LDN Video Interviews and Presentations

 

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LDN Webinar 18 May 2022 (LDN; low dose naltrexone)

LDN Questions Answered Live by

Pharmacist Dr Masoud Rashidi - LDN Specialist
Dr Sato-Re
Dr Mathewson

Sponsored by Innovative Compounding Pharmacy icpfolsom.com

 

 

Pharmacist Michelle Moser, LDN Key to Success (LDN, low dose naltrexone)

Review: Michelle Moser has 35 years experience as a Pharmacist and is very experienced with the utilization of LDN (Low one Naltrexone). She volunteers her knowledge as an a LDN specialist with the LDNresearchtrust.org. Her 21 minute presentation covers how they supply a thorough service to their customers, with advice and council on dosing and related help for a variety of conditions. She explains how LDN can be used along with most other drugs, even opioids if the LDN is micro dosed and immediate release. All autoimmune conditions can benefit from LDN.

Review by Ken Bruce

Linda Elsegood: Welcome to the LDN Radio Show brought to you by the LDN Research Trust. I'm your host Linda Elsegood. I have an exciting lineup of guest speakers who are LDN experts in their field. We will be discussing low dose naltrexone and its many uses in autoimmune diseases, cancers, etc. Thank you for joining us.

Linda Elsegood: Today I'd like to welcome back our guest pharmacist, Michelle Moser who's also one of our LDN Specialists. Thank you for joining us today, Michelle.

Michelle Moser: Oh, thank you so much for having me. It's certainly my pleasure.

Linda Elsegood: So we're all keen and eager, and as people can see, you've put “Keys To Success” up there, so take it away.

Michelle Moser: Thank you, thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity to share some information with everybody today that really goes over not only how patients can find their success, but how providers can also enhance patient outcomes. So here we go. The first thing I want wanted to address is that low dose naltrexone plays really well with other therapies. It's not necessarily medication that is used all by itself all the time, and that is a question that comes up from not only patients, but from providers as well, wanting to know, well, the patient is taking this this and this. Can I use LDN? And the answer almost always is yes, and the main reason is that even if we are using or prescribing opiates for patients with chronic pain, depending on how those opiates are being utilized throughout the day, LDN might still be an option. Very few times is it that LDN is not something you can start. It doesn't have very many drug interactions, so LDN is brilliant for a wide variety of indications. And as we know, as so many more autoimmune diagnoses are being found every year, I think now there's something like 100, 120 some, maybe even 140 autoimmune disorders, low dose naltrexone is a wonderful fit for most of those patients.

But we also have other dosing, such as very-low-dose, which is 50 to maybe 250 micrograms. And then we have ultra-low dosing, which stems from the oxytrial study where we were using only microgram dosing, one, two, three, four micrograms, alongside short-acting opiate medications to help reduce the need for those opiates and replace it with low dose naltrexone. Because we know that low dose naltrexone not only helps to intermittently block those pain receptors, but also helps to reduce not only inflammation and those pro-inflammatory cytokines, but we can also see that low dose naltrexone helps to modulate the immune system. And there's a wide variety of studies that have been published to emphasize exactly those parameters. So if you're needing those, either reach out to the LDN Research Trust or your local compounding pharmacist. Sometimes we have those available, as well some of the other things that we use in our compounding lab and compound on literally a daily basis, because low dose naltrexone is used for a lot of inflammation issues, autoimmune, chronic pain.

We can also use low dose naltrexone for some of those other nuanced areas such as traumatic brain injury PTSD, depression, and anxiety; and we've heard from a wide variety of wonderful practitioners during the LDN Research Trust conferences on those specific areas. But when we're able to use other medications in combination with LDN; I don't mean like in the same capsule or in the same liquid, I just mean side-by-side dosing; we can see that oxytocin, especially in a nasal spray, is incredibly helpful to help build that sense of connection, to help alleviate depression and grief, as well as go after some of those imposed pain areas. And oxytocin is one of those medications that is very easy to administer in a nasal spray, even in sublingual drops. But it is very sensitive to heat, so we have to be very careful about what dosage forms we're using. We don't use oral capsules with oxytocin. The stomach acid kind of wipes out its activity. So we need to find alternative forms for that.

But also if you're needing low dose naltrexone for dermatology issues then we can combine it with mast cell stabilizers like ketotin or either other anti-inflammatories, even tranexamic acid, to help decrease some of the redness, in that dermatology issue. And even the autoimmune dermatology products, we're very careful about the bases that we put low dose naltrexone in so that we can control exactly how deep we want that therapy to go. So not every base is going to work, because we really need to individualize that therapy for that condition.
Of course we use low dose naltrexone in a situation with ketamine, which is a non-opiate pain medication as well. And because ketamine works on different receptors than low dose naltrexone we don't see the withdrawal. We actually see the enhancement of that pain control. So there's a a lot of options here.

And lastly, I wanted to address synapsin, which is this wonderful combination of medications. It's a ginseng derivative along with an NAD that again helps to reduce the central inflammation in the brain. And when we use it in a nasal spray, of course that helps with the neural transmission directly to the brain.

As a pharmacist, when a patient is new to low dose naltrexone, or even comes to us because a provider would prefer to use our pharmacy, we emphasize that low dose naltrexone is not a cure-all drug. It actually doesn't really cure anything, but what it does do is it helps to trick the body to work on its own pathways, and much more effectively, and much more efficiently.

So when we set up the expectations, we want patients to know that this isn't like taking something like an aspirin or a Tylenol. It's going to take a little while for this medication to provide full benefit. And we also know that low dose naltrexone isn't for everybody. But when we start low with the dosing and slowly increase, that we can actually see patient outcomes in greater than 50, actually approaching 80 to 90 percent of the time, which as a pharmacist, I've been a pharmacist for over 35 years, I don't recall any other medication providing that high of patient outcome, and that high patient benefit. So we also let patients know that this is a therapy that we're going to start with a low dose, slowly increase over time, and when we find their happy dose, which may be 4.5 milligrams, might be less than that; in some situations we might actually split the dose and take some in the morning and some at night; again completely individualized therapies. We let them know that most respond in about 60 days, so you got to give it some time. And with that I try to emphasize that most of the time, by the time patients are finding low dose naltrexone either through their provider or through the suggestion of their pharmacists or other chat groups, that they have been years into their therapy without great outcomes, without great success. They've used maybe even a wide variety of providers, a wide variety of alternative therapies, and now they're going to give low dose naltrexone a shot. So don't expect everything to just magically go away in a week. That's not going to happen. And in some situations, even when we're dealing with the same disease state - so let's say we're talking about fibromyalgia patients - some respond very quickly, others do take about four to six months to respond. Even with Crohn's disease, we've heard from Dr Leonard Weinstock during the LDN Research Trust conferences, that most of his patients really respond somewhere around the four-month mark. So that is very important, so that we make sure that patients are compliant on their therapies, and that they understand that the pharmacy and the provider will be checking in with them to make sure that they're still doing well, and then if there are any questions, that come up, we can answer those right then and there rather than answering them after they've stopped their therapy.

One thing we've also learned over the years with low dose naltrexone is that often less is more. So increasing the dose frequency beyond twice a day is not necessarily very helpful, and certainly going above maybe even six milligrams isn't usually as effective as lower doses, especially when we're dealing with autoimmune conditions. Now if we're dealing with weight loss, then we then we move into a little bit different realm. But again that therapy is taken once or twice a day, so again it's about treating that individual and making sure that that individual is heard, is listened to, and is able to express their goals so that we can effectively meet those.

And I wanted to throw this in there too, that we had a gal who slowly increased her dose, and when she was at 3 milligrams she felt great. She got up to 3.5, she wasn't feeling as good, and she went up to 4 and she still wasn't feeling very good. So we bumped her back down to 3 and then we slowly increased with 0.1 milligram dosing, which is itty-bitty, but sometimes even that 0.1 milligram makes all the difference in the world. And her happy dose was 3.1 milligrams. So it was great, and that's where she stayed, and she's been at that dose now for a couple of years. We also let patients know that yes, the pharmacy will check in with you periodically, usually around week 3 or 4, but don't wait for us. If something comes up, please get a hold of us, please let us know how we can help you, because we'd much rather answer those questions sooner than later, or have them stop therapy altogether, and really have to start all back at square one. So when we're slowly increasing these doses, we try to make it as easy as possible for the patient to understand. So whether we're dealing with capsules or liquids, we've built these great handouts so that patients understand how to slowly increase their dose without taking literally a handful of capsules at a time. That isn't necessarily the best way to go about it, because then they have to wash it down with a lot of water, and if dosing is at bedtime, that could very much disrupt their sleep because they've got to get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom. So we provide these handouts, and we color code them, because we provide two different strengths in two different colored bottles, and we emphasize that as we are reading from left to right rather than using the columns top to bottom. Then we're going to be able to use a little bit of out of one bottle or the other bottle concurrently as we slowly increase that dose. But we also have liquids that we use, and this liquid starter kit includes a lot more color, mainly because we slowly associate the color with the gradation, and this is actually a twice a day dosing starter kit that we use with a liquid base, because liquids are a lot easier to manipulate and find those doses that are going to be specific to them. Not everybody uses doses that are the same in the morning or at night. Sometimes one end is higher than the other.

Also, using an oil suspension is going to give a longer dating for the patient. Their bottle is going to last longer than 30 days, and that's also very pleasing to the patient, because they're very cost conscious, as they should be, because the majority of the time these medications are out of pocket expenditures. We offer an almond oil base, an olive oil base, or an MCT oil base which is derived from coconut oil. We can splash it with a natural flavor like tangerine, lemon, mint, cinnamon; and then in some situations we might actually add a little natural sweetener like a Stevia. W at this pharmacy really steer away from artificial sweeteners because we find that sometimes that actually increases inflammation, and we're also really careful about the oils that we are using. These are not cosmetic or traditional food-grade, these are bases that are backed by the United States Pharmacopoeia with a national monograph behind those.

We also are really careful about the fillers that we put in our capsules, and we work again with that individual to ensure that we're using a filler that is going to best meet their needs. All of the capsules are immediately released. We do not use any extended-release product, because that does slow down the absorption. A lot of times there's absorption issues to begin with, and certainly if we do extend the release of the naltrexone, we are actually bypassing and negating the science behind how naltrexone actually works at that receptor site. Most of the time we're using a microcrystalline cellulose, but we do have other fillers as well, so again we let them know we try to make this as easy as possible. But if it is at all confusing when the patient goes over their medication, we ask that they call the pharmacy. Let's go over those questions right away to make sure that they are getting the best information for the greatest success possible

So with our patient follow-up programs, we identify those individuals who have recently received their medications, and we kind of look at where they're at in their in their dosing schedule. We give them a call or we send them a text, “Hey we'd like to check in with you. We want to make sure everything is going well”. And we also realize that not all patients are available 9 to 5 when the pharmacy is open. Sometimes we need to schedule conversations outside of business hours, and so we make sure that that is available to a patient so that all of their needs are being met. We check in with them at least once during their first month, but we always reiterate to the patient if something comes up, get a hold of us, and this is how. We have an email option, we have a texting option, and we have a phone call option as well.

We also let them know that as dosing adjustments are being made. sometimes side effects might crop up. and so we let them know exactly what those are. Sometimes it is vivid dreams, but often when we have vivid dreams we know LDN is working, because it's helping us get into that REM sleep cycle. But if those vivid dreams become disturbing or change our sleep patterns, then we want to move the dosing schedule. We also let them know that if there's a little bit of a headache, how to alleviate that, and how long that those side effects might persist, and when they should expect those to go away. And if they're having issues with perhaps constipation, we explain that as well, because sometimes even these very small side effects can allow a patient or cause a patient to back off of their therapy and abruptly stop.

Answering the questions as they come up again are keys to success. This is how we allow our patients to communicate so that we are acknowledging what is going on with them, and they feel heard and understood. Anytime that we can alleviate side effects only allows for a better health program and for greater success, and this is when really their prescriber or their provider becomes the hero in all of this, because they suggested a therapy that is finally working for them, maybe even after years or decades of them searching for a really good way to feel better, perhaps even feel normal.

When we enhance compliance, of course we see better outcomes. When a patient is heard, when they are allowed the time to explain what's going on with them, they take ownership of their own care, and in our experience at our pharmacy, we find that when a patient takes ownership over their care, they're more likely to then be fully engaged and follow other processes or programs that may be in place by the provider. Often that leads to less phone calls to the provider office, less insignificant or issues that could be dealt with over a simple phone call, maybe even less visits to the emergency room mental health, which is always a concern, and especially in the last couple of years with stress and anxiety and depression, we see that even using low dose naltrexone can be beneficial in helping some of those areas where patients may not have been using low dose naltrexone as a primary concern, but they realize that oh my gosh, these other symptoms have disappeared too. And that's always a great benefit. We see increased patient compliance, and always better patient outcomes.

But truly, because low dose naltrexone is such a low-risk, low-side-effect, it's a low dose and honestly, it's a very low cost medication. That safety margin is much better than most commercially available prescription medications. The minimal drug interactions make it a prime candidate for the use of low dose naltrexone in the majority of health concerns and diagnoses, and quite honestly, we have over 30 years of research behind low dose naltrexone. So if you're looking for great science in using a medication that is beneficial for many many people not just in the short term but over decades. This is where we really say, “Why not try low dose naltrexone. It's a fabulous way to really get after some of those chronic issues that maybe will enhance a lifestyle, and be able to allow somebody to cross things off of their bucket list.

So here we are. I want to thank Linda for the opportunity to chat with everyone today and certainly, if there's any questions that I can help with, please let me know. This is my personal email, and these are questions, and my cell, as well as my store phone number. So I'm happy to help. Thanks so much Linda.

Linda Elsegood: Thank you! Any questions or comments you may have, please email me, Linda, at linda@ldnrt.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.

 

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.

Judy - US: Sympathetic Autonomic Nervous System Disorder, PTSD (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Linda Elsegood: I'd like to introduce Judy from the U.S. She was diagnosed with sympathetic autonomic nervous system disorder due to chronic PTSD and trauma. Thanks for joining us today, Judy. 

Judy: [00:01:13] Thank you. 

Linda Elsegood: [00:01:15] So could you tell us how old were you when you noticed you are experiencing problems with your health? 

Judy: [00:01:26] I didn't experience, I didn't know.

 I think my, now looking back, I think my mental health was, um, was a factor, um, because I, I grew up in a sick family. Basically.

So, um, you know, I mean, well, I'm not physically, I really wasn't a sick child, right. But, um, I was like in the middle of a lot of trauma in the family, a lot. And, um, I guess it affected me since I was younger. My. I, um, felt my, um, uh, like my mother, like really involved me in her life. She was, uh, she was, you know, she told me she was going to commit suicide and she would be bulimic and she, it was just like a mess.

It was until she passed. And, um. I think I think as a child I was very distraught. Uh, I, uh, I just, it just affected me. I see pictures of myself where I had like dark circles under my eyes from when I was little. So, um. You know, it's like, to the extent of it, it just, like, I'm so far past it, but it was, uh, I was in constant turmoil and, uh, and neglected, neglected.

So, um, I, I really think that it had an effect on me. 

Linda Elsegood: [00:03:33] And what about your teenage years 

Judy: [00:03:37] and my teenage years, I was just, um. You know, I, I think I tied myself to people that I shouldn't have tied myself to. I was over empathetic. Um, just did what people wanted me to do, wanted people to like me and felt ugly when I was told the opposite.

It just, um, it was like I looked back at it now and that's just the way I was, but I had no self-esteem. Um. I just, uh, I was a mess. Yeah. I was just, uh, uh, I just, I was like, I was sick and then everybody came and talked to, but it, but I didn't have anybody to talk to. And I did. I wouldn't, I was, I was in bed.

I was ashamed, really. Okay. And I kind of, I buried everything. 

Linda Elsegood: [00:04:31] And how old were you when you got married? 

Judy: [00:04:35] I was 25. 

Linda Elsegood: [00:04:39] And how was your health? 

Judy: [00:04:43] Um, my health was fine. Actually, I haven't had a fever since I was 22. Um, the neurologist actually added in that he thinks that I had an immune disorder also.

Um, and I didn't understand because I said I was checked for autoimmune and it was negative, but he said, he told me no, if there's an immune disorder, which is, he says you can't check for that. And I, I think, I know, I think I understand now a little bit more. But, um, yeah, so, um, yeah, it was a, it was a mental issue.

Then. Like I said, I would be, since I was 22, I haven't had a fever, but, um, my, uh, I see that like certain things, especially with this disease, it, um, it. Really, um, it regulates your temperature. So my temperature always was like 96, uh, regulates your blood pressure. I would, when I got my period when I was a teenager every month, it was extremely painful.

And during those painful periods, I would, uh, my, my, uh, blood pressure would dive down. My heart would race, I would sweat and I would almost pass out. And, uh, this is just the way my life was. I would just, my, my blood pressure always took a dive and, uh, but it felt like my heart was racing out of control.

 I see that even as a youth, I, I felt full fast, couldn't consume liquids, but I didn't know any better. I think that was, that was me. I was. Over concerned about my weight. I just, because I was heavy at one point and then, uh, lost weight and people treated me different and I was just, I've always been consumed about like, I had no self-esteem, no self-awareness you see that now?

And, um, and then just life was. On. I just was, I was, as I got older, I got, I was over empathetic. I was just like, I would take care of everybody and I couldn't untie myself to them. They would, I just, I'm thinking back, I can't believe the way I was, um, until now, until, um, until this pill. I wrote something on the website just saying like, it's not even half of what I thought it was, I was just, I downplayed everything. Molestation, grade, everything.  

Linda Elsegood: [00:07:45] So before you started LDN,  what would you say your health was like? 

Judy: [00:07:53] Okay, so I got to a point. Where I downplayed everything and I absorbed the pain and I would go to the gym and just accept that I would almost pass out afterwards.

And, but then I got pain. I got pain in my neck, like really bad. I couldn't ignore it. Um, and I heard cracking in my skull and even my husband heard it from the outside. Um. And nerve pain, like shot down my arm to my finger, to my trigger finger. And my hips were always inflamed, but I just absorbed it and I went to the gym.

So I, I went to, um, uh, physical therapy and I did about 15 sessions of that. And then my other side, I had an MRI on my neck and it said bone spurs and my other side, um. I had my bicep tendon inflamed. So they gave me an ultrasound, saw was inflamed and gave me a cortisone shot and, um, that didn't help.

The only thing that helped me was, um, I was prescribed Gabapentin at night. Um, and so all I took was Gabapentin and I took Xanax for 36 years to sleep because I never got tired. I had, um, I would rev up at night. Um, and that's, this is after kids if I didn't sleep. Uh, poor days. I was, I was, uh, I would, my body would get tight and I would have heart racing.

My hair was falling out. Um, uh, like in clumps, and they just said panic attacks and alopecia anxiety and gave me Paxil and, and it still was falling out today with breaking off. But now it's not. Now it's growing in. I just thought it was just like regular breakage now, but now I see the new growth and, and um, my husband doesn't see as much hair in the, in the, um, drain.

Um, I thought all this was normal. I had, you know, I just, I thought certain things were cosmetic, um, like I could on the site. My, my feet, my, I mean, people can't believe it, but my feet were blue all the time. My toes started getting numb. My right foot started turning out. Um, my eyes were always dilated. I just, uh, I think pain-wise I hit a wall.

Um, but I at least I got some relief from the Gabapentin at first before the LDN.  so. 

Linda Elsegood: [00:10:54] So when you started LDN, how long did it take before you noticed improvements in those symptoms?

Judy: [00:11:00] Well, in, I just couldn't believe it, and in like three weeks that my feet, what I thought was normal, started turning a regular color and I was, I didn't think that was possible.

I just thought these were my legs when I took that picture. That I put on this site. I, um, I, I took that picture, just sent it to my husband because my toes were down, but I thought it was the shoes and he's, and, but he even like didn't panic cause those were my feet, you know, all the time. Um, so three weeks it cleared like physical things started clearing up.

I had done it corral Asus, um, like I couldn't go to the bathroom. I always use certain things to go to the bathroom. I woke up, I started going to the bathroom. I started drinking fluids easier. Um, I didn't know that. Like that was not my normal. I started my, I wasn't full as fast and have been like that all my life, like just extended full.

Everything physically started changing. Even my depth perception, my eyes. It was like, but most of all. I got really nervous because I didn't know what was going on. I had like, I buried a lot. I had strong reactions. I see. Um. Uh, people wouldn't know this because I was joke around, but I cared about how people felt.

Everything got to me. I just like it really, I couldn't control my reactions, but I didn't voice them. I didn't communicate. And, um, uh, every, all of a sudden I'm just being like, nothing bothers me. It's very, it's very strange. I just like went from one extreme to the other, but without trying, like, without working on myself, not knowing that there was something wrong.

So, um, physically I started changing mentally. It was like just so siding. It was very, um, very straight. And my husband actually said, I think you have PTSD. And I got angry and upset because, um. That's what military people have, not, not me. No, I was embarrassed. So you know, so it just went like that and the answer, I still have the physical changes, but I just, it took me a while to get adjusted to this because it was, I was driven by extreme anxiety.

Like my father had Alzheimer's. I was afraid I was going in that direction. But I think it was the opposite. I was like, I would be so clear-minded when I didn't even know I was foggy before. And  I went into, um, I went into the city, New York with, um, with my husband to see a play with my daughter and her boyfriend.

And I was in the theatre with them and I was, I was still taking low dose naltrexone, but I was in a theatre and the theatre was extremely cold. And like everybody was cold, you know, they just, , but when I came out, I had this reaction where my insides felt weak and they were, I've never felt this way before.

I've trembled before and I used to tremble all the time, but my insides felt like they were going to come out. And now I see it. While I was getting used to this, and because of this condition, my temperature goes 93 like in the house and in the theatre, it must've been like. Dropped, um, because I've, I've actually had hypothermia before, but this was severe.

This was, um, this, I felt like I must've been going into shock. Um, but that's all I can explain too. And every day it took, so it took a while for me to get adjusted to it, um, because I just felt very strange for months. And also not myself. And I was communicating. There were things that just lifted that I didn't even know were there.

And, um, I, it, it scared me. Even sleep. Sleep was so unnatural to me and now I was tired. I was never tired before. I was all hyped up. So physically, I just, even my friend said, I drive better. I was like on and off with a gaseous, my depth perception was. Well, if I was always on guard, I see that now. Um, mentally.

Um, it was, it was hard to get used to because I was just such, I became such a different person, um, than I was. And now I can look back and I feel, I don't feel like my past, I feel like, I know I was my past, I woke up and. I had, I was also somebody who was a compulsive shopper. I woke up and  I looked around, I couldn't believe what I had.

Like I just started getting rid of things. I didn't have that feeling of, of uh, needing stuff. It's just like I, and to me it was, that's a normal person, but I didn't know I was abnormal.  I really. It's, it sounds, I always blame things on, no, just asthmatic or whatever. But as I was getting better, if somebody upset me, I can feel the tops of my, my feet tingle.

Um, my stomach was regurgitating and I actually came home from being upset, shaking, and I, I actually. We went to bed. If I cord blood from, from my rectum, it was an, I thought, well, maybe those are haemorrhoids. But now it was just my whole nervous system affecting my nerves. My feet were tingling back up.

They were called. It was just, my reactions were still getting. Um, I was getting used to it. It was quite a ride. 

Linda Elsegood: [00:17:34] What is your health like now 

Judy: [00:17:35]  It is like never before. Uh, I, first of all, I've, we, uh, my husband's a firefighter and, uh, he's also, um, on the medicine because when I was getting used to, he's also had like, he's his, he, he was like, I can't explain it.

He was like, I see that he didn't take social cues, and that was part of my. Like marriage things. So I like you went to the doctor, he put on medicine. He's totally different now. I am so totally different. I'm easy going. I drink fluids and eat differently. I have self-esteem. I've got nervous. I see that.

I must've lived my life as being nervous. I would never have been able to do this with you. I was just nervous. I see that I was depressed. I feel I guess I, I feel what normal people feel I used to put, getting, you know, this condition, it makes your swallowing like choking. Um, like all your natural reflexes are, they don't, they don't work.

The things that people don't think about. And I looked back and I. I see that I would like, I would choke on food as it younger child. Like it was just because this nervous system, everything that works that you don't think of your eyesight, your swallowing, your temperature, your heart racing, your stomach, your, um, I had chronic kidney disease because I couldn't.

Take in fluids like a normal person. It took me a whole day to drink a little bottle of water, and now I see, I can, I see it now that that's not normal, but I didn't know it before, so, um, yeah, even I was, uh, given medical marijuana and I was just like when I was in pain, I. I would try to smoke it and it would, medical marijuana always made me crazy, but it made my pain heightened and I was, I felt like an Alzheimer's patient and this is like, I didn't, I got a like a severe reaction for medical marijuana.

And now since I've been on low dose naltrexone, it is totally different than my whole life. It just calms me. Go to sleep. Um, before it used to make my whole body shake. It changed something in my body, uh, changed my whole life. And, uh, I just, I find it amazing because I didn't even know anything was wrong with me.

I just, I'm more comfortable with myself. I didn't have a strong sense of self. I never had it before. I don't. I liked my own company. I see myself differently. I don't see myself ugly anymore. I just, my, my body's totally different. I don't, I have very, um, I, I like people more. If I speak my mind, and, and it sounds strange, but I never did.

I always buried it. I was always, I would always listen to people. I was afraid they wouldn't like me. Yeah. Everything has changed. 

Linda Elsegood: [00:21:01] We've come to the end. But what a remarkable story it was amazing.

Judy: [00:21:25] That is amazing. It is amazing. Really. I'm just so grateful that if I didn't walk into that doctor if I didn't find you guys, I don't even know what would become of me so. Um, 

Linda Elsegood: [00:21:42] thank you so much for sharing your experience with us. 

Judy: Thank you, Linda. I appreciate it. 

Linda Elsegood: [00:21:53] This show is sponsored by our members who made donations.

We'd like to give them a very big thank you. We have to cover the monthly costs of the radio station software and with phone lines and phone calls to be able to continue with the show. And thank you for listening.

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

Transcripts are only 90% accurate you can watch the video 

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

Dr Richard Nahas shares their Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN)

Dr Richard Nahas is an LDN prescriber from Ottawa in Canada specialising in Brain Function and Brain Health.

Dr Nahas practices in Ottawa, Canada at the Seekers Centre. He was an ER doctor for 5 years and in 2004 was involved in dealing with the SARS outbreak. He traveled extensively to other countries to observe the varied medical systems. 

For the past 12 years he has specialized in brain function and brain health. He explains how he does functional brain assessments through QEEG tests combined with observations of other neuropathic complaints. 

He has utilized LDN for a decade, and describes the various ways brain and nerve damage affects our health. This interview touches on Chronic Regional Pain syndrome, Neuroplasticity, and pain thresholds. He explains how pain is related to sleep disorders, inflammation, mood, injuries and diseases.

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

Dr Richard Nahas, LDN Radio Show 12 April 2017 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

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

Dr Richard Nahas is an LDN prescriber from Ottawa in Canada specialising in Brain Function and Brain Health.Dr Richard Nahas practices in Ottawa, Canada at the Seekers Centre. 

He was an ER doctor for 5 years, and in 2004 was involved in dealing with the SARS outbreak. He traveled extensively to other countries to observe the varied medical systems. For the past 12 years he has specialized in brain function and brain health. 

He explains how he does functional brain assessments through QEEG tests combined with observations of other neuropathic complaints. He has used LDN for over ten years, and describes the various ways brain and nerve damage affects our health. 

This interview touches upon Chronic Regional Pain syndrome, Neuroplasticity and pain thresholds. He explains how pain is related to sleep disorders, inflammation, mood, injuries and other diseases.

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

Dr Pat Crowley, LDN Radio Show 18 Dec 2016 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

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

Dr Pat Crowley is a retired GP from Kilkenny in Ireland, and he's been prescribing Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) since 2004. He graduated from a university college in Dublin in 1968 and went on to have an extensive 40-year career in the pharmaceutical industry.

Throughout his career he has noticed the incredible benefits LDN has had to offer for not only his autoimmune patients, but also many cancer patients. Additionally, there has been instances which Dr Crowley has noticed where LDN has been effective in treating addictions such as Alcoholism.

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

Dr Kat Toups, LDN Radio Show 15 March 2017 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Dr. Kat Toups is an MD from California in the US,  a functional medicine doctor and a psychiatrist.

After graduating, being a psychiatrist I ending up working in a research centre, found trials and studies on psychiatric medications, and came to see the answer really wasn't in a pill. The kind of illnesses that my patients had could not be fixed just by giving them a medication.

They were multifactorial reasons and that the pharmaceutical route was not the answer. Maybe some of the medications did help relieve suffering for people, but they didn't solve the problem of why they were sick.

So like many people that have come to the functional medicine table, I came into it with my own illness. I had immune problems sort of on and off most of my adult life and finally crashed and burned with some serious immune illness. As a physician, I knew the limitations of what traditional medicine had to offer me.

They could give me steroids to suppress my illness, but that wouldn't cure things. And so I started learning functional medicine at that time. And I suspect a lot of your listeners are familiar with functional medicine, but the basic idea of functional medicine is that we want to understand the root cause of why someone is ill, and it usually causes are plural.

 And then as we address all of those factors and bring those things into balance, we can restore health and get people well.

I went through all the training courses with the Institute for functional medicine and subsequently became certified there.

I would say in my practice a large majority of people have immune type illnesses or infection type illnesses. Many with Chronic Fatigue and then, of course, all kinds of mood symptoms that go along with immune illness.

So some of my patients kind of have the double whammy. They have immune illnesses, and they have a brain component, either psychiatric or cognitive problems.

So I would say that I've ended up with a pretty complex set of patients and I really enjoy working with very sick people because it's so much fun to help them on that path to getting better and getting their health back.

The first thing that I look at is a timeline. So I have patients fill out quite detailed questionnaires that I can start to see what has been happening. So I start back with when your mother was pregnant, did anything happen? You know, did she have illnesses?

What happened at the delivery? Was it a vaginal birth? We know that people who are born by C-section and subsequently are not breastfed may have lower levels of healthy probiotics.

We know that the gut microbiome and our healthy probiotics are what controls our immune system in great part. So if we don't have a healthy gut microbiome, then we can predict problems with chronic illness down the road. So then I'll look at the factors all through their life. What happened in early childhood? Did you have your infections? Did you have allergies? Did you have colic?

And then I look at the stressors happening and all those various factors. What were your teenage years like? Was it pleasant or was it a time of struggle and conflict and what was happening in your family? Was somebody a drinker?

Was somebody impaired by psychiatric disorders? Did a parent die or abandoned the family? We know now that when people have a lot of those factors, we can see immune disorders developing at higher rates like 20 or 30 years later.

So the notion of PTSD Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, you don't have to be beaten or raped.

I'll ask about tick bites. I'll ask about mould exposure.

Those were, of course, things that can affect the brain and the immune system.

 And testing, of course, testing is a big part of what I do.

I also test for SIBO, Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth, and people with SIBO have a lot of GI issues. They typically have a lot of bloating and a lot of gas and people can have a lot of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, either constipation or diarrhoea or both. And what happens with SIBO is we have a lot of bacteria in our colon, and that is normal, but we shouldn't have such a high level in our small intestine, but when the bacteria get out of balance they can grow into the small intestine and overtake that. And so when you eat certain foods that are fuel for those bacteria, that will just have a little party with all that food, and they give off gas and bloating, and some people can appear six or seven months pregnant with the magnitude of the bloating, with the SIBO.

And so, as a psychiatrist, it's very clear. When people have SIBO and  there's a disruption in the gut that causes leaky gut or increased permeability in your gut, that allows food particles to get through into our bloodstream and then sometimes bacterial or viral or parasite components and all those things activate our immune system. And so when that immune system gets activated, it release's these inflammatory chemicals called cytokines and they'll travel around, and they freely cross the blood-brain barrier, and they turn on the immune system in the brain.

And when there are these inflammatory cytokines turned on in our brain, it causes psychiatric symptoms. And kind of the first thing that I'll see is anxiety.

 And then it can have depression ramifications. It can have cognitive ramifications and even people who never had ADD can have ADD symptoms with trouble paying attention and being distractible and can't focus.

 SIBO is where I learned about LDN. As part of the regimen for SIBO treatment, LDN is used theoretically as a prokinetic agent. And so the thinking was that you probably have some kind of GI infection.

Your immune system turns on to fight that infection. And so the thinking with LDN is that it somehow settles down that immune reaction so that people can quit suffering from constipation or diarrhoea.

I use LDN  in a variety situations. It's been probably best studied with immune disorders and Cancer. Cancer is really kind of the ultimate failure of your immune system. So cancer is certainly one place that I have used it.

And I've used it for Hashimoto's thyroiditis, unfortunately, a condition we're seeing so much more of these days. For some people, it can help the Hashimoto's so quickly that I always warn my patients that are on thyroid medication. If they start feeling hyperthyroid, like they're on too much medication, you can feel jittery, heart racing.

Then, when you're on too much thyroid medication I advise them to let me know immediately, and I give them blood lab order to get their thyroid tests right away because what I find is for some people they can reduce their thyroid medication because of treating with the LDN. And I've had people that have completely resolved their thyroid antibodies.

I've used it for psoriasis and I started taking LDN myself because I have psoriasis and I would say within days, I stopped needing to use topical steroids on my scalp, which is where I have the worst symptoms.

I've used it with Parkinson's patients, multi-system atrophy, with a lot of Fibromyalgia's patients and Fibromyalgia is one area where people say you should watch the side effects of LDN that sometimes it might flare it up in the beginning and you might have to go start lower and go slower.

And I really haven't seen much of that. I usually let my Fibromyalgia patients know that that's been reported but I still go ahead and start with my standard dose titration.

I use it for pain conditions. We know that when you, take a dose of LDN that, it's reported that it temporarily blocks your own opiate receptors, and that causes your own brain to make opiates.

So your own brain is reported to make six times more opiates with a dose of LDN. Of course, there are feel-good hormones and that is also the component of narcotics that helps the pain. So LDN can be quite useful for pain conditions.

I spoke with one woman who told me she had been on high doses of narcotics for many years, for Regional complex sympathetic.

It's a neurologic pain disorder that can be quite disabling. And she told me that by using LDN, she was able to get off of her high doses of narcotics because it had controlled her pain.

I've seen it really help people's depression and anxiety.

I have used it with veterans with PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder and typically we've given it at night time because that's the time when you're sleeping that your brain reportedly makes a lot of opiates but some people end up moving the medication to the daytime because of vivid dreams although they are temporary side effects. So we have the idea of giving this a couple of times during the day to see if we can get that endorphin increased during the day when these patients are really stressed and triggered by the PTSD symptoms. So they started splitting the dose and they have some very lovely results with that so I learned that I had shifted a lot of my patients who do have anxiety or PTSD symptoms to taking it in the daytime.

Lyme disease and the co-infections with Lyme are another areas that LDN is definitely put that on the first line. What I think because it happens with Lyme disease is it shuts down the immune system.

And so LDN then becomes a mechanism to help support the immune system so that it can detect and clear that infection.

I've had some discussions with one of my friends and colleagues who works with pandas, and that's the pediatric autoimmune neuro-psych disorders. Typically it's been reported in children that they'll have an infection most often strep, but it can be caused by mycoplasma.

It can be caused by other infections that trigger that child's immune response. And then the immune system starts attacking the brain and these children can develop the pretty acute onset of severe obsessive-compulsive disorder and behavioural problems. And I had recently worked up a 12-year-old for his pandas and discovered that he had an infectious source with active mycoplasma. I had started that child on Low Dose Naltrexone.

The thing about infectious diseases we have a beautiful design that is supposed to work for some kind of acute infectious diseases with a short course of antibiotics that may knock things out. The problem that we get into is with the people that have chronic infectious diseases. That is chronically triggering their immune system. And those are some of the kinds of patients that I see.

And they come in, when I take their symptom history, they have, 20 or more active symptoms that are troubling them. A traditional doctor will look at that many symptoms and say, "Oh my God, there's your neurotic, you're a psychiatric patient." I am the psychiatrist, so from my perspective, I can say you have all these symptoms. This is not in your head. It's in your body. There's something happening in your body that is triggering the symptoms. The answer for me isn't giving the psychiatric meds because those don't get them well.

I may use psychiatric medications in the short term as a bandaid.

The LDN definitely is one part of the toolkit to start helping support the immune system.

They are written about dental infections. This is a really tough area where people have a root canal because they've had an infection in a tooth and the dentist take out the roots, and they fill them up with material. What I've learned is beyond those roots stars, the infection can get into those microtubules and maybe it's a low-level infection, but it can be enough to keep turning on someone's immune system.

And some people with immune disorders just won't get well until they pull those root canal teeth, because it's triggering this chronic infection.

I took part in a Lyme disease documentary and they have so many different symptoms. And even though these people are really obviously very ill, unable to move, function, the pain, cognitively, etc and the doctor says "It's all psychological. It's in your head. "And how devastating when you feel that low to be told it's in your head and being offered antidepressants and things. I empower people and get them to believe that they can get well. And that these symptoms really are of a physiologic nature and that once we can find all the causes and support their nutrition and support their immune system, that they can get better.

My website has the information. My practices called Bay Area wellness.

So the website is www.bayareawellness.net. And my Facebook It's called Bay area wellness dash functional medicine psychiatry.

Summary of Dr. Kat Toups interview. Watch the YouTube video for full interview.

Dr Jordan Atkinson, LDN Radio Show 12 May 2017 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

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

Dr Jordan Atkinson, based in Vancouver, has utilised LDN for a variety of autoimmune conditions and cancer with excellent results. As a Naturopathic doctor, his clinic does extensive testing to evaluate the patient before prescribing diet, exercise and medical solutions. 

He takes the time to know each patient's situation and then, he custom formulates a resolution. He believes in being proactive, not reactive and getting to the root of the problem before it becomes serious.

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