning to be offered to patients. Previous to the 1970s It was considered to be a psychological, psychiatric disease and it was due to mothers and their refrigerator moms theory was the idea that it was psychological due to lack of love on the caretakers part. And that was actually first proposed by Leo Connor in 1940, and then it was popularized by a self-taught psychologist named Bruno Bettelheim in the fifties and sixties and so that really impeded any kind of understanding for years of what was going on in these children.

And so LDN in 2006 Dr. McCandless, who was a paediatrician wrote her paper in 2006 and a number of us. I  first tried it in 2009 when a patient was in high dose and actually had some effect. But I didn't really recognize how great it could do for patients until about three years later as Low Dose Naltrexone when I rediscovered with the rest of the Autism Research Institute community the use of Low Dose Naltrexone in Autism.

Linda Elsegood: And why do you think that the cases of Autism have increased so greatly?

Dr Brian Udell: There can't be anything like a genetic epidemic. Would be impossible that the two terms are mutually exclusive.

So then it has to be environmental. And in any environmental issue, it's going to act on susceptible individuals. So it is genetic in the sense that susceptive and everyone when the play happened, everyone didn't die the plague, somebody was more susceptible. Very few were not susceptible but the ones that were not were the survivors. So right now we have a toxic environment and susceptible individuals. Obviously, boys are five times more susceptible than girls, so they get five times as many premature babies. There are more and more susceptible babies that are born with congenital anomalies.

Babies born with a genetic, anomalies are more susceptible, but it's that susceptibility whatever the environment is and that's the key is what it is in the environment that's causing havoc. As a paediatrician and a doctor who's a baby doctor for 40 years,

the main things that I see different in the medical environment are a baby's having a lot of reflux. Babies don't breastfeed. If there's anything that parents should attune to now is doctors understand breastfeeding and when a baby doesn't breastfeed, sometimes it's not because they have an allergy or because the mother's milk isn't coming as soon as the baby's not sucking hard enough.

And then the next thing is they have reflux. That's a very common thing that I didn't see in the previous century. And then the next thing It's one or two years of life they have ear infections, which again, I didn't see. I saw plenty of ear infections in my life, but it didn't happen in the first couple of years of life.

And so for the year infections, we give antibiotics, and for everything, we give antibiotics now. And if there's one different thing in the environment that would be the biggest thing is the use of antibiotics. And the second biggest thing is using antacids to stop baby reflux, which is just a total misunderstanding.

And I believe that that starts in the susceptible individual. Many of my cases start with that problem and then it steamrolls into bigger problems that appear in the central nervous system. But as a little baby, if your stomach is hurting all the time and you're refluxing all the time and you have a bad bacteria or organisms in your gut, then the only thing you're going to do is cry. So all it's going to present as in little babies is a really fussy baby who doesn't pay attention. That doesn't get broken until some doctor figures out that that child has been seen by an immunologist and an allergist and a skin doctor, in an ear, nose, and throat doctor.

And the paediatrician can't figure out why the kid's not talking all of a sudden. The effect that I see as being the biggest cause if there's such a thing as a cause.

Linda Elsegood: How old are children when they can be diagnosed with Autism?

Dr Brian Udell: That's a great question. I was a neonatologist, the premature baby doctor and so I saw this in the seventies and eighties a lot of drug and alcohol addicted babies. And I was also the director of the followup clinic until they were three years old for the city. And then in the late eighties and nineties, I mostly saw HIV positive babies.

And I also saw them until they were three years old for the followup clinics. Those years, my first case of Autism was 1975. I knew what autism looked like. Autism is not being misdiagnosed as previously being called mental retardation. Mental retardation is different from a different medical condition. As a matter of fact, most of the children that we see, if they really have a diagnosis of Autism, they're at least normal in many times, above normal intelligence. What happened is that I was interested in trying to help the kids that look like they had medical problems.

I forgot what the beginning of that question was.

Linda Elsegood: Well, if a parent is concerned that their baby has got that.

Dr Brian Udell: So then I started the clinic just for Autism. That's how I got into that. I was doing clinics for babies who weren't developing correctly.

And so I started a clinic in 2008 just for Autism. We would see children between the ages of two to five. The city wasn't seeing them if they were much older than three in my case but the diagnosis in 2008 was really made in five-year-olds. It was rarely made in two and three-year-olds.

I got to see more and more children, and I've seen over 2000 children now with kind of developmental delays. You start to see the second sibling of that child and then it becomes just, or the older sibling, frankly, and it just becomes just as important to me to see how early I can catch it in that second sibling.

Of course, the first question that comes up is the kid going to get childhood inoculations because that's the worry that the parent has. That's why I start seeing them so young. I've seen a good number of those kids. I believe that by the age of six months, there's a certain set that I can see.

Now, there are children who don't get it until the age of 15 to 18 months of developing perfectly, normally.  And then at 18 months, things start going bad. That's what we're told. I can usually tell by the time a child is six to nine months whether I should worry and I do start to intervene.

Yesterday I saw a child, the younger sibling, and she was just under two years old. She wasn't talking, she was walking, she was making good eye contact, everything looks nice, and I wasn't happy with that development and everything else was fine in that child. So sometimes it's a little later, but I would like to think that since I was a neonatologist, I was a premature baby doctor, I'd like to think that I can usually tell by the time they're nine months old. Their tone is already very low. They're not making eye contact. They're not having a responsive eye contact. They usually have another medical problem that's been going on, either diarrhoea or constipation or some feeding problem, and they're not crawling correctly between six and nine months.

A whole book was written a couple of years ago about the earliest diagnosis and the author spent two or three chapters talking about the crawl being abnormal. So if a doctor wants to be stewed about it and really look hard, they might see it that young.

Linda Elsegood: And the military, the question. You mentioned vaccinations there. I'm really pleased that I don't have to make vaccinations.

Dr Brian Udell: I didn't say vaccinations.

Linda Elsegood: Sorry. I said vaccinations. Okay. Inoculations.

Dr Brian Udell: I said childhood inoculate. It is a hard subject.

Linda Elsegood: Yes, it is but children and parents have that decision to make. And as I was saying, my children grew up, so I don't have that dilemma anymore. But if you have a baby you have to make a decision.

Dr Brian Udell: Soon in the US it won't be the parents' decision either. In California, practically it's not at all. I don't know what it's like in other countries. Maybe in your country, it would even because of socialized medicine, maybe they could even make it more forceful, but you can't go to school if you're not vaccinated in California. Now I don't know that it's about panels for decision anymore, which is another all topic on it. But what can I say?

Go ahead.

Linda Elsegood: No, carry on.

Dr Brian Udell: There's no right answer. We were fighting in the United States alone is a $4 billion a year industry. People get murdered for less money than that.  Dr Andrew Wakefield, I think the man is a gentleman and a scholar, and he's vilified.

You can't write an article about anything that has to do with Autism nowadays and not mentioned the devil, dr Wakefield, is wonderful gentlemen and just trying to help everybody. And just that alone keeps physicians like me from talking much about it. I have 10% of my patients that have a picture of the child before the vaccination and a picture of the child after the vaccination and it's a different child. And that means 90% of my patients, and I've seen, like I say, over 2000, 90% of them don't think it's the vaccination. So it's not in everybody. But as I said in the beginning, it's the susceptible child with the environmental stimulus. And for some people that could be an environmental stimulus.

Unless you believe that all vaccinations are good for all children all the time, and that would be an impossible statement. So it would beg the issue, it would beg the question, which vaccinations for which children went and no study got, and there's not even something close to that.

The best thing I can do when they put for booster shots is I can check tastes called titers.

I can check the moon immune titers to see if the children are already immune to measles, mumps, rubella for example, the MMR shot. And I've checked about three dozen so far in the last year, and every single one of those children has numbers that are flagged by the lab as extremely hot, okay.

That means that that person could kiss a person with the disease and not get it. And my question to the public health departments is, how do you give someone who's allergic to peanuts. Peanuts you don't because they're allergic to peanuts because they have a reaction to it. We are just in no man's land with this. Snd I don't know if there are listeners who think that I'm anti vacs, which I'm not. I'm 66 years old, and I had to stay indoors in the summertime because of the polio scare. That's what happened in the 1950s In the summer. It was big. And so I recognized the value of vaccination.

I also recognize the weakness of the science and just when our colleagues just keep saying the science is clear, the science that is far from clear. When they're really faced with that science, usually they'll say, well, I see what you're talking about. That's about the best you'll get.

Usually, you get people rolling their eyes.

Linda Elsegood: And when you see a small child that you think may be susceptible to having Autism, what steps can you take to try and prevent the Autism from developing?

Dr Brian Udell: Right. The first thing is finding out if they have a medical problem at the time.

So a child who has diarrhoea or constipation or frequent rashes where frequent illnesses, that kid is an immunologic, sort of a no man's land. He needs to have an immune system evaluated and gotten on a steady keel. The diet is important. When you see that, that's a child that you start to worry about, and if you can move it in the right direction.

I see these younger children, younger siblings already diagnosed autistic patients. And as soon as they show any of these signs, we address their diarrhoea, we address them constantly and their nutrition.

And if I have a question I usually get a blood count on the kids. I'll get a couple of labs when that young child, and you know, this is something in other countries, in the South American countries when I get patients from there, they do a lot more laboratory testing than the US. I don't know if the UK does it at all, but we don't know if these children are anaemic.

We don't know. And here in the United States, a huge amount of vitamin D deficiency you correct that. The women are walking around, and they say, well, my doctor told me how to vitamin D. Well, if you have a low vitamin D, your kid has a low vitamin D. It did transfer any to the kid, and they don't go outside as often.

And then you have low vitamin D levels. So that's optimizing nutrition, optimizing their health. And it makes me feel a lot better. And if I have a question, as I say, some laboratory work will make me say: "Why don't you wait a few months? Why don't you ask the doctor to just give seven at a time instead of 14 at a time?"

Linda Elsegood: Okay. Well, we'll just have a quick break, and we'll be back in just a moment.

The LDN 2017 conference will be held in Portland, Oregon in the US 22nd to the 24th of September. If you aren't able to attend in person we'll bring the conference to you regardless of where you live. You can participate via our live stream. Check out www.ldntwentyseventeen.com for early bird discounts.

The conference will examine life-changing breakthroughs for treating Multiple Sclerosis, Crohn's disease, Colitis. Autism, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Lupus, Fibromyalgia, Rheumatoid Arthritis, chronic pain, mental health issues, Restless Leg Syndrome, and many other conditions using Low Dose Naltrexone. For tickets, slide stream and sponsorship opportunities. Go to www.ldntwentyseventeen.com

Today's show sponsored by CareFirst speciality pharmacy, leading compounders of LDN and other custom treatment serving patients in other 18 states coast to coast. They're credited to provide you with the highest quality to market by the industry and the expert service you expect. To learn more call 844 822 7379 or visit www.cfspharmacy.com

Welcome back! The question that parents are always asking is "What dosage do you give a child? How do you work out what the optimum dose is?"

Dr Brian Udell: One of the interesting things about Naltrexone is it's almost the same dose for everybody. So it's hard to believe that I get results in a 15-year-old or a 20-year-old and I almost get the same result in a three-year-old with 3mg after 9:00 PM.

Sometime I'd like to give it as late as I can in the night so the cream is great for me. First of all, children don't have a choice. And second of all, they're already asleep after 9:00 PM. and that's the dose. If I'm really worried about one of those young children under 18 months, and their immune system looks like it's kind of a mess, I want to see what kind of improvement we could see with naltrexone  I may only start them with 1,5 mg or 2 mg every night. But the highest I go right now in a bigger person is 4,5 mg as a single dose or 3 mg at night, 3mgs in the morning, which I was surprised to get results from that.

Through the years now going up higher doesn't get us any better results. And frankly, I don't exactly understand what the mechanism is, why the second dose is helping them. I suspect it's helping more in a different sort of physiologic mechanism than the rise of endorphins because the parents will say: "If I don't give that morning dose, they don't seem the same."

That would be something that I'd love to see studied and I'm sure that what you're doing and the people that you're involved with would be great if there were some studies because as I'm saying,  that 3 mg dose do take care of people who don't have autism. They have other immunologic conditions and get a lot of relief with that 3 mg dose.  Higher than 4,5 mg at one time has never been helpful. And more than 3 and 3 have not been helpful either.

Linda Elsegood: And how long does it normally take before you notice that LDN is working?

Dr Brian Udell: The quickest I'll see is in the first week but depends on what I'm looking for. The original article by dr McCandless was "The use of Low Dose Naltrexone for immune modulation and mood regulation." So we are using it for two different reasons so if I'm using it right for mood regulation, we'll usually see that in the first week to say three or four weeks, and that's why a parent will continue it. Or a parent may stop it after three or four weeks, and this is rare. Most of our parents continue it, but they may stop it because what we were looking for was the mood regulation.

Now, if we're doing it for immune modulation, then I asked the parents: "How many times a year does the kid gets sick?" Usually, they get an infection or cold every other month and so I'll say: " Okay, so let's do it for three months." And then we'll look back, and we'll see whether or not, in this last three months the kid never got sick, which is what I see practically all the time. So usually the parents that see their modulation improvement that is, he stopped getting sick,  keep giving it for years because they just don't want the kids to get sick. And, and the ones that are given it for mood regulation, we'll do it until some other mood problem comes along. What'll happen is that's usually for about a year, that they'll see it's working, and then they may say that's not working and there are other psychological issues that are coming in, but that's usually how I do that.

The people that have autism have a lot of different symptoms.

The three core features of autism are speech delay, repetitive behaviours and social isolation. If that speech delay takes the form of speech apraxia that is,  they really don't say anything at all and they are two, three, four years old then we have only a very few protocols that have been proven to instigate speech. And those protocols are very sort of stimuli as we call. When an autistic person flaps, jumps or does repetitive things, we call that stimming self-stimulatory behaviour and I believe that a lot of that behaviour is communication. So if I can make them talk more, they could stymie less. So in order to get those protocols on board, I use Naltrexone even if the parents don't notice that there's a particular problem with mood regulation or immune modulation.

I'm using it in preparation of giving supplements that will sort of wake up the brain a lot and so I use the LDN so that they won't be so hyperactive.

Linda Elsegood: And how long does that take to notice that?

Dr Brian Udell: I don't know. I don't let it get noticed so well. I usually just do a protocol where I tell the parents the child is not speaking and are very hyperactive.

The two protocols have to do with methylation.  MTHFR is a big thing that many of your audience members who know about LDN probably know about the MTHFR gene. So we excite that gene. We get that gene work harder with either methyl B12 or methyl folate, glucosamine, antioxidant products. And those products tend to make patients even more hyperactive, less attention may be even more aggressive. So I'll start the child on Naltrexone for three weeks, and then the fourth week of the Naltrexone I start whatever protocol I picked to get speech started. And I don't know. Again, I'm a clinician.

I don't do studies. I found Naltrexone to be successful doing it that way and that I'm more successful getting children to speak because, for a child who's not speaking, who's three and a half, four years old, regardless of their behaviour,  the important thing over that next year is going to find some way to get them to start to talk because if they don't really talk under the age of seven there's going to be significant ongoing problems and there aren't protocols that necessarily help that.

Linda Elsegood: Okay. Are there any foods or drinks that children shouldn't be given if they are having development problems?

Dr Brian Udell: Do you live in a small village? I don't know how many McDonald's are within five minutes of you but  the worst thing I hear in my practice is when a parent says: " I can't pass that McDonald's without going in."

Okay. That drives me crazy because as far as I know, the parent is the one driving, not the kid and of course, a dad can pass them.  So just start a healthy diet and stop eating processed foods whether or not gluten-free, casein-free. It depends on what country you're in.

All the gluten in the United States has been exposed to a fair amount of glyphosate and pesticides. And I think the reason that so many people feel so much better when they're gluten-free, maybe is not to be the gluten, but it may be the pesticides and likewise in the children who seem to improve when they're taken off the gluten.

That's one part of it. And then the other part of it is the casein. And the feeling is that the casein can be allergenic or it can lower the immune response. And I test for that.

So when parents ask, what's the best diet,  my answer is,  in this century, there is the capability to tell parents exactly what diet your child should be on to not have an immune response. So the best diet starts with a healthy diet with not a lot of steroids and not a lot of antibiotics.

Over here, that's called a natural diet. If a parent wants to test for food immunity, I think it's a valuable test. The test that is usually done around the world is an immunoglobulin E test. They're testing for a scratch test or something that would cause you to get a rash or the hives or allergies, like a stuffy snuff nose. What I'm testing for is IgG antibodies, which are antibodies that your body has to get rid of it. So it's not that big antibody response to the milk, let's say, is the thing causing the problem.

The antibody response is using up energy, and these kids come in with very low tone, very low activity and the tone that seems to be the lowest is in the midline and, speech is affected. So it starts with a good diet, a healthy good diet. I can't stress enough that if I have a breastfed child that is autistic, that didn't mean that the breast milk didn't work. When I see a breastfed child who's autistic, I can tell the parents, you prevented a lot of the other signs and symptoms of autism by breastfeeding your child. So I see children who breastfeed as long as three years, believe it or not, and they may have autism, but it's not as significant as their siblings who only breastfed for a month. And the mother was more determined maybe the second time to do that.  And frankly, it starts in utero. It's not just the food that the mothers eat. They have to take the correct vitamins and not too many vitamins. They can have a vitamin D deficiency, and  there may be doctors that are listening or patients that hear this, but my object to any kind of drugs given during pregnancy end up in the fetus. Parents and saying:" Well, the mom has enough anxiety and it's better to give her Prozac than to have the anxiety." And I point to the 3 million years prior to Prozac that moms had babies, and there were plenty of hard times through those 3 million years, and we didn't have Autism.

So I object to any kind of medication. Tylenol during pregnancy can be a big factor leading to it. It uses glutathione, and the baby has to supply glutathione to the mother. When I started doing babies in the 1970s, people were actually telling me that cocaine wasn't going to cost harm the baby. There's no way that a drug doesn't get into the fetus, and, if it works on our brain, how can it not work on a forming fetal brain? So it really even starts with that. And then it actually starts two generations past. There are people who look at the flora of grandparents.

They're looking at smoking and the grandparents as being related to the second generation problems. So it's sort of a lifestyle that you want to live that might get us away from this epidemic.

Linda Elsegood: What about giving children cows milk?

Dr Brian Udell: At the end of his career and his life, Dr.

Frank Oskie, who was one of the premier paediatricians of the 20th century, wrote a book that I think probably got a kick out of being a paediatrician. And the book that he wrote was, "Don't drink your milk."

He felt that was causing a lot of allergies and asthma that he hadn't seen in previous centuries because he had seen the growth of infant formula in his lifetime from the 1940s. It wasn't really until the forties and fifties that women really got started using the formula all the time which is all cows milk-based.

Cows, milk protein carries a lot of potential problems of the allergic responses. And I see thousands of them every year I tested. I test thousands of allergic responses, and I would say casein, which is proteins in milk and then the sugar is lactose, and then there's water.

So I see much more casein intolerance than lactose intolerance. Lactose is the sugar and I don't think that we're intolerant, especially babies to the lactose. The best substitute, if you can't use human milk, goats milk.

Goat's milk may be number two on my best list. It's not camels, and it's not cow. Obviously, camel and cow have a lot of the same protein to our bodies.

Linda Elsegood: As children become toddlers, parents sometimes to keep their children quiet, give them what we call sweets, or you'd call candy giving children sugar. How is that affect children?

Dr Brian Udell: Dr. Flamingo was a genius.

There were studies, prospectively randomized, double-blind controlled studies it would be hard to do but it is high fructose corn syrup and that is poison.

Anything that has a number in front of it is not food.

I worry more about the high fructose corn syrup has a fair amount of lead in it. And it's not a natural food. So refined sugar has been around. I try to look at things that weren't around before.  I'm old, and I took care of kids for 25 years in the previous century, and I've taken care of kids for 17 years now in this century, and there are certain things that just don't make sense to me.

High fructose corn syrup wasn't around in the old days, and we didn't have autism. And I was there when ADHD started happening until the seventies or eighties. By then, they were putting in artificial colours, artificial flavours, steroids in the animals, antibiotics in the animals.

Dr Feingold Diet which is a low sugar is a very healthy diet. I think should be followed by everyone. If you were to do a study about sugar, I would be more interested in doing a Skittle study, Skittles are these things M&Ms that were colouring one  and are a lot worse for children. But a lot of times I'll have a mother who says he gets crazy every time he gets sugar. It's like, so why would you give them sugar? To me, you don't have to get a study for that.

Do you think I should give them sugar? No, I think you shouldn't. If it hurts when you do that, don't do that.

Linda Elsegood: I just have one more quick break, and we'll be back in just a moment.

To listen to individual radio shows and interviews go to www.mixcloud.com/ldnrt.

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Wellcome back! And today we have Dr. Brian Udell with us and it has been amazing all the information that you've given us. So we've talked about what autism is and the use of LDN, and you also use LDN, as you were saying, for other conditions. How effective have you found LDN to be in autoimmune conditions?

Dr Brian Udell: The autoimmune conditions that I deal with other than some that cause what people call Autism,  are Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, Systemic Lupus, general allergies all the time, they have asthma, some kind of reactive airway disease problem and I find it to be great at a first-line. When I give it for a lot of immune conditions, either the drug that they're on can be lowered or at least they don't go up on the drug that they're on. I mean, Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis is a

pretty severe condition and my child, who has and takes Methotrexate which is a really strong drug, he finds that it, without the Naltrexone, his days are very much harder to deal with. So, I think it's an adjunct.

I think that it's not the be-all and end-all for an autoimmune condition but it certainly can be a beginning, or it can be an adjunct for kids. Some autism, we now measure these antibodies in their brain, and we're now able to measure without doing a spinal tap, antibodies binding and blocking antibodies in their brain that could be causing  5 to 10% of autism. And so even if the autoimmune condition that I'm helping is asthma, and I have a child who has autism and asthma, a lot of children who have autism have other autoimmune conditions.  And so just by giving them the Naltrexone for whatever I'm getting either immune modulation or mood regulation, the parent will say that they don't get their attacks as often as they used to, or that if they forget to give it, they run out, they wish they had it. Again, I'm not specific in it because it's a clinical practice, but if sort of amazes me the worry, the concern that some people have about Low Dose Naltrexone. I think It's been a godsend for my practice.

I don't have to give it for a lot of reasons. I don't have to give anywhere nearly the amount of drugs that everybody else has to give, I don't have to give repeated courses of antibiotics because they don't get sick as much. So the LDN helps that. I don't have to give a stimulant medication because the child's focus is better or I don't have to give antianxiety medication because the kids settled down.

All these things have turned out to be great, and I practically give it to all my children, ADHD and ASD and autism because to me is so safe. The two biggest side effects that I see are about 1 in 20 of the children that get it will have a little hyper from the stuff and last for two or three days sometimes. I usually ask the parents to start it on a weekend night, on a Friday night or Saturday nights so many hyperactivity gets away by the time Monday comes around. And about 1 in 20 that the hyperactivity sort of continues weeks into it, and the parent doesn't want to do it anymore,

I'll try lowering the dose from 3 to 2 or 3 to 1,5 mgs. The number of people who don't continue it, only about 10 to 20%. Everybody else just continues to get it. And that's sort of an underlying thing that I'm always giving. And then I don't have the question of." I wish I was giving that too." because what traditional medicine does is, we drop a big bomb from the top Adderall or Ritalin or Abilify Risperidone.

We drop these big bombs from the top, and we see what's happen until the smoke clears to the patient. What I'm trying to do is add vitamins and supplements to take away foods that might be causing the problem. To me, the safety of the Naltrexone is, that is the only thing that it will stop it if they get too hyper. The only other problem I ever have in it is maybe 1% of kids will get a little rash. We ask them to rub it on their wrists and somewhere thin where it'd be absorbed. So 1% of kids might get a rash and usually the rash is due to the vehicle that they're mixing it in.

And I ask the pharmacist to change whatever the vehicle is. I don't have a problem so far in this. Thousands that I've given to children. One child who turned out that was allergic to Naltrexone because we put it in pill form and he got high and the highest went away when I stopped the Naltrexone. So I just see it as a wonderful treatment because it has such a high safety index and it works in so many cases that it's almost a crime that it's not tried more. I'm an allopathic doctor, I'm board-certified and everything.

and I can only figure that they don't try because nobody's making money off it. It's a very inexpensive thing and maybe that's the reason.

Linda Elsegood: And you were saying that when diagnosing a child, they usually have stomach upset, diarrhoea. Do you find that the LDN helps with that?

Dr Brian Udell: I don't know. I wouldn't address one without the other anyway. None of my patients who are on LDN aren't on something for their gut anyway because especially in the US their guts are totally poisoned, and they have to be on some kind of probiotic, they have to be on some kind of an antioxidant and in their gut. I really don't know if the LDN by itself helps. The only way I would ever know is if a patient ran out of the probiotics. I recently had one patient ran out of the probiotic, but continued the LDN and the kid's gut was okay when she came and saw me. So maybe it held things together, but I don't give it a chance. I like it so much.

Linda Elsegood: I was only just wondering because it's used in pediatric Crohn's and so on. So I just thought maybe it would help.

Dr Brian Udell: And that's interesting because they don't choose probiotics in Crohn's.

You'll find a lot of kids in Crohn's who aren't on a probiotic or who haven't had their gut flora checked, and they're not on maybe the correct antibiotic that they should be in their gut. They have C diff growing in their gut, and they're calling it Crohn's, you know? And so I'm glad that it could work by itself. It shouldn't be by itself in a Crohn's patient.

Linda Elsegood: Yes.

Dr Brian Udell: That's just my little opinion.

Linda Elsegood: Well, we got you as a speaker at our conference in September, so I know there are many doctors who would like to discuss LDN in children with you.

Dr Brian Udell: I'm looking forward to it. I really am. You guys have been great to me.

Linda Elsegood: But it's sharing that knowledge, isn't it? That is just so amazing.

Dr Brian Udell: I didn't know it was given to adults and you told me you weren't sure that it was giving little kids for autism.

Yeah, sharing knowledge.

Linda Elsegood: Exactly. And bringing all the people together. And the Q&A sessions I think are so much fun at the conference with all the experts pull all the knowledge together.

Dr Brian Udell: And I think the people who attend really get a sense of, they get empowered with a lot of knowledge.

Linda Elsegood: Yes. And there was one doctor who had notepads there last year and she filled two notepads with information, whether she's actually read it all or not.

Dr Brian Udell: She can do your next book.

Linda Elsegood: Yes.  And you've got an hour prerecorded, which we still have to do when you have time. If you can get your PowerPoint together then tell me and we'll record the audio. The title is "Low Dose Naltrexone and the Autism spectrum disorder". Last year you had 30 minutes live, which was nowhere near long enough, so you've even got less this time.

So that means it will be turned into a video and it's available for everybody for a year to watch as many times as they like, and they'll be able to download your PowerPoint. As you know doctors love the PowerPoints to go through and check.

It's a quick way of  doing it and the information you give help and guidance to doctors is amazing. So thank you very much for everything that you do and all those children that you treat. It's amazing. And last year we had the little boy who played the piano, Jacob. What an amazing little boy. He sat down and everybody just sort of stood there. I don't know whether they were expecting him to play chopsticks or something, but it was truly amazing.

Dr Brian Udell: He keeps moving along in his career.

Linda Elsegood: Can you just tell us very briefly of what LDN did for Jacob?

Dr Brian Udell: Sure. It take place when he was about four years old when I met him, and he just had a new little sister. His biggest problem was, I don't know if he didn't like her crying or he was jealous of her.

He wasn't talking. He was developing slowly. But the parents started to get scared that he was going to hurt her. He was very aggressive, abusive self-injurious on others. So when he came to see me, it was because the regular medical community used to give strong drugs to stop the negative behaviour.  We don't do anything to find out why they have negative behaviour. He wasn't really autistic at the time. I saw him but all he ever did was scream and hit.

The mother wanted me to use B12 because everybody reads that B12 helps speech and I do use a lot of  B12 shot in my practice, but he was so aggressive that I felt that I gave him B12 at that time he may increase the risk that he could hurt somebody. So we started him on the Naltrexone. Then his mother was not necessarily on board on that and within days he told his mother he loved her and his life turned around.

And then within a couple more days,this is obviously just one case, she heard the piano playing, and she thought it was her husband. But she thought he's not that good. And it was her son playing the piano, and it turned out that he's a prodigy. He just was listening all those years and looking, and then that's how he got it. I thought it was an amazing story.

Linda Elsegood: Absolutely amazing. And I interviewed her and she said that all he was doing was,  slapping her around the face all the time. She kept telling him, "I love you, Jacob."  Even though it was difficult sometimes, and then as you say, one day he just turned around, and I hugged her and kissed her and said, and I love you, mommy.

And she called for her husband to get the video camera and said:" I'm going to save it in case he never ever says it again we will have it to look back on." But it was amazing to hear him playing. It was as though somebody in their forties that had been playing classical music.

Dr Brian Udell: And I can tell you that is not uncommon in my practice. I have more talented kids in my practice now than in any practice I've ever had.

I've had several different kinds of children, and they were very good artists, musicians, speakers. One was a public speaker. He can't speak when he's by himself.  He stutters, and he doesn't do things but then when he starts doing public speaking, it's perfect. It's amazing how the brain works.

Linda Elsegood: And I think the takeaway message here is if your child has been diagnosed with autism or ADHD or anything like that, or it's a development problem, then it's not the end of the world. There are things and treatments and doctors like yourself that they can consult with.

And how do they contact you, Brian?

Dr Brian Udell: My organization is a child development centre of America, and my blog that I write every week is TheAutismDoctor.com.

And it's free, and you don't have to register. My purpose is to get the word out there, just like you said in a lot of my blogs, I just want the parent to take it to the paediatrician and say, what do you think about this?

And the organization around the world that we all belong to is called The Medical Academy of Pediatric Special Needs which is where we train. So we go twice a year, and we spend three days, eight to 10 hours a day, three days in a row learning about the basic science and Autism from each other. So that's a good place if you're not seeing me.

Linda Elsegood: Well, thank you very much. Our time is up, and it was an honour and a privilege to have you here with us today. The LDN research trust Facebook group has almost 18,000 members around the world.

It is a great place to start your research, connect with others, www.facebook.com/groups/LDNRT

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Linda Elsegood: 
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.

 

Linda Elsegood: I'd like to introduce Darlene from the United States who takes LDN. Thank you for joining me, Darlene.

Darlene: I had lupus for many years and started back when I was raising my young children, and I felt fatigued and feel all the time. So I found the LDN.

Linda Elsegood: Before we start Darlene, what are the conditions do you have?

What autoimmune conditions that you use LDN for?

Darlene: Well, I use it for Myasthenia Gravis also, another autoimmune disease.

Linda Elsegood: And do you said about Raynaud's syndrome?

Darlene: I couldn't take it for that. I haven't really seen any results from that.

Linda Elsegood: And do you have IBS as well. Is that right?

Darlene: Yes. They said I would need a lower dose for that, but I've tried the lower dose, and it helps the IBS. I don't get the benefit for Lupus.

Linda Elsegood: Ok. So how old were you when you had the Lupus?

Darlene: It started when I was about 29 years old.

Linda Elsegood: And what symptoms did you have at that time?

Darlene: Just feeling ill and weak like you had the flu or fever but didn't run a fever.

Linda Elsegood: That must've been very difficult with young children.

Darlene: Oh, it was terrible.

And I would go to the doctor, and he couldn't find anything wrong with me. "Oh, you're just feeling bad." Everybody would try to blame it on nerves, depression and it took ten years for them to find a diagnosis.

Linda Elsegood: And what were you offered once you had your diagnosis?

Darlene: They said it was Lupus, Systemic Lupus and put me on the Prednisone and all different drugs,

which didn't really help or do any good for me.

Linda Elsegood: And how long were you before you had these other autoimmune conditions?

Darlene: So my opinion? It was about 20 years then I had Lupus.

So I really didn't respond to anything else.

Linda Elsegood: And how many years was it from first being ill to having heard about LDN? How many years in between?

Darlene: Oh, I didn't hear about LDN until 2009, and I started with Lupus in 1989 when I was diagnosed. So that would be 20 years.

Linda Elsegood: So in those 20 years, what was your health like just before you found LDN?

Darlene: If I planned anything, I would get sick, and my family thought I was just sick all the time, but I would feel well some days, and then other days I'd feel sick.

So every time we'd plan something, we'd have to cancel because I'd get a flare of the Lupus. And I didn't feel well. So we had to cancel our plan. I went around like that, just raising my kids and living that way for 20 years.

Linda Elsegood: And what would you say your quality of life was like at that point with ten being the best?

 Darlene: Probably two or three. And then when I got the Myasthenia Gravis, it got even worse. The weakness was worse. I had some days where I couldn't get out of bed. I couldn't walk. I had to use a wheelchair. Couldn't walk distances at all. And some days I would crawl to the bathroom from the bed would be so weak I couldn't lift up a fork to eat.

And that was also in Myasthenia Gravis when that came. So then I had two diseases. I did get the thymus removed for the Myasthenia Gravis because I ended up getting a fibroid cancer to make a long story short. They said they would remove the thymus then along with the fibroid because I had wanted to find this out because they say you improve and it helped them somewhat, but not a whole lot.

Then after that, I still had flares of Lupus and the MG, whatever it was because they just called it the lupus syndrome because I didn't know which one it was bothering me. I tried to treat Lupus with all the lupus medicines and none of them worked for me. None of them helped. Then one day I got an email about the LDN and so I thought: "Wow, check it out."

So I started looking on the web and saw that people were really getting well with MS. And there were a couple of Lupus patients on there. So I said, "Well, why not? I haven't got anything to lose. Try it."

Linda Elsegood: How easy was it to get the prescription?

Darlene: Well, it wasn't too bad. I talked to Crystal on the internet to find a doctor in my area.

And of course, my Rheumatologists didn't know anything about it, but I went to the doctor in my area. He was a regular internist, and he gave me the prescription right away.

Linda Elsegood: And when you first started, did you notice any introductory side effects?

Darlene: I noticed no side effects at all for me, but I did notice a great difference in my energy.

I was helping to move my mother. She was moving, and I had lifted boxes and all that. And everyone thought I'd be fit because, with Lupus, you can't do that. And you'll pay the next day, I guess, just like MS. And the next day I wasn't sick. I kept feeling good and kept helping her pack and lift boxes the whole week.

I never got sick. I just felt more energy. It was great, like a miracle overnight for me.

Linda Elsegood: Wow. So how long has he been taking LDN now?

Darlene: I've been taking since 2009. So about five years.

Linda Elsegood: Amazing! So how long did LDN continue to improve your condition?

Darlene: Well, it just kept working, and I haven't had any flares for the six years.

I even went through a lot of stress with my son because he had leukaemia and was hospitalized since his treatments. It was very stressful, but he came through it, and I came through it without any medicine taking it.

Linda Elsegood: And what would you say your quality of life is like now on that score scale of one to 10, 10 being the highest?

Darlene: Mines at 10. I'm like the difference between night and day. My whole family tells me that. I am a different person because I've been doing things I've never done before. I'm able to do the things a normal person does and I am so thankful for that.

Linda Elsegood: Well, amazing testimony, isn't it?

Darlene: And that's just one email sent to me really changed my whole life to get that drug.

Linda Elsegood: So, what would you say to other people who are thinking about trying LDN, but maybe are a bit sceptical?

Darlene: Well, I can't guarantee it works for everyone. I have heard some people say it didn't work for them, but I don't know the situation or if they tried it long enough or any of the particulars. If I can say it's worth a try because it has little side effects and it doesn't hurt to try it. If you're as sick as I was, you have to try something. I couldn't go on like that.

Linda Elsegood: Well, that's one amazing story! Thank you very much for sharing with us Darlene!

Any questions or comments you may 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!

Sherry - 1st Jan 2020 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Linda Elsegood: Today. I'm joined by Sherry who uses LDN. Thank you for joining me today, Sherry. 

Sherry [00:01:07] Thank you for inviting me. 

Linda Elsegood: [00:01:10] Could you tell our listeners what is it you take LDN for?

Sherry [00:01:16] I have the autoimmune disease, lupus. I have degenerative arthritis and fibromyalgia. These are three of the main concerns in my health, which has caused chronic pain. And it's really brought me to a place of disability, not being able to work and to enjoy life. And my health just kept deteriorating. And so a few months ago I was introduced to the alternative medication of low dose naltrexone. 

Linda Elsegood: [00:02:08] Can we just stop there for a minute? Let's find out first of all, before you found LDN, what was it like, and how long did you have all these conditions? I mean, have you had them all your life? Have they only been the last few years? Start at the beginning of your journey. 

Sherry [00:02:28] probably about 25-30 years ago I started having issues of where I would get a rash all over my body and then begin just feeling really bad and tired, and everything on my body hurt. It would happen maybe two or three times a year, or if I had gotten a virus or a urinary tract infection, I would get these symptoms. And it took several years for it to progress to where I was having these symptoms every month, every two weeks. And it took quite a while for doctors to diagnose the condition as lupus. And it is a progressive type of illness, not like it happens once and then you get better.

It just continued to get worse as I aged, and I developed more degenerative arthritis in my spine and my hands, which also inhibited me from being able to do a lot of physical activity. I was a nurse and you use your hands quite a bit. And that became very difficult to do. And then I started with the chronic muscle pain and fatigue of fibromyalgia that impacted more of my lifestyle. As time went on, I ended up taking early retirement from a job so that I could rest for a little while, and maybe reduce the stress level in my life to see if that would help. I found a job that I could do sitting down and using my computer, but still having to deal with the symptoms of chronic pain, fatigue and then flare-ups from any types of stress or viral illnesses or bacterial illnesses. So it really inhibited my life quite a bit. In 2018, I was awarded a disability determination, and that same year I couldn't do my job anymore even though it was a sit-down job. I just got to where I couldn't do full-time work. It just affected every part of my life, even my extracurricular activities within the community or with church or friends. 

I went to see a rheumatologist, and a couple of years ago and a new drug called Benlysta came out that was the first, uh, treatment for lupus; and I've been getting infusions every month and that has helped tremendously. It's cut back on the number of flare-ups I have with lupus. But degenerative arthritis and the fibromyalgia still had a great impact. And it was to the point where I could not even walk a mile. Or if I had to go to the grocery store and I had to walk around the big shopping centre, I'd make sure to hold onto the cart if I had pain in my back and my legs, and it would just make me have to sit down or, at times lie down. If I had family meals, a holiday celebration where I would do a lot of food preparation, after a short period of time, I just had to go lay down. The pain was just so tremendous in my body because of arthritis.  

Linda Elsegood: [00:07:53] can I just ask you, Sherry, how difficult was it to be diagnosed with fibromyalgia because it hasn't been recognized as a condition for that many years?

Sherry [00:08:03] That's very true. It is difficult, because as far as being recognized, and even lupus, it is the great disguise there. It was hard for them to finally put a diagnosis on me. And you find in your mind that you question whether you are going crazy or something, and what's going on with me? I know I have these feelings. So you finally find other people who are experiencing the same thing you are, and you realize you aren’t the only one that felt that way. And so yeah, it is a very difficult thing going through a disease process that is not truly recognized. 

Linda Elsegood: [00:09:28] And then you, of course, we're told about LDN. I mean, how easy was that to get a prescription and have it filled.

Sherry[00:09:38] That was another story. I had been referred to pain management because the doctor said, well, there's nothing else we can do for you. Go to pain management. And that was getting injections and getting on opioids. For some reason, it did not work on me. I guess maybe I'm just different. But the steroid injections didn't work. And as part of pain management, you also are sent to a psychiatrist to be able to find better ways to deal with chronic pain. And it was through that - that psychiatrist had dealt with other patients whose opioids and injections and all did nothing for the pain. And she said, they were put on a drug, it's off label use, but maybe this will help you. And so I started to do some research on it and talked with my pain management doctor asking if she knew about this use of naltrexone. She had never heard of it before. Then I talked with my rheumatologist and he said he had heard of it, but he's never used it for any of his patients, but he was willing to try it on me. And luckily there was the LDN Research Trust website and all the information that's for providers and patients.  He was able to be directed to that, and as he's educating himself with the use of this drug, he sent my first prescription to my pharmacy. I had no idea that it had become compounded, and my pharmacy didn't know either. So they actually made a mistake and gave me 50 milligrams of naltrexone. I'm thinking it was because I was on opioids at one point. So that was a farce. And then I finally found a pharmacy that did compounding for naltrexone, and that pharmacist was extremely helpful. He directed me to some more LDN research, information so I could educate myself and become part of the lupus support group of those who use LDN. He was an immense source of education and comfort, so I finally was able to get the medication through a compounding pharmacy in our area. 

I even talked with my primary care physician, telling her about the experience that I've been having with low dose naltrexone, and she says, this is what we need to hear. We need to hear about treatments like this, and they're not hearing it. And so anyway, my little part, I'm sharing the website information.

Linda Elsegood: [00:13:30] at what dose did you start on when you started, Sherry

Sherry [00:13:34] He started me on 4.5 milligrams right away, so I was taking that at bedtime, and immediately for the first couple of weeks, I saw no difference in the pain. I did start sleeping and dreaming, and I hadn't dreamt in quite a while, and sleeping through the night was very restorative.

It was about maybe six weeks of taking the 4.5 milligrams at bedtime that I started noticing in the day time that my pain level was decreasing. It wasn't as bad. It was tolerable. I had been where I would be from a six to eight pain score level every day, and at times more when I had to overdo things too much on my feet, or too much physical activity. I just had to go to bed and there was nothing that really helped me to take the edge off. After about six weeks, I noticed it's starting to work for pain and I was just full of joy about it. I just felt new. I felt renewed. My pain level about six weeks into LDN has gone to a three to a five every day, and that's for me, that's tolerable. That works. And I'm just overjoyed with that. And because of that, I've been able to walk for more than two miles, and hold on to a thing, or lie down, or use some other pain medication to help take the edge off. Those were the first experiences. I was just really just thrilled and told my doctors about it and they were extremely happy about it. Yeah. It set a whole new outlook on life. I don't expect that I would be 100%  a new body, a new person, but my life is definitely tolerable now in my body. 

Linda Elsegood: [00:16:49] And do you have a virus? Would you like to explain what happened when you had a virus? 

Sherry [00:16:57] Yes. It's now six days ago, I started having a respiratory virus, the cough, the congestion and all that. Usually, with lupus, those are triggers to a lupus flare-up. I didn't really know what was going to happen, but when it triggers a lupus flare-up, I get a rash over my total body and my skin becomes very painful. I have increased muscle and joint pain, fatigue, headache. It's not very nice.  It's bad enough you're not feeling well because you have a virus, then you have that on top of it. So six days ago I started with this virus then two days later I woke up and I had a lupus rash all over my body, the same type of experience that I would have prior, with the pain and fatigue, and all that went along with it. I called my rheumatologists and I reported to him what it was. Usually, he would prescribe a taper of prednisone over one to two weeks and my symptoms would be gone, the rash would be gone. And when the rash leaves, 10 days later my skin starts to peel off. The prednisone helps with the pain and the fatigue, but it usually takes about one to two weeks for me to get through an episode of a flare. 

I called my doctor as I was beginning this flare up and he didn't want to start any prednisone. He wanted to be sure that I did not have any type of infection, and afraid of it suppressing my immune system and then the virus really taking over. I agreed and I said I will call back and be reevaluated, so no prednisone next time. And then the rash and the fatigue and the pain exacerbated. And by that evening, ready to go to bed, I took in my LDN, as a backup.  We decided to give me the doses of one-milligram capsules so I could play with the dose and see if I could have a good reaction on just three milligrams of naltrexone, or if I really needed five or six milligrams of Naltrexone tab That's when I found that when I was on the three milligrams I had more disruption in sleep and more discomfort in my muscles and joints. So I went up to five milligrams and I was taking that pretty regularly and I was feeling good. And then I got the virus when I was on five milligrams of LDN. So when the flare started, that night when I went to bed, I took five milligrams of LDN. And when I woke up the next morning, my rash was almost gone. I mean, I could barely, barely notice it. I mean, it was just a shadow of it. And as the day went on the pain and the rest of the rash were totally cleared up. All the symptoms were diminishing. I still had the cold symptoms, cough and stuffy nose and all that, but the lupus flare was fading without prednisone. And that just is another surprise, to be able to do that without having prednisone. It’s just a miracle that that could happen. And every night I still continue with the five milligrams of naltrexone.

And every day, the lupus symptoms, the flare-ups, have diminished. I'm still working through the virus. You could probably tell, I sound probable still a little congested, but to me, it's a miracle. I  called and reported to my doctor and said, I know it's hard to believe, now I don't have the symptoms anymore and I didn't take any kind of prednisone. So that's where I am today. 

Linda Elsegood: [00:23:47] Well, What, amazing story. Truly truly is, and I'm sure those people listening who have lupus or degenerative arthritis, fibromyalgia is going to be so inspired by you, and thank you so much for sharing your story. Sherry. 

Sherry [00:24:08] Oh, I appreciate you giving me the opportunity. I hope this can help someone. I know it's so discouraging for some of these diseases, not getting the help you need.

Linda Elsegood: [00:24:21] Well, thank you for having been our guest today. 

Sherry [00:24:25] Okay. Thank you very much. 

Linda Elsegood: [00:24:29] 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 our 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 Melissa Coats, LDN Radio Show 14 Nov 2018 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Linda Elsegood: Today my guest is Dr Melissa Coats from Arizona in the US. She is a naturopathic oncologist. Thank you for joining us today, Melissa. 

Melissa Coats: Thank you for having me. 

Linda Elsegood: Well, could you just give us an idea of your background, first of all, please? 

Melissa Coats: Sure. Initially growing up, I always knew I wanted to be a physician, I think, or in medicine. And when I went to school far away from home in Lynchburg, Virginia at Randolph-Macon Woman's College I focused on biology. And then after that, I didn't exactly know what part of medicine I wanted to do. So I decided to get a Masters in bioethics while I was deciding, and when I discovered bioethics, I stumbled across naturopathic medicine. Once I read the philosophy and what it was all about, I knew that was where I needed to be. Once I finished my Masters at Midwestern University, I went on to the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine, which was in Tempe, Arizona. And I didn't even realize it was in my native state. And so I learned all about naturopathic medicine and went on to school there, and ever since, here I am.

Linda Elsegood: Wow. And when were you first introduced to LDN? 

Melissa Coats: I believe my first introduction was through my mentor and colleague, Dr Daniel Rubin. He had co-written an article about low dose naltrexone, I think back in 2006, for its use in pancreatic cancer. And Dr Berkson who uses it a lot at his clinic, where he does a lot of hepatitis C treatment, also was very interesting to me So I learned a lot from both of them. And from then on, I've been doing more and more research and just using it in a multitude of ways with different types of things beyond cancer. But cancer is obviously one of the bigger ones that we focus on here at our clinic.  

Linda Elsegood: Could you give us an idea of your protocols for treating cancer patients, and which cancers you've actually treated with LDN?

Melissa Coats: Probably one of the bigger ones we typically put people on it for are those who have breast and colon and pancreatic cancer. Those are some that we definitely do, but we know there's some efficacy with ovarian and neuroblastoma and glioblastoma and even squamous cell carcinomas. Pretty much because of the natural killer cell and the immune stimulation that it gives.

We've found it is a very nice adjunctive thing to add on to most treatment protocols, so we utilize it quite often, usually starting with a lower dose. Depending on the sensitivity of the patient, maybe 1.5 all the way up to 4.5 milligrams, depending on what's going on and making sure that we're not conflicting with any pain medication use, of course, if the patient's had surgery or things like that.

We also, me particularly in the clinic, like to use it for other things as well. One of my very first patients actually wasn’t an oncology patient that I utilized it in - it was a person who had undiagnosed celiac disease for 25 years, and her gastrointestinal system was just a giant mess, and she was miserable. It was one of the things that I decided to introduce to a kind of calm her autoimmune issues that were going on, including her thyroid. And it really seemed to calm her gut. And she said it was like a miracle to her, and we even tested going off of it briefly to see if that was truly what was happening. And it was definitely the low dose naltrexone that was helping calm things for her. And so that was one of my first introductions to the power of it. And from then on, I've been utilizing it in many ways since  

Linda Elsegood: What are the therapies you use alongside LDN?

Melissa Coats: Currently, here in Arizona, we have the ability to give IV nutrients, so we use IV alpha-lipoic acid alongside the LDN. Sometimes it's vitamin C, IV. We utilize other supplements, as well, to focus on different parts of what the person needs as far as support if they're during chemotherapy or radiation or other treatments who may have anything going on.

We also utilize sometimes another natural killer cell stimulator, which is mistletoe, but we only give that in a sub Q injection versus IV here in Arizona. There's often a combination of things that we utilize with LDN to help the patient get the best for their immune system and whatever other issues they're having.

...

Melissa Coats: Sometimes, most of those patients are already on LDN, so it's definitely a good part of the mix. We definitely like to make a treatment plan very individualized to each patient, and so there's often quite a multitude of things going on at once, whether it's ... LDN, IVs, a diet plan, whatever it is. We like to bring it all together for them so that they can feel their best. 

Linda Elsegood: And you mentioned a diet plan there. Of course, with cancer, sugar. Is a no, no. What kind of a diet do you suggest patients follow? 

Melissa Coats: A lot of our suggestions as far as diet are either to focus on a very anti-inflammatory or a Mediterranean style diet. The ketogenic diet is obviously big news right now. So that is definitely utilized depending on if the patient's in a good place to do that or not. If they're in a very cachectic state or their weight is very low, we may or may not utilize that, but if they're in a place where it looks like they would benefit greatly from the anti-inflammatory effect of being on the ketogenic diet, we definitely introduce that. Definitely a big part of our consults with patients is spending a lot of time on the diet because we believe food is one of the greatest medicines you can put in your body if you're utilizing it properly.  

Linda Elsegood: And what's the age range of the patients that you treat? 

Melissa Coats: We have little tiny babies all the way up to, I think one of our patients right now that we have that I also believe is onLDN is 89. So we have quite the age range going on here in our clinic. I would say the majority of my patients range in their mid-twenties to like in the seventies and eighties. So we have quite the group. 

Linda Elsegood: And you were saying that you treated the lady with celiac disease. Have you treated any other autoimmune diseases? 

Melissa Coats: Yes. Of the ones that I've seen some benefit, a few patients who have lupus who've seen some benefit; in rheumatoid arthritis we have definitely seen some help in calming some of that; a lot of Crohn's and colitis. I definitely really see a lot of benefit with LDN when you bring in GI issues that are very inflammatory and sometimes immune-mediated. So it's definitely been helpful. I also have utilized it quite often with Hashimoto's thyroiditis to kind of calm the thyroid antibodies, and they seem to note that their thyroid works more efficiently and we see better numbers on labs when they're on the LDN, and less need for medication, which is nice.

Linda Elsegood: So the patients that you know are on LDN for thyroid, do you taper up slowly? How, what is your protocol for that? 

Melissa Coats: The patients mostly have been able to start at three milligrams, and I haven't really had to taper them per se, up or down. Sometimes we just watch the numbers and kind of see how they're feeling, and I may start them at three and just have them check-in with me about how they are feeling, whether that's too much, too little? It hasn't seemed to cause any major side effects, which is why I love using it so much because most people have a great response. 

I forgot about one case that I specifically wanted to tell you about. I have two patients that have autoimmune hepatitis that has been very difficult for them to wean off their steroids. And we have been utilizing LDN probably for the last year and their numbers as far as their liver markers, their AST and ALT have definitely decreased significantly since starting the low dose naltrexone, and I have finally been able to taper to a much lower dose of their steroids, which is wonderful because they hadn’t gotten to a low dose before without the LDN. And we found that using the LDN has made them much more successful and they're very excited about that. The thyroid becomes more efficient with the use of the LDN. They definitely need less medication, which is wonderful. So I usually check thyroid labs when I'm changing things up, every four to six weeks. And so definitely I've had many patients have to reduce their dose because of the LDN, which has been great.

Linda Elsegood: So when a patient comes to see you, let's just say a cancer patient, how would you go about putting that plan together? What is the procedure you follow?

Melissa Coats: When we meet, we initially have at least an hour consultation. We have really extensive forms that they fill out ahead of time, so that I have a really good understanding of their history, and we try to request records so we’re already in the know of what's going on so that we can spend a lot of time talking with each other about goals and where they want to begin.

While we're in consult, we actually type up a protocol so that they leave with a piece of paper that says what labs they are going to get., what treatment plans and treatment options we are interested in doing, whether that's IV or starting low dose naltrexone or some supplements. And then we make sure that there's a clear understanding if we need to check-in and get a diet diary, or what changes should be made immediately.

So they leave with that protocol in their hands so that they feel like not only did we meet and get a good understanding of what's going on, but we have a plan in action that first day, which I think is very powerful in making a patient feel empowered about taking control of their health. And we also kind of keep updating that protocol each time we meet so that if a supplement doesn't work out or we need to add something, they know exactly what's going on and can keep track, which is helpful to everybody involved.

Linda Elsegood: I was speaking to Dr Berkson, and he taught me that alpha-lipoic acid is to be taken intravenously, that it wasn't as effective in tablet form. And the other day somebody was telling me that no, the tablet form works just as well as the intravenous. So I'm now confused. Has it changed? What's your take on it? Exactly. 

Melissa Coats: My understanding is with IVs, you're bypassing the GI and you're getting full absorption; whereas orally you'd have to take a lot more, and obviously the doses are different. The IV amount we go up to is about 600 milligrams, whereas orally we're giving someone up to 1200 milligrams a day. Typically we use both, so when they're not here, they're on it orally. And then when they're in an office, they don't need to take their oral dose that day because they're getting the IV version of it  But from a strengths perspective, and I'll have to check the latest studies, I guess now that you say that, my understanding from Dr Berkson and his protocol that I've been utilizing for a number of years now, that the IV seems to be pretty vital.

Linda Elsegood: That's what he told me, so I've just wanted to check that. 

Melissa Coats: We haven't changed our protocols yet as far as I know. When I can't get numbers to move from oral dosages of things, I definitely bring in the IV protocols, and that seems to make a difference. 

Linda Elsegood: And what about vitamin C taken intravenously? Is that really effective that way? 

Melissa Coats: For absorption issues and things like that? I would say yes, because, from the standpoint of orally, most people can't handle maybe roughly above six to eight grams because it causes a lot of GI distress, even if it's buffered, whereas IV we give people up to a hundred grams, which is way past what anyone could take orally. We know that that creates a different type of stress on the cells, that it can help with reducing vascular endothelial growth factor and other inflammatory markers related to cancer.

Linda Elsegood: And if you read about vitamin C and it talks about water-soluble fat-soluble and it's flushing out of your system if you take too much, or you take too much intravenously.

Melissa Coats: It’s pretty much individualized as well. Some people can't handle certain doses. There are some patients that feel great at 40 grams, and others that can take a hundred grams and feel just as great. So it kinda depends on the person. There are tests to check also whether their plasma level of vitamin C, so that's something that we have utilized in the past.

And then based on our clinical knowledge from using it for a long time. We have kind of figured out where people tend to do well. Yes, it doesn't stay in you forever. It is leaving the body, and there's a lot that's going through the kidneys and being voided out, but for the time that it is in the body and doing what it's doing to the cells.

And if you come on a fairly regular basis, you are creating an environment that is, less available for cancer to grow. So you're creating an environment that is not what they will utilize. So that's why we use it so often. We also use alpha-lipoic acid because it's a powerful antioxidant. And then some of the other nutrients that are out there too. 

Linda Elsegood: A few years ago I had an operation, and as I came to I was in quite a bit of pain, and they gave me intravenous paracetamol, and I was thinking to myself, the pain was quite bad, and I was wondering why they are giving me paracetamol? You know, that's not gonna do any good. And it worked. I was absolutely pieced. I thought, paracetamol isn't very strong, but apparently, it's stronger if it's taken intravenously, as it goes through the metabolism by the liver. It just goes right in. I was surprised at that.

So, vitamin C, minerals, and supplements. Do you have any favourite ones? I mean, obviously, it's individually tailored to the person. But on the whole, what would you say? 

Melissa Coats: We utilize a lot in the oncology world, things that basically kinda change the terrain for cancers. So one of the things that I've utilized a lot is modified citrus pectin, which targets galectin-3, and by lowering that, you allow protection of good, healthy cells and keep other tissues healthy. So, for example, with a woman with breast cancer in one breast, you want to try and protect the other breast. So that we found that this can be helpful. And if she's going to be having surgery or a biopsy, having this on board can kind of help prevent the spread of the other rogue cells. In studies, that's what's been confirmed. So it's something that we've utilized a lot. 

And I use some mushrooms, a whole bunch of different ones. Coriolis mushroom, to help your white blood cells keep your immune system healthy. So that's a big one that we use. And then things that target vascular endothelial growth factor, which is basically kind of a signal for angiogenesis or blood vessels to grow around a tumour.

And so there are numerous things that target angiogenesis. One is a magnolia extract. There are other herbs as well that do that. So obviously vitamin C. And then there's some thought that if you stimulate things like the natural killer cell function with low dose naltrexone, that you may be inhibiting some of those other pathways in a roundabout way. So that's why it's a of things. Quercetin, resveratrol; and curcumin is a huge one, which is the active constituent found in turmeric. There's a lot. And that's why we constantly are trying to throw different curveballs at the immune system to help people fight cancer. And so that's why we utilize so many different things, because if you just use one agent, obviously the immune system and the cancer is going to figure that way around it. And so you want to make sure that we help. 

Linda Elsegood: Do probiotics play a role?

Melissa Coats: Oh, yes, definitely. The GI health and having a really good balanced flora of good bugs in the body is definitely key.

When I'm not focusing on cancer, I really do believe in the gut-brain connection. If your gut is unhealthy, so will your brain be unhealthy. And so making sure that you have good flora can definitely help people's mood and their anxiety and stress responses. It's pretty amazing. So I love probiotics and what they can do. 

Linda Elsegood: I was looking at probiotics, and you start off with what I would call a reasonably priced product. So I was reading the labels - this one has that many million and this one has got different strains in it. I was just lost. I didn't know what it was I should be behind. Which was the best? Is it a case of the more money you spend, the better the product you're getting, or should you be looking deeper than just the price you're paying? 

Melissa Coats: I think it's probably a combination of both. Hopefully, the more expensive products are good. If not, then they're just gouging you. But the main thing for us is it's good to get a variety of strains. So not just acidophilus always. You want to make sure you're getting lactobacillus and bifidobacterium, and you want multiple strains of those types of bacteria depending on what you're trying to work with, with the gut. Also, we're a big fan of billions versus millions because you don't know how much is actually lost or killed off into your absorption and what your stomach acid is doing to those bugs. Depending on how they're put into a capsule, there's always some that aren't going to make it. So the more, the merrier, hoping that you'll be colonizing the gut with some good stuff. I always tell people to rotate brands, and also research the brand and make sure that however they have them, they can prove that when they get their product on the shelf, that those bugs are still alive in there if they're supposed to be, and not been heat shocked in transit and are no longer anything other than a pill filled with nothing. So it may be that that is cost-prohibitive, but normally most of the products that are pretty good are similar in price. 

I think that there's some that are really high in the billions that are intensive protocols that you may only be doing for a week or two, that may be more costly. It just kinda depends, which is why we recommend you usually see someone who has done the research versus just buying a product at the grocery store that's just been sitting on the shelf for you have no idea how long. And so it's good to kind of find that out before you spend the money and then are disappointed.

Oh, vitamin D is another one. Yes, it also depends on the person's absorption. Sometimes I've switched patients from a capsule form to a liquid form and have them hold it under their tongue because they didn't seem to be getting anything from their capsule. And that could be a reflection of the way they absorb through their GI, or if it needs to be more sublingual in their case. And usually, the dose probably needs to be higher than they thought it needed to be. Based on our labs, if someone's our range - here for example, one of the labs we use the range is 30 to 100, and we like to see people between 60 and 80. And so that may take them taking 10,000 units a day for a while, and then they may be able to ramp back, or they may have to take more than that depending on their absorption status. But you kind of play with what seems to work for them. And yeah, there's a lot of different brands on the market. 

Linda Elsegood: What about omega-3s?

Melissa Coats: Yes. The key thing with omega-3s for me is making sure that it's a very pure product, that it's not from fish that are in a farm lot being fed dog food or something horrible like that. They need to be deep-sea coldwater fish, hopefully sustainably raised. And then the capsules themselves, when you're looking at it, you want to make sure that they're fresh. So hopefully the product has some sort of date on it that tells you that those haven't been sitting and becoming rancid.

The key is to look at the EPA and DHA content. If it's fish oil it'll typically show you EPA and DHA, and you want that to add up to over a thousand milligrams within just one or two capsules versus having to take ten capsules to get there because otherwise, you're not getting the benefit of the anti-inflammatory effect, the good healthy cholesterol effect and everything else that goes along with it.

Linda Elsegood: I was talking to a nutritionist a few years ago now. And she was saying if you had an inferior product, they usually have vitamin A in them. And the more tablets you take, the more vitamin A you're taking and you can overdose on vitamin A.

Melissa Coats: Yeah, you've really got to make sure it's a pure product. That could be bad. And that will give you a nasty headache and make you not feel good at all. But the one I believe that we carry here, as far as I know, is just really focused on the omegas aspect of it.

Linda Elsegood: Yes. And what about people who are vegans? Can you take flaxseed oil to do the same?  

Melissa Coats: You could do flax or chia seeds. Also just eating healthy oils like avocado oil, olive oil, coconut oil. You know, there's a lot of different ways to get in. Omega fatty acids that do not necessarily require a fish or krill.

Linda Elsegood: I was reading the other day an article on coconut oil where they were saying that previous research was incorrect and it wasn't as healthy as they made out. What is your stance on that?

Melissa Coats: I don't think it's the healthiest oil, but definitely, but I still see some benefit in using it, particularly the medium-chain triglycerides that come from coconut oil. Or we use MCT oil sometimes instead of just coconut oil. But if someone is just occasionally throwing a little bit of coconut oil into their smoothie, I haven't seen it detrimentally affect them and I've seen some good studies with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's research, that it helps the brain. So the MCT from coconut oil is helpful. 

I think it's also a matter of where you're getting it. If it's this big tub of coconut oil from a big box store, that may not be great versus actually getting small organic coconut oil, which might be a better option. With the ketogenic diet, they often mentioned using MCT oil does help supplement your fat content. And that's been a very pure product, and it usually doesn't have a coconut taste, but it's from coconuts. So people can use that if they don't like the coconut flavour. 

And it's nice because if you need to gain weight, it's a good way to add a hundred calories or more. Most people are not looking for that, but sometimes in the oncology world, we need to help people get more out of their meals. And because that doesn't have a taste like coconut oil, it's helpful. I don't think coconut oil is horrible, but I definitely don't recommend it to be someone's only source of fat for sure. And definitely, it is not an oil that cooks well at high heat. It will actually oxidize it and make it an unhealthy thing. So we usually recommend people use avocado oil for that. 

Linda Elsegood: Wonderful. The half an hour is up. It's gone very quickly. This was Dr Melissa coats and thank you so much. Before we go, can you tell people how they can contact you? 

Melissa Coats: Yes. You can contact us through our website at www.listenandcare.com, or you can give us a call at (480) 990-1111. And you can even have a 10-minute free consultation if you like.

Linda Elsegood: Oh wow, so we have nothing to lose and everything to gain. 

Melissa Coats: Thank you so much for having me.

Linda Elsegood: This show is sponsored by Dickson Chemist, experts in LDN and associated treatments in the UK. Dickson Chemist, the most cost-effective for LDN in all forms within the UK and Europe. They are maintaining safety standards far in excess of what is required. Why would you choose to get your LDN from anywhere else? Call 0800 027 6910 today to speak to the LDN experts.

Any questions or comments you may have, please Contact Us on our website at https://ldnresearchtrust.org/contact_us. 

I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for joining us today. We really appreciate your company. Until next time, stay safe and keep well.

Tracy Magerus, NMD – 15th August 2018 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Dr Tracy Magerus shares her Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) experience on the LDN Radio Show with Linda Elsegood.

Dr Tracy Magerus is an MD from Phoenix, Arizona. Having graduated in 2009, she has been in private practice for nearly ten years giving her a great depth of valuable experience. 

She had previously heard of Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) during her studies in the late 2000s, but first prescribed it for one of her patients in 2012 where within weeks she noticed improvements in their overall health.

Dr Magerus currently has over 25 patients on LDN and considers it a vital tool in her naturopathic arsenal.

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

Debra - Lupus - 22nd Nov 2017 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Debra from the United states takes Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) for lupus.

I was diagnosed back in 1988. So that's almost 30 years ago. I was in my mid to late twenties and first it was the diagnosis didn't really impact my life, all that much.

I just felt more tired and had in general, a low grade feeling like I was catching some sort of virus, but I was able to continue working.

It just kind of came and went depending on how much I worked and how much stress was in my life, but I was not debilitated. And that went on for about 10 years.

And then things started to gradually degrade. I was struggling to stay working. I would catch every virus that came along and it would degrade into bronchitis pneumonia.

I got H1 N1 and unable to work any longer. And that's been about 15 years ago. Fortunately my husband could support us, but it was quite a traumatic change in my life.

I was an undiagnosed Celiacs person, and that took several years to be finally diagnosed with the help of the Mayo clinic here in Rochester, Minnesota. I was finally diagnosed with that seven years ago.

Prior to LDN, just a year ago, I had about four hours of energy a day. And that meant I had basically one thing I could do that day, whether that was going to meet somebody for lunch.

I'm an equestrian. And if I chose that day to ride my horse, that was the thing I did. So prior to LDN and a year ago that was my life one thing a day.

And I had to be very careful not to schedule too much. In one day I wasn't able to do our house cleaning. For instance, it was too physically strenuous. I wasn't able to do the shopping. My husband did that. That was too physically strenuous. I really had to be very protective of the amount of energy I could expend and save it for the things that really brought me some joy in my life.

And so that's how things progressed over 30 years.Then I was introduced to LDN by my doctor who is a medical doctor. He's an MD with a traditional degree, but he also has continued on to get a functional medicine training and certification here in the United States. And that additional training and education has made the difference for my health and a number of ways.

I tried to start at 1.5 mg of Low Dose Naltrexone and it was just way too much. I had a big lupus flare up. Felt like I got hit by a truck and we had to back it down.

I started at 0.5 and every two weeks we would increase it by 0.5 and it took me several months to let me get to the level of now. My current dose is 4.5 mg and right away I noticed a difference. I noticed an increase in energy and I didn't pay the price.

As I say for that energy, I would be able to exceed my four hours of energy and not have a Lupus flare. As a result, I could have six hours of energy and not be in bed the next day. Then I noticed, I could go all day and not pay the price and have, and be in bed with a lupus flare the next day.

And then I was able to join a fitness club. I haven't done that for 25 years and joined a yoga class. All of which I couldn't do. I had tried to do, and it would just any sort of extra exertion would send me backwards into a lupus flare.

I was now walking 30 minutes a day. I had tried to keep walking. I would get sick and then I'd be in bed for a week and I have to start all over again with the walking and build up slowly.

All those old injuries that Lupus would like to inflame. It just didn't get inflamed anymore.

I'm pretty close to being a normal person. I still have Lupus. But I think you could safely say that it's pretty much in remission. I can live a relatively normal life.

 I could work, for five or six hours out in the barn with the horses, I can help around the farm, help my husband build fence, repair fence. I'm back to cleaning my own home and doing my own shopping and making dinners again.

I'm thankful every day. I've learned to live one day at a time.

I'm very thankful that I have the doctor I have. I have organized and facilitate a auto-immune support group here in our local community. And there's a variety of people that attend, people with Ms., with Hashimoto's.

My mother is in her mid to late seventies and has Fibromyalgia in addition to a couple of other disorders, but fibromyalgia has been very debilitating for her. She started LDN. She's no longer living on a heating pad. And just got back from a two and a half week trip to Latvia and Estonia. I see her out gardening in the afternoons when normally she would have hit her limit and been inside on the heating pad.

Summary of Debra's interview. Please listen the full interview.