LDN Video Interviews and Presentations

 

Donna from the United States, Shares her Journey with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and LDN

Donna from the United States, shares her journey with multiple sclerosis (MS), which she was diagnosed with in 1992 at the Mayo Clinic in Florida. Initially, she experienced symptoms like fatigue and tingling sensations, but it took time to identify the issue. After trying conventional MS medications and feeling worse, she decided to stop them and manage her condition independently.

Her husband learned about low-dose Naltrexone (LDN) through an investment opportunity for its FDA approval. Skeptical at first, Donna reluctantly started taking LDN and experienced significant improvement in her condition after three months, feeling more energized and motivated. They sought a doctor who could prescribe LDN and found a compounding pharmacy that supplied it.

After 27 years of LDN use, Donna noticed that skipping the medication led to a return of some symptoms, though they remained manageable. She continues to lead an active life, having run a nonprofit scholarship organization for 15 years, and credits LDN for her well-being despite occasional relapses. Now nearing 74, she remains busy and resilient.

Welcome to the LDN Radio Show hosted by Linda Elsegood, sponsored by the LDN Research Trust. The show features expert discussions on Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) and its applications in treating autoimmune diseases and cancer. Today's guest, Shelly from Florida, shares her experience with multiple sclerosis (MS) and her journey with LDN. Shelly, diagnosed with MS years ago, transitioned to secondary progressive MS. Despite trying various treatments, severe pain from bulging discs led her to discover LDN. Within six weeks of starting LDN, her debilitating pain vanished, drastically improving her quality of life.

Shelly recounts her initial MS symptoms, such as optic neuritis, which led to her diagnosis. She discusses the significant impact of her diet changes, eliminating gluten, dairy, and sugar, which alleviated many MS symptoms like drop foot, vertigo, and migraines. Shelly emphasizes the importance of clean eating and a disciplined supplement regimen, which includes vitamins, minerals, and natural substances. Her story highlights the potential of LDN and dietary management in improving MS symptoms and overall well-being. The show concludes with an invitation for listeners to reach out with questions, underscoring the support and information the LDN Research Trust provides.

In a recent episode of the LDN Radio Show hosted by Linda Elsegood of the LDN Research Trust, guest speaker Kara from the United States shared her personal journey using Low-Dose Naltrexone (LDN) to manage multiple sclerosis (MS). Kara recounted her initial MS symptoms during her university years, including recurrent UTIs and muscle spasms, and described a severe episode of trigeminal neuralgia that led to her diagnosis. She revealed that her MRI not only confirmed MS but also detected early-stage thyroid cancer, which was successfully treated.

As a lawyer and wife of a physician, Kara utilized her resources to educate herself on the benefits of LDN, ultimately choosing it over traditional disease-modifying therapies. Her experience with LDN has been transformative, significantly improving her balance, reducing fatigue, and eliminating UTIs. Kara also noted the vivid dreams as the only side effect and emphasized the drug's positive impact on her overall health and inflammatory markers.

Kara's testimony highlights the potential of LDN as an immune-modulating therapy with minimal side effects, advocating its use for others with MS. Her story underscores the importance of exploring LDN as a viable treatment option and maintaining an open mind towards alternative therapies for autoimmune conditions.

 

Jo - England: Behçet's Disease and Multiple Sclerosis (LDN; low dose naltrexone)

 

 

Welcome to the LDN Radio Show brought to you by the LDN Research Trust. I'm your host Linda Elsegood. Today we're joined by Ray Solano from PD Labs. He's also a nutritionist. Could you tell us a bit of background about yourself?

 I am dedicated to getting out the word on personalized medications. We have a specialty pharmacy located in Cedar Park, Texas that's north of Austin, Texas. We focus on being able to help people in the community who have mold and Lyme conditions and autism so they can get special medications in the right dose for them. We have a full-size clinic, that lifestyle medicine clinic as well, to really be able to help people learn their nutrition balance as well. We're located in 48 states and soon to be in our brand-new facility here in Cedar Park. It is a 7,500 square foot building that will be able to grow with the community, to service them, because personalized medicine is going to be here to stay.

Wonderful. So what got you into pharmacy? 

Fortunately I've been involved in pharmacy since the early 70s. I have been able to really take medicine to a different level. l have a background in nuclear pharmacy, a very advanced technology at the time, and found my way back into compounding pharmacy over about 25 years ago, and realized that traditional medications are just not going to be able to serve people the way they're supposed to. Medications have to be personalized. Different forms, different dosage forms, different routes of administration. Previously I did a lot of sterile compounding. It is important for people to get better as opposed to just taking 15 or 16 different medications a day. Can you believe that some people still take that many medications? This is the reason why we started to be able to do this. We very recently expanded. We've merged with Hopkinton Drug, who's really been one of the leaders in low dose naltrexone for years. We merged our companies together and are able to give first class service and quality to all the patients nationwide. 

You were saying about people taking 16 drugs. I've known many people who start off with two or three and then they would take the fourth medication and of course every drug carries a list of potential side effects. You probably will never get any of them or you might get one or two of these side effects, but when you start putting a cocktail of medication together, the chances of getting a side effect becomes higher. 

I know many people who have taken four or five, and then they have to take another medication to combat the side effects. As the number grows, then they're taking like seven or eight; they take another medication because they've got more side effects. It's really not helpful for the patient to continue down this route. Not only that but they still don't get the wellness they're looking for. Sometimes they get worse. 

Unfortunately their core metabolism just becomes nutrient deficient. Their core levels of metabolic rate decreases. They gain weight and their self-image goes down. They're also finding out that their ability in energy level decreases. Unfortunately we usually have a shell of a person. It is unfortunate but you know the worst part about it is there's no end in sight. This is why many times we get to the root cause of the problem and this is many times what we're finding in low dose naltrexone is a good starting point because then they can start to corral some of the problems and get people off of some of these medications. 

This has done an amazing thing in the pain community and the chronic alcohol community. It is just amazing when we start to unravel all of these chronic conditions of how we start with this therapy and we're able to really change people's lives. It also helps people wean off of opioids. It is a really big thing. 

What doses do you go down to? 

We go down to as low as one microgram. We were a sterile pharmacy so we can do micro dosing. We do a lot of vasoactive intestinal peptide as well. We are used to micrograms as well. Low doses are something we're familiar with. One of the things that we have done that's unique is being able to take these doses and be able to make a special tablet. It is the pharmaceutical industry that uses these ingredients, but they call a cyclodextrins to be able to enhance absorption through the cell walls for these pharmaceuticals take these large molecules and give them a little bit of it an accelerator for the body to absorb them. We use these beta cyclodextrins and we make them into a special tablets so that patients could be able to change the dosage for themselves. Being able to get to the drug we get the right amount of drug and have the least amount of side effects. You know many times when people take low dose naltrexone they start in one dosage form, in a capsule form. Usually sometimes 0.25 milligrams or a 0.1 milligram, and then they have to titer their way up, and then have to get another prescription. They have to get a different strength. This is a way that people to take a half of a tablet and get started and then be able to use the full dose three four weeks from now. It ends up being less expensive for the patient. 

Special technology is making tablets, which is a specialty in itself. We feel that we’ve been doing it for the last 10 years and we were able to really make a difference in getting the best therapy tablet for patients. 

Can you do a sublingual LDN? 

Yes, we can do sublingual drops. We've been doing that for patients, especially children and some of our seniors. Being able to master all these dosage forms for patients is something that specialty pharmacies are able to offer for patients. Sublingual tablets, sublingual drops or something that is very important for many people. 

Dr Jill Smith discovered with her Crohn's patient that taking sublingual drops, that it was absorbed, bypassing the stomach. It was more effective for those patients. There are other patients now that are choosing the sublingual. We find that sublingual is more expensive in the UK. I don't know whether different dosage forms at your pharmacy are more expensive than others. 

We are specialists in these sublingual tablets. We've been doing oxytocin sublingual for many years, and being able to use these tablet forms and to able to change up the bases that are absorbed, special ones, sublingually is very easy to do. It's not really more expensive at all, not that I have seen. Sublingual routes and nasal sprays are just a great way to bypass the stomach, because many of these patients are having a very difficult time absorbing. We use the special tablets, they get absorbed sometimes much better than capsules. 

Do you find the nasal spray helps with dry eye? 

We haven't seen very much of that. We definitely think that nasal sprays bypass the blood-brain barrier with special additives. They get absorbed so much faster. Unfortunately we haven't seen a huge increase of that here in the US yet. It is something that we're going to be promoting. because there are so many patients who would like the LDN eye drops. but because they have to be made in a sterile facility they have to be made per patient. There's not a shelf life on them. They are probably expensive, too. It makes the unit price exorbitantly expensive 

I've yet to find out myself and I've not ever tried any LDN nasal spray. and I suffer with dry eye that the nasal spray possibly could help the dry eye because it goes up the canal. 

We've made low dose naltrexone nasal spray in combination with ginsenoside R3. It's a special neural regenerative compound to stop the combination of brain inflammation. We've done a combination of those and launched that about two years ago. We have the experience to be able to do LDN nasal sprays. It's a very stable compound. It's very easy to work with. It has good dating for patients so it's something that they can be able to put in the refrigerator and be able to hold on to it for many months. That makes it economical as well which is important. Sometimes these medications can get quite expensive. 

What would the shelf life be on nasal spray be if you kept it in the refrigerator? 

Many of the regulatory law requires studies to be able to give the dating information, but we have found that at least 30 days is a minimum. We're looking at expanding that to 90 days stability. It's something that we're looking forward to. 

One of the things I didn't mention is the topical form of low dose naltrexone for many different dermatological conditions. Conditions such as eczema and psoriasis. It is a perfect additive of oral and topical as well. It's very stable. It's really important to get to the right pharmacy that understands the correct technology of being able to get penetration through that dermis skin layer. That's something we've really worked on extensively and looked to have tremendous results. I have spoken to dermatologists and pharmacists to compound LDN in topical as well as the capsules or tablets. Some doctors use both in conjunction with each other. For some conditions they prefer that people just take oral. 

The doctors that you deal with, what would you say is the most common for dermatological? 

We have a special relationship with our practitioners. It's a collaborative practice. We look at the patient to see what's best for them. We look at a case-by-case basis and they ask our opinion what's the best choice for the patients. Many times, by the time they come to us, these people, the patients, have conditions that have been ignored by many years. We'd like to be able to be aggressive at first. We recommend a combination therapy initially because it seems that they can turn it around much quicker as well. I found speaking to patients who take it for let's say psoriasis, alopecia, Behçet's syndrome, Hailey-Hailey disease to name a few, that the dermatological conditions take longer to respond than autoimmune conditions as in Crohn's disease or MS, chronic fatigue. It seems as though it needs to get into the system for quite a few months. Sometimes it takes six months. 

People have told me before that they have reverse of symptoms. Have you found that to be true? 

Yes, it is really important to be able to have the technology to get past the dermis layers. PD Labs has really started a patented process for the use of transdermal Verapamil for Peyronie's and planters fibromatosis and Dupuytren's contracture. They are all the same fibrotic tissue disorders. We've really been able to perfect the absorption across many types of different layers of subcutaneous tissue to be able to get localized absorption at the source. We've been able to take LDN and put it with transdermal Verapamil for Dupuytren's. We find it to be incredible at how fast it works. It’s important to get the right condition to have the right special base that gets absorbed and penetrates, and there's a number of different products out there that have special qualities that can get very quick absorption. It's really important because you don't want people to suffer. You want them to be able to get quick absorption. Unfortunately many of these special bases can be a little bit pricey because they're very proprietary and they're very unique. You're pushing the limits of transdermal absorption that almost rivals the fast blood levels like an injection. To be able to get people turned around quickly we find that these patients do so much better with being able to target that area very quickly because you don't want to suffer for six months at a time. 

If somebody had alopecia would they have to rub the preparation on their scalp as well as taking it orally? 

That's what we recommend. We use a combination therapy because we're able to get blood levels quicker. All these topical conditions are usually linked to gut dysbiosis and many other conditions that ultimately are able to express themselves as a skin condition. Any type of skin condition we're looking to repair the gut first. We have a number of different peptides that are used to be able to repair the gut as well. Once we are able to do that the skin heals so much faster and that's why it's so important to do both. 

Would rubbing something in your hair which makes it greasy and then that makes you want to wash your hair more be beneficial? 

No, it doesn't have to be greasy. There's cosmetically appealing lotions that we do a lot with patients' hair. They don't have to be oily. They have to be somewhat moisturizing to the skin and not drying the scalp. You can get absorption and have that smooth cosmetic feel, because nobody wants to put on something makes their hair look greasy, especially women. There's no way we're going to be able to tell them that your hair is going to look greasy. They just won't do it. Because then you'd want to wash your hair, which would be pointless of putting it on if you're then going to wash it off. There's ways to do it, and you know, it's really important when you partner with a pharmacy who has a can-do attitude and has a big tool chest. 

What are the tools that we have available? We've got a number of consultants that work for us and we've got a number of patented medications under our corporate umbrella. So we're very fortunate that we keep on digging until we can find a solution. 

Does PD Labs make their own supplements? 

Due to regulatory compliance, we don't really make them ourselves. We design them and have a special dietary supplement manufacturer strategic partner that will fulfill, make those to our custom specifications. Many times we're able legally to put a prescription drug with some of these nutritionals so they can combine them together. Many times what we do is take nutritionals and combine them with the specialty FDA approved drugs to be able to solve many of these conditions. Many times we find things like traumatic brain injuries and stroke and many of these patients that we're able to target medications using this type of therapy. 

It is really important to look at the whole body and look at the whole patient because they didn't get sick overnight and it’s going to take some time to get them well. We put a little sprinkle, a little fertilizer, at the same time. 

When you make your tablets do you do capsules as well? 

We do capsules. We do lots of capsules. 

Are you able to put nutritional supplements in those if the patient wants ginger for example. I know some people request magnesium or whatever. Are you able to do that for them or offer advice on which you think is the best? 

We do. We've got a lot of requests for items when people feel that they are having a reaction to the fillers. Many times what we find is that the body is having an over expression of histamine. Many times this over-expression of histamine is due to a metabolic imbalance that is occurring because the body's mesenchymal immune system is offline. If we can turn those systems back on, then their histamine levels or responses are normalized. It's sometimes not the small little filler that's in the capsules that is causing their problems. It's the whole body's over-amount of histamine. We're just sometimes really careful you know, because the absorption of ginger, let's say we put ginger in with LDN, do we know how much LDN is getting absorbed? Or maybe that the problem is that if the dose is too high, then they're going to get some of those same side effects. It could be the dose needs to be decreased, so that we can really modulate those side effects. I find many people feel it's almost a sign of defeat that they have to go backward in the dosing. After listening to many of your lectures it's usually that the dose is too high. 

As you said at the beginning, personalized medicine is what suits that person. Some people have it in their mind they need to be taking 4.5 milligrams. They think they have got to get to 4.5. They will think they did so well on two and a half and then went to three and didn't feel quite as good and now they feel terrible. So they think they have to stop taking it because it doesn't work for them. If on two and a half you felt wonderful then it appears that was probably the right dose for you. You should go back and see how you feel on 2.5. It's not that you're giving in. It's not a case that you've failed to reach the 4.5, you should celebrate the fact that you found the dose that works for you. 

We found that many times people are taking capsules and when they switch over to tablets they say they felt so much better on the tablets or sometimes they say I feel worse with the tablets than the capsules. We have found many people get much more positive effects at one and a half milligrams and two milligrams as opposed to 4.5 milligrams. Sometimes there's kind of a bell curve that sometimes the 4.5 milligram is something that is not really the standard. It should be maybe one and a half milligram. It should be more of a standard because we only want the body to have just as much drug as it needs. Low-dose sometimes is better than higher dose. That's what we found.

It was really interesting talking to you. Can you tell people how can they get in touch with you? 

Yes, we have a website: PD Labs that's Paul David Lives, pdlabsrx.com. You'll find a huge amount of information on LDN and all the other specialty pharmaceuticals that we do. We've got a podcast and also our TV spots. We make it very easy for people. Our phone number is 888-909-0110. We're in the continental US right now. We're looking to see how we can do this internationally, but as you well know there's a number of customs and hoops we have to go through. We're not giving up on it. 

Well thank you very much for being our guest today. 

 

 

Linda Elsegood and Seun Moses: symptoms.wiki curator talk about low dose naltrexone (LDN; low dose naltrexone)

 

Bron Webster interviews Linda Elsegood (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Linda Shares her Multiple Sclerosis and Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) Journey

Linda Elsegood describes her MS history and how LDN gave back her life. She shares how and why she developed her ldnresearchtrust.org site, a non-profit organization that is maintained by volunteers. Her second LDN Book delves into more information on many autoimmune conditions that are helped by LDN. Many professionals (doctors and pharmacists) contribute their knowledge and experience in her LDN Book 2.

Review by Ken Bruce

Audrey (2) - England: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Linda Elsegood: What about cancer?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Linda Elsegood: Do you use vitamin D as well? 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dr John Kim: Thank you for the opportunity.

 

Any questions or comments you may have, please email us at Contact@ldnresearchtrust.org.  I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for joining us today. We really appreciated your company. Until next time, stay safe and keep well.

Annie (2)  - England: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Linda Elsegood: I'd like to introduce Annie from England who has multiple sclerosis? 

Good morning, Annie. Could you tell us when you were diagnosed with MS?  

Annie: I was diagnosed when, 30 years ago, so that would have been, golly, I can't even say what year I was the very late twenties, 29.

Um, but I had problems with my light eye from my teens, as it transpires it was probably the MS, but I've had it for quite a long time. 

Linda Elsegood: And how did it impact on you at that time being diagnosed? 

Annie: Um, well, they told me at the time actually, that I had a viral infection, and so I tested. Took it, but that was it. But they had actually written down on my notes that it was MS. And it wasn't until ten years later when I had quite a serious relapse, uh, that they sent me for an MRI scan. Then they said, they didn't tell me because it would have affected the quality of my life, but I'm glad they didn't actually because I would have been stressed out as it happens.

I had ten great years. Uh, I was not worrying about anything health-wise. 

Linda Elsegood: It's always a blessing, 

Annie: isn't it? Absolutely. 

Linda Elsegood: And were you offered any medication when you had this relapse?

Annie: Um, yes, I, I think I was taking steroids at the time, some kind of steroids. Um, I can't remember what it was called.

Linda Elsegood: And how bad was your MS? 

Annie: Um, well, compared to others, not that bad, but, um, I had no feeling from my waist downwards on the left-hand side. And so when I sat there, and I couldn't feel that I was sitting down, I amused my friend one day. I went to her house, I sat down on the chair as I thought, and I actually ended up on the floor, and she couldn't stop laughing because I couldn't feel the chair.

Um, but that kind of passed after some months, I think I just have the left side is a lot weaker than my right side. 

Linda Elsegood: So have you had any other symptoms, other those that you've just told us about? 

Annie: Right. Well, after I spoke to you a couple of weeks ago, I went into another relapse. I don't know if that's a word to use really.

So we haven't been great. Um, I told the doctor and he wanted me to take a ten-day course of steroids, which I did. Um. And I'm feeling much, much better now, but he did say to stop taking the LDN, so I did  and I started that up next week, I think the consequence of that relapse is that my left-hand motor skills are quite poor now.

I could still use it, but it's poorer than it was. But I'm still walking. 

Linda Elsegood: That's a big deal. So how did you hear about LDN? 

Annie: Um. I went to my doctor about something and I said, Oh, I am fed up. He said, why are you using that stick? Because I use a stick sometimes cause I'm a bit wobbly from time to time.

I said, well, I've got MS. He said, don't give me that. He said Google LDN and then come back and if you want to use it. And so I Googled it and I was quite impressed by what I read, so I thought I'll take this stuff. And so I've been taking it ever since.

So, um, I suppose it must be between six and nine months, at least. Maybe a year. I've been taking it for.

Linda Elsegood: Oh, you've got a very good GP. 

Annie: Yes, he is. He's great. 

Linda Elsegood: Also these days though, you can actually take LDN and steroids at the same time. So you need to be afraid of restarting, 

Annie: right? Yeah. Oh, that's interesting because it does say you shouldn't stop taking it, and I was a bit concerned that I would be doing damage anyway.

I seem to be okay, but as I say, I'm going to stop. 

Linda Elsegood: Your motor skills come back and lots of people have told me how it has helped relapses whilst taking LDN. They find that the relapses are not as severe, they don't last as long and they recover more or less fully from the attack.

So that would be interesting to see if that is the case with you.

Annie: Yeah.

Linda Elsegood: What would you say to other people who are contemplating 

trying LDN?

Annie: My view is you've got absolutely nothing to you, nothing to lose and I don't know if it's doing me any good. Psychologically, it's helped me tremendously. There must be something good in it for sure because I push myself to the limits and it is allowing me to push myself to the limits, you know?

So I would encourage anybody to try it, just try it and see if it doesn't suit them, that's fine. But I haven't had any adverse effects, you know, I'm just very happy to take it.

Linda Elsegood: Did you have any introductory side effects when you first started?

Annie: yes. I had a tremendous headache. Um, I'm prone to migraine anyway, and I think apparently that's part of the ms thing. I had a bad headache for several, several days, nearly a week actually and then it went, and I've been okay ever since. I still get the monthly migraine, but yes. Yeah. Um, I, I spoke to consultants about it, and they said it's something to do with the MS. People with MS can get migraines. We could also get rather depressed but I'm never depressed. Thank God.

Linda Elsegood: Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Annie: Mmm, I do think so. It's just that I don't know if the LDL is doing anything, but I think it must be because I've had this now for a very long time—this condition. And you know, as I said, I'm 62, and I'm doing really, really well. I had to do a bit of walking this morning, which I wasn't expecting. I had to put my car into the garage, and it had to stay there. So I had to go and get a bus to come home and walk from the bus stop. And I was able to do it with one stick, but I don't think I would have done that a year ago. So I'm thinking the LDN is helping somehow. 

Linda Elsegood: Very good. Well, thank you very much for sharing your story with us.

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.