LDN Video Interviews and Presentations

Deena - Canada: UCTD, Chronic HSV2/Shingles, Chronic Pain, IBS, Histamine Intolerance, Vestibular Migraine, Insomnia (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Deena from Canada has suffered from Lupus and a very weak autoimmune system for years. Various doctors mis-diagnosed her conditions, and finally she found out the truth. Through research, she learned about Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) through Linda Elsegood’s books on LDN. She has had remarkable improvements in only 3 months and is so thankful to the ldnresearchtrust.org. She recommends this drug to anyone with autoimmune conditions. Listen to the delight in her voice during this  interview with Linda.

Review by ken Bruce

Annalisa talks about Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN), Trigeminal Nerve pain and Lyme disease (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Annalisa shares her Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN), Trigeminal Nerve pain and Lyme disease story and how it help change her life.

Annalisa suffered extreme pain, weakness, cog fog, and was tested thoroughly for 6 years before being correctly diagnosed with Lyme disease and Trigenimal Nerve Pain. SInce being prescribed LDN (Low Dose Naltrexone) she experienced ever increasing improvement. You can hear the excitement in her voice as she tells her miracle story. She is 100% since 2020 and LDN! 

Pharmacist Masoud Rashidi, LDN Radio Show 24 May 2021 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Pharmacist Masoud Rashidi learned about LDN (Low Dose Naltrexone) at one of Linda Elsegood’s LDN Conferences. He has become very knowledgeable in compounding this remarkable drug. He councils doctors on it’s many applications for their patients. He is experienced in LDN and Ultra LDN, which is used to help patients get off the dangerous opioids they take for chronic pain. He recommends a slow increase in micro grams of LDN while reducing and eventually stopping the opioids. LDN increases our naturally produced opioids and relieves the pain. This was a very informative interview.
 

Marty - US: Restless Leg Syndrome (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Marty from the US takes low dose naltrexone (LDN) for Restless Leg Syndrome.(RLS)

She first noted 2 years of sleeping discomfort she thought was arthritis, then from her husband, a physician, found out about RLS but thought it didn't apply since her legs didn't thrash about. A breath test showed too much methane in her system. He recommended trying Cefaxin, and after one night she was much improved. After 2 weeks on that she started LDN, which keeps her RLS symptoms under control. She had no side effects from LDN. She recommends if in question people should take the breath test, and thinks LDN is a wonder drug.

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.

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

Yvonne from the United States takes low dose naltrexone (LDN) for multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia. She had lifelong tremors, later developed dizziness/vertigo and frequent bladder infections, and finally eye problems.  All before age 20. She rated her quality of life as 3 to 4.

A friend of MySpace told her about LDN, and started taking it in October 2010, and feels her quality of life has gone up to 7 to 8. She no longer needs pain pills often.

She definitely recommends LDN for how it has improved her quality of life.

Listen to the video for the full story.

Any questions or comments you may have, please contact us at contact@ldnresearchtrust.org. I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for joining us today. 

Tim - US: Fibromyalgia (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Tim from the United States takes Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) for Fibromyalgia and is going to share his story.

"Fibromyalgia was the default diagnosis after everything else was ruled out. Some doctors say they don't know what I have. And then some say Fibromyalgia because they don't know what else to say.

I got sick in summer of 2007, and I spent about four months going to all manner of doctors from infectious disease specialists to Rheumatologists and I got diagnosed by the end of 2007.

At the time I was 50. I'm 54 now.

I work a brutal schedule. I work in live television news. I work overnight for long days, rotating shifts, and plus I take care of all my own stuff.  I'm a real do it yourself or home repairs, home maintenance.

When I got sick I was in a twilight zone of misery. I was on Tramadol, and watching the clock waiting till I can take more pain medication. I had all the functioning of a 90-year-old man. Basically, I lost all my energy, my stamina. I was in constant pain. It just felt like I had the flu for over two years.

I started endless searching on the internet and I found out about Dr. Bihari.

Because Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) is an off label use, I had to go on my own on the internet, through a Canadian pharmacy, do get Low Dose Naltrexone and basically tested on myself. That was the summer of 2009. I started at 1 mg, and I noticed an improvement in about two days. The pain levels dropped.  I've stayed at 2 mg of LDN ever since then. And it's been almost two years.

When I started LDN I had some vivid dreaming, which for me has always stayed.

I would say to anyone that they really need to try it if they haven't found relief because the orthodox treatments are really few and far between.  Lyrica did nothing for me. I took Lyrica for a year on faith, and it did absolutely nothing and a very expensive medication with side effects.

I took antivirals, antibiotics. I took all the home remedies, massive vitamins. I tried all these things, and none of them produced any discernible results. LDN is the only thing that really you could see cause and effect. It made a difference.

My life now is closer to normal. I'm working crazy hours again and I'm working a lot.

I was filing papers for government disability at the time before I started taking it. Pain, fatigue, insomnia were just taken over my life. It made a huge difference. And there's no real downside that I'm aware of except that it's a little funny to explain to people because it's very relatively unknown. Even doctors don't seem to know much about it.

My GP has been very interested in monitoring my progress and has been gone so far as to put it in my official record, which was a step for him.

The immunologist basically ignores me. I have not been back to see him, but I've sent him progress reports and articles".

Pharmacist Tarek El-Ansary, LDN Radio Show 10 July 2019 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Linda Elsegood: My guest is Tarek El-Ansary. He's the owner of Carmel Valley Pharmacy. He's also a doctor of pharmacy. Thank you for joining us today. Tarik 

Dr Tarek El-Ansary: yes, my pleasure. Thank you for having me. 

Linda Elsegood: Could you give us your background, please? 

Dr Tarek: Yes, certainly. I've been a pharmacist for almost 21 years. I graduated in 1998 from the University of Pacific School of Pharmacy with a doctorate in pharmacy. I worked in different chain pharmacies for the first eight years. And then I went on to purchase my first pharmacy, an independent pharmacy, and it was retail on need. We barely did any compounding.  I went on to buy a few more pharmacies. And we had a lot of success with that. And then about five years ago in 2013, I started Carmel Valley pharmacy and I wanted to do something different, and, start with compounding and learn all about integrative and functional medicine that goes along with compounding. And that has really opened me up to many, many more opportunities and tools in the treatment options that are available, and it's just been, it's just been an amazing ride and process.  

Linda Elsegood: wow. How would you describe your pharmacy now? 

Dr Tarek: So my pharmacy now is really just focused on customer service and patient care. We do, we're a hybrid pharmacy, which means we do both compounding, and then we also do the retail commercially available pharmaceutical products that are made by the pharmaceutical company. So we do both. And it's a walk-in. People can come in, and we do also offer delivery and mailing, and a lot of consultations. We spend a lot of time, between myself, the pharmacist and the patient, and also interacting with the doctor, getting them involved. And we really do practice the triad of medicine, which is the relationship between the doctor, the pharmacist, and the patient.  

Linda Elsegood: We are moving towards a pharmacist in the UK playing a role. Normally if you wanted any medical advice, you got it from your doctor. You didn't get it from your pharmacist, but it's still not working. How it is working in the States because you there, you just go to the pharmacy and speak to the pharmacist, but the pharmacist doesn't relay that back to the doctor.  So we don't have it working.  It's a bit dysfunctional. Really. It's not as good as what you do so 

Dr Tarek: well, It doesn't work that often unless it's a type of pharmacy like I have when other pharmacies I've been at, which just retail me, it's still, we're still really behind on that also. 

Linda Elsegood: Okay.  

Dr Tarek: Yeah. It's just the type of practice I have now is different, and so now that triad works really well. 

Linda Elsegood: And it's so good that you look into supplements and lifestyle and things that maybe the doctor wouldn't have the chance or time to go through. 

Dr Tarek: Absolutely. You know, with the seminars I attend, I've learned so much about supplements, and unfortunately, the pharmacy schools and the medical schools are just not getting into that and teaching anything about supplements even to this day.

And so with the seminars, I'm learning a lot and doing them on myself, starting them on myself and my family members, and seeing a significant difference in our own health. And so it's giving me the firsthand knowledge to recommend for my patient. And the feedback has been really good and positive, which further reinforces, you know, an ???  to be able to carry on a message to patients who need supplements and specific areas of problems that they have.

Linda Elsegood: When did you first hear about LDN? 

Dr Tarek: Uh, I think it was a seminar I attended. I go to PCCA And a A4M seminars, at least a couple of times a year just to learn the new things and keep up on my knowledge. And, probably about three or four years ago, the first time I heard it brought up at a seminar and in it was, it just sounded, it's really exciting and amazing.

At the same time, a few prescribers in my area started prescribing it and then I was able to spread the word to other prescribers that were open to doing compounds and new things that they hadn't heard about. And so we've seen it really spread since then.  

Linda Elsegood: and you're in California. So I was just thinking about the supplementation.

Do people in California need to take Vitamin D, or do they get enough sunshine? 

Dr Tarek: I would say they still need to take vitamin D. I would say just about everybody. The average level of an American, even including California is 15 and anything below 50 is considered deficient in vitamin D. Actually if you're not above 80, you're not considered optimal. And so you don't get a lot of the preventative effects of vitamin D like preventing cancer and stimulating and really helping to have a healthy immune system. And so by just being at 50, all you're doing is helping to keep your bones healthy, but you're not really helping with the immune system.

From what I've learned, it's for every thousand units you supplement per day, you bring that level up by ten, so if you're at 15 and you take 5,000 units a day, you're going to be at about 65 so you're going to be above the 50 Mark, but you're still not going to be optimal. So that kind of gives an idea of where it is, and we do see people getting tested when they are taking and it kind of, it really does follow along those lines. 

Linda Elsegood: So how long have you been compounding LDN?

Dr Tarek: We've been doing it for probably about four years now. We opened about five years ago, a little over five years ago, and we've been doing compound LDN for the last four years.

Linda Elsegood: What forms do you compound in?

Dr Tarek: Oral,  topical and transdermal. 

Linda Elsegood: Okay. So. When you say oral, is it capsules, tablets? 

Dr Tarek: Yeah, 99% of the time we have done it as a capsule. There are a few that we've done in liquid for small children that can't swallow capsules. And then also if we want systemic absorption, we can do it in transdermal effect, where we put in a light that's on base. So it gets absorbed really well into the systemic circulation. And then topically, we've used it for scars and, and, or itching type skin reactions. We've seen great effects because usually scars and itching and like psoriasis or, or rash, that's part of the immune response. And since we know LDN has a significant effect on our immune system. We’ve been seeing it having a great effect.  

Linda Elsegood: let's 

Dr Tarek: use topically. And then with transdermal always seen it used when we want to insist into the systemic circulation, especially with small children who are on the autistic spectrum. They're getting it absorbed really well and seen great effect. 

Linda Elsegood: So do you have any case studies?

Dr Tarek: Yeah. Yes, I do. I had seen them when they were presented at some seminars. I do not have them handy. I have seen case studies done specifically just as an example, I think it was the glutathione 20% mixed with LDN, 0.5% in a transdermal cream if used with autistic children on the spectrum, and a significant effect that was. That had just by applying that each night by the parents and just rubbing it between the shoulder blades and giving the child a message at nigh with the cream and the parents, the feedback has been really good. And we have about five or six small children who get on a regular basis at our pharmacy and the feedback and the parents had, they tell me that it's made a huge difference in their children's behaviour and their life.

Linda Elsegood: So how old are the children when they starting at the end? What age are they diagnosed normally with, with autism? 

Dr Tarek: It definitely ranges and we've seen as small as four or five years old. I would say probably the most common age is around 10. I think there is a level of confusion and denial on the parents' part of not understanding what is going on with the child's behaviour when they start to present with autistic behaviour around the age of four and five that I think there are a few years where they're just not understanding what's going on and to actually take them to a physician who can make a correct diagnosis.

Linda Elsegood: Yes. I knew a little boy who was autistic. A terrible shock for the parents, I must say. 

Dr Tarek: We have a nephew in our family that is dealing with it and there were a few years of just not understanding what was going on before the diagnosis was made. 

Linda Elsegood: Yeah. I just have to tell you, we, in the first documentary, we did the LDN story, we interviewed a little boy called Jacob, and he's a piano protege. He can just play Beethoven just without looking at music, and he's so talented, but he was all. I would say it was, but of course, he still is, but he doesn't show signs of it anymore. But when he was small, he wasn't responsive to his parents. He didn't want to be hugged. He didn't want to be cuddled. And as he grew older, he just used to fight them the whole time, and regularly he used to smack his mum across the face.

And one day after he'd been on LDN, she was always saying to him, you know, I love you, Jacob. I love you, Jacob. And he just didn't respond, apart from slapping her. But this particular day she said, I love you, Jacob. And he looked at her, and I think he was three or four, and he said, “I love you, mommy.”

And she called her husband, and she said, quick, quick, get the video camera. I want to ask him again, you know, say it again and see if he'll do it, and we will record it because he may never in his life. Say it again. You know, I want to catch it. And he just went from strength to strength—a totally different child. Absolutely. Amazing story.

Dr Tarek: I think there's many like that with LDN.

Linda Elsegood: Yes. Exactly. It gives you hope, but like you were saying, it's the confusion to start with, isn't it? To get that correct diagnosis. So, yeah. Is important. So with your capsules, what filler do you use? 

Dr Tarek: There are two different fillers that we use. Typically we started with avicell, which is just very clean a filler that has no side effects, no inflammatory or reactive effects on, especially specifically to patients who have sensitivities. So we never compound with anything that would contain lactose or gluten or corn starch as a filler. But now there's been a few naturopathic doctors who. They loved the idea of compounding using the filler ginger root, because of its properties, especially with the gut health and just a soothing effect it has on the gut.

So that has been one of our common fillers now with the LDN, and other meds that we compound is using ginger root as a filler. 

Linda Elsegood: Wow. Do you know, I've not heard of that before. How interesting. Sorry, ginger. Tell, make a note of that. Wow. I love ginger. 

Dr Tarek: Yeah. Yeah. It's a great idea to mix it with their LDN.

Linda Elsegood: but of course, being a capsule, you swallow it so you wouldn't notice anyway.

You would use that. It was ginger. 

Dr Tarek: Yeah. You don't get the bad taste. Yeah. 

Linda Elsegood: Oh, bad taste. I love the taste of ginger. 

Dr Tarek: Well, it can, it can have some good tastes, but I think the ginger root powder that we, you know, that we're using its a clean powder, but it does have a little bit of a bitter taste.

Linda Elsegood: does it?

Okay. So what would you say your main patient population is that use LDN? Would you know that? 

Dr Tarek: Yeah. Uh, I would say it's adults over the age of 18 mostly getting it in capsule form. The most common dosing that we see is 2.3 or 4.5 milligram where the, you know, the vast majority is definitely below 4.5 milligram due to the fact that most studies show that the modulating effects of the receptor happen below 4.5 milligrams and we just, I don't think there are enough studies out there to know what happens when we go above 4.5, and I think the consensus is there's not really a need to go above 4.5 for most uses and that we see the effect, the response we want below 4.5 without the side effects. And so that's what we mostly see and the uses, it just ranges significantly between just gut issues, any autoimmune issue, neurological issues and pain. And on and on, it just seems like they keep coming up with a medical diagnosis that they try it on and they see good effects and the side effect profile, even though it's listed as sleep disturbance or vivid dreams. In speaking to my patients, and we have a few hundred different patients getting it each month. The feedback has maybe been one or two has actually told me that they thought they had a, it affected their sleep, but then again, you know, there's a lot of things that could affect our sleep.

So it could have been a coincidence. 

Linda Elsegood: Yes. It seems to be a drug that is well tolerated. I'm must say from my fifteen years of experience of talking to doctors and pharmacists and patients. The people who mainly tend to notice side effects are people that are ultra-sensitive to drugs, and it's usually people who've got fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome. Those people seem to be so ultra-sensitive that they have to start very, very low and increase very, very slow. People get there if they're patient. But yeah, if you find it is too much for you, it's definitely an idea to have a very low dose and increase slowly. 

Dr Tarek: Yeah, and that's a great point. And the patients who do require the slow titration up, we do the 0.5-milligram capsules, and it's anywhere from every three to seven days. They start to increase from one capsule a night to the second capsule to go to one milligram, and they slowly increase as they can tolerate it, so they get their desired effect, and then we stay at that dose.

Linda Elsegood: I mean, there are some doctors who prescribe up to six milligrams, some even go higher, but there are quite a few that try six. And with the chronic fatigue, there are some doctors who actually use double dosing, night and morning. And it's reported that those patients get more of the boost of energy, which is very helpful in those cases. What about thyroid patients? Do you have many of those on LDN? 

Dr Tarek: We do, specifically when they have autoimmune, when the underlying cause of their thyroid issues is autoimmune, which I think that the large majority of them, and you know, specifically Hashimoto's. When the doctor OD is open and familiar with the uses of LDN, and they do use that on those patients, we're able to see a reduction in dose and their thyroid medication and supplementation, and we're seeing thyroid antibodies reduce just by initiating LDN. 

Linda Elsegood: That's amazing, isn't it? How that happens.

Dr Tarek: about, do you use more often in the ones that said it is helping, 

Linda Elsegood: but I mean, the people are using it for Hashimoto's, hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, Graves' disease, Sjogren's syndrome. I mean, they're all thyroid, aren't they? And there was a paper written on Sjogren's syndrome last week, which was interesting.

Yeah. So, yeah. And then you get people who think, how can LDN work for so many different conditions, but it's to do with the autoimmune component. We didn't realize 15 years ago how well LDN worked for pain. It doesn't have to be a condition that is all autoimmune, which causes the pain for the LDN to work. Yeah. And neuropathic pain, especially in diabetics, it works really well for phantom limb pain as well is, another quite new thing that I've learned about, but there is always something happening with LDN. I don't know whether it's common knowledge yet in California, but. pain specialists are using ultra-low-dose naltrexone alongside opioids and weaning patients off the opioids.

That's very exciting. We're actually going to be filming a documentary on LDN and pain because there are so many patients who are addicted to pain medications through no fault of their own. You know, they haven't been buying drugs on a street corner. These are prescription drugs, and it's still the same, isn't it? To try and get off those medications. You still go through the awful withdrawal symptoms, but by using ultra-low-dose naltrexone where you. I'm starting on a microdose and increase that slowly, decrease the opioid and the people that I've spoken to who it worked really well for. It's amazing. Totally amazing.

And quite quickly, because I thought you'd have to do it over a long period of time, but it doesn't seem to be as long as I would think. 

Dr Tarek: Yeah. And those ultra micro low doses, are generally very low. So it's really important for anybody who wants to try it. They really need to be careful and, and understand instead of the dosing we've been talking about thus far, which is 0.5, up to 4.5 milligrams, uh, with, with people who are on opioids, we currently, we want to go start at 0.001 milligrams, so a very ultra-low dose. And because we don't want to throw them into withdrawal and cause them more harm, we want to try to help them.

Linda Elsegood: Exactly. And it's something that you would never, ever try and do on your own. It has to be under medical supervision because you could become stuck.  Definitely. 

Dr Tarek: Yeah. 

Linda Elsegood:  What pain conditions have you your patients been using LDN for?

Dr Tarek:  I've seen it used for some fibromyalgia patients. And some neuropathic pain patients we've asked. We've also included it in our transdermal pain creams, so we are starting to add that into there and seen a lot of, a lot of great results with it. I wish we could use it with, uh—complex regional pain syndrome. The problem is those patients are generally all already on high doses of opioids, so we can't use it on them. But we have seen that it's really effective for those patients. But the patients that we have at our pharmacy, they're already on really high doses of opioids, so they just can't be on it. 

Linda Elsegood: Well, maybe they could try the ultra-low dose. 

Dr Tarek: Yeah, they could. You know, we were just starting to learn about it.

And that’s the exciting thing about LDN is we're constantly in a learning phase with this. And so we're learning more and more uses and more and more types of doses and, and, that's something that we, we want to try to communicate to those physicians that are treating those patients. And. hopefully, we can get an open ear that's open to learning more about it.

Linda Elsegood: Yes. I mean, Dr. Deepak Chopra wrote a paper long while ago now, probably 2015 on complex regional pain syndrome and LDN, not a very interesting paper, but there are more and more pain specialists looking into LDN for pain. And I have spoken to many patients who are not on just morphine or fentanyl patches, but a cocktail of medication and they say that their pain is still on a score of one to 10, 10 being worst, nine on a daily basis.

And it's awful to think that people have to suffer like that, isn't it? 

Dr Tarek: Yeah, I agree.  Yeah, I have a young lady who comes to our pharmacy regularly who has the condition and, when it's acting up, and she comes in, you can, she's just kind of , bent over and walking very slowly, and you can tell that her pain is definitely at a ten on a scale of one to 10 and even though she is currently on high doses of opioids, it's just no stopping it. The pain is at a ten and, and she can't seem to find any relief at that point. Very, very hard to see someone suffer like that.

Linda Elsegood: Unless you've witnessed it and experienced what pain can be like. You think that you know you've got a headache, you take two paracetamol, you feel okay, but there is pain out there that does seem untreatable, doesn't it? Yeah, I can remember. Yes. Dr Samyadev Datta, he's also a pain specialist, and he was telling me how he has a practice, but he also works in the hospital, and he will get a phone call in the middle of the night that there's a patient, you know, screaming out in pain, the pain levels that are a ten and he will go in, and he'll say, okay. This patient is on 14 painkillers on this cocktail. They’re on too many pain medications. It's not going to work. You've got to take them off this, this, this and this, and sorting it all out. But he's very for LDN and ultra-low-dose and there is so much more coming in this in the next year, I am sure because. The PCCA, talking about LDN, more other conferences or talking about LDN? We have an LDN conference not that far from you really, is it? California? Portland in Oregon. 

Dr Tarek: Yeah. Great.

Linda Elsegood: Hopefully, we will be able to get you there. Because meeting all these people and actually being able to put your questions to them. It's an amazing tool. Amazing tool. Well, if you would like to tell our listeners how they can contact you and what your website addresses, that would be good. 

Dr Tarek: Yes. So the name of my pharmacy is Carmel Valley Pharmacy. The website is CarmelValleyPharmacy.com. And the phone number is (858) 481-4990. And lastly, my email, and if you go to the website, you can find my email, but just to mention it, it is, CarmelValleyRX@yahoo.com and I can be reached at any of those ways and I would be happy to receive any more questions or orders for prescriptions or any needs that you have with compounding or regular prescriptions 

Linda Elsegood: Thank you.

Dr Tarek: It was my pleasure. Thank you for the invite.

Linda Elsegood: Carmel Valley Pharmacy is a family-owned independent pharmacy with a mission to provide the best pharmacy experience possible with exceptional customer service, access to knowledgeable pharmacists and cost-friendly prices. Cool. (858) 481-4990.  Call Carmell Valley pharmacy.com the friendly store for their state of the art compounding lab and waiting to help you.

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

Sheila - US: Fibromyalgia (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Sheila is a nurse. Her symptoms began in 2010 and included generalized pain, crying, and fatigue/no energy. When her neurologist diagnosed her fibromyalgia, she rated her quality of life as 3 on a 10-point scale. She also takes amitriptyline for migraine. She was seeing a doctor who balances hormones who finally suggested Sheila try low dose naltrexone (LDN). At first it interfered with her sleep so she continued taking melatonin, Benadryl, or Xanax to help fall asleep; but she quickly noticed improved mood. After 2 months at 1.5 mg fatigue returned, so her doctor increased her to 3 mg for a month without improvement, then to 4.5 mg. Vivid dreams were a problem, but she takes LDN in the morning and is doing well. She rates her quality of life now as 9 on a 10-point scale. Her sister also has fibromyalgia and is starting LDN. Her sister’s husband has an autoimmune disease - inclusion body myositis – and started LDN and his mood is improved and he’s energetic. Her niece has lupus and will start LDN soon. Sheila recommends LDN to anyone with fibromyalgia, MS, or any autoimmune disease.

Keywords: pain, crying, fatigue, fibromyalgia, autoimmune, inclusion body myositis, lupus, MS, LDN, low dose naltrexone

Summary of Sheila’s interview, please listen to the video for the full story. Any questions or comments you may have, please Contact Us. I look forward to hearing from you.

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

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

Dr Sarah Zielsdorf is a relatively new prescriber of Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN), yet her knowledge of autoimmune diseases etc. is certainly convincing throughout this interview. 

Having Hashimoto's and Hypothyroidism gives her the perspective of the patient. Her “extra" education in Functional, Integrative, and Holistic medicines makes her very qualified to treat a host of illnesses. She prescribes LDN, but does thorough tests to arrive at the best combination of treatments including diet, exercise, detox, and proper medications.

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