LDN Video Interviews and Presentations

Simon - Canada: Alopecia (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Linda Elsegood: I'm joined by Simon from Canada. He uses LDN for alopecia. Thank you for joining us, Simon. 

Simon: Thank you for having me.  

Linda Elsegood: So could we find out from you how long ago it was when you first noticed that your hair was falling out, how old you were, and how that impacted your life? 

Simon: Yeah, well, I was just turning 40. As I got near my birthday, actually, there were a lot of things going on in my life. It was a very stressful time. Um, it wasn't just turning 40 that, that was causing me to stress, we were moving house, uh, from one house to another. Uh, I was joining our family with my sister in law and, and my, my niece, um, for all kinds of good reasons. And, uh, but it meant moving to a new house and doing rentals and getting ready for that. And it was a really busy time. And, um, and yeah, I just started noticing, I think I, I didn't, didn't shave for a couple of days and I noticed that I had a bunch of bald spots coming in so I started taking some pictures and, uh, you know, about three weeks later I was coming back from my haircut and my daughter said, daddy's do have, uh, eyes in the back of their head. What are you talking about? And she said, well, you got two bald spots in the back of your head. And I said, okay, take me, take a picture for me. And, I had these two little lies spots to the back of my head. And from there in about six weeks, after eight weeks, I had to shave my head because I had so much hair falling out.

It was really distressing. It was, you know because you feel like you know what's going on? None of the health practitioners has any answers. I went to see my doctor said, Oh, you know, I've seen this before. It's not too bad. Um, this was before I actually shaved my head and, you know, don't worry, it'll come back.

It comes and goes, this kind of thing. And so it just proceeded to fall out, fall out, fall out, and it went throughout my whole body. I mean, I kept my eyebrows, and I lost this for a little while, I lost all my chest hair, all my body hair, and it only stopped at my knees when, uh, when I finally got to see a naturopath and changed my diet.

Yeah. It was devastating, and I was really at a loss at trying to figure out what was going on. 

Linda Elsegood: Literally feel naked, I should think.

Simon: And, you know, you identify so much with what you look like, and you know, it's natural for men to lose hair at some point. I actually have been pretty proud of my family, the dark-haired people in my family I had kept my hair the longest, and then suddenly it was all gone. And you really feel like you lose who you are really.

Like some people say they feel naked or they feel like they lost their identity. And I totally relate to that comment. That's you just, you look at pictures of people with alopecia, and you go, everybody looks the same. We're different versions of Mr Clean, and yeah, it's terrible. 

Linda Elsegood: So, what did the naturopath suggest?

Simon: Well, natural path, did a blood test to see what kind of allergies I had to food and designed a diet that was, I, you know, it's kinda like an AIP autoimmune protocol diet. Uh, kind of like a Paleo diet, but custom for, for what I was allergic to. So we took away all the things that I was allergic to.

And then all of the things that cause major inflammation. So no gluten, no dairy, no alcohol, no nothing with any yeast in it. So all anything that could cause a yeast, all the fermented stuff was out. Legumes were out. Corn was out. Um, you know, it was very restrictive and, and essentially it was easier to describe what I was able to eat, which was good quality, lean protein.

And good, vegetables, um, broccoli, cauliflower, the kales and all the stuff. Actually, that's in the betrayal series now. Uh, that was the stuff that I was, uh, asked to eat and, um, and then a lot of, good quality supplements. Um, and then I guess for that she gave me a rice protein powder that I would make shakes with every morning.

That was basically my breakfast. Um, so the Berry Berry shake was with rice protein and some coconut shredded coconut and some good Omega three oil, um, a little Stevia to make it taste okay. And, uh, that's, yeah, just started eating that. And that's about when the hair loss stopped. At least for my body hair, and it's, it stopped at my knees and I, for the longest time I had no hair except for between my knees and my ankles.

Linda Elsegood: So, how did that diet make you feel? I mean, did that give you more energy? Did you feel better inside? 

Simon: I felt better inside. I felt better, very quickly. I started dropping a lot of weight. I wasn't a super overweight person. I'm about six feet tall, and I was about 215 pounds at the time. And, um, I dropped down to 185 pounds within the year anyway.

If I remember correctly, it was about nine months, six to nine months or something. I dropped down to that weight. And felt amazing, super stamina, brain fog, gone. Um, just felt great. Every time I ate, I felt great and I never felt bloated. Uh, you know, lots of bowel movements and just felt, I just didn't understand actually how good it felt to eat properly.

I'd just been used to feeling bloated and gassy and just lethargic after eating, you know, a good: spaghetti meal or something like that. And I felt really good physically, mentally. It was very challenging, um, always being different than everybody else at the table. You know, even though my family, my wife, my sister in law did a really great job of making sure that when they made food, it was kind of, it could be made, you know, my way or their way for the kids and everything.

But it was still very difficult. I felt isolated a lot, and it was a lot of work because there were times when, of course, they couldn't help me and they were out or something like that. And I'd have to make food, and you have to keep thinking like every meal, okay, what am I going to be home next to make food and, oh, I need to prepare for meals.

You know, cause I'm going to be out overnight somewhere or something. And every work function and any social situation, you know, you couldn't, I couldn't have anything. The Naturopath was very strict with me at first and said, you can't cheat ever. And that was hard and very difficult mentally.

Linda Elsegood: I've done it too. So, I do know you have to check the labels, things that you think that couldn't possibly be gluten in the reason but it becomes easier over time, doesn't it? Because you know the foods you can and can't eat, 

Simon: Yes, I guess I check labels and everything, I think my eyes have been opened even more recently to where gluten is hidden. And, uh, you know if I had known what I know now at the start, I think I would have despaired even more. It's just so hard to get what you really need. 

I started to see some results, some funny Brown patches started appearing on my head, and I got armpit hair back, and body hair started to come back. Actually, more body hair came back then, then head hair during that process. But it was hard you know, eventually, we got to about nine months in or so on a diet, and we were celebrating our 15 year anniversary with my wife, and I went to Hawaii, just the two of us, which was, you know, the first time we'd done anything like that, and it was wonderful.

And while I was there, I just let down my guard and decided to eat. You know, just be kind of good what was there in restaurants and I felt terrible, initially and realized, you know, I was married to this diet, and I couldn't cheat, I gained weight.

I felt terrible. I started seeing some hair loss. I went back on a diet. Um. And then went on about another six months and then we made a family trip to Disneyland. And the same sort of process happened. It was impossible to eat properly there. And, came back from there and gained weight, felt terrible, and then my eyebrows and eyelashes all fell out.

So that was terrible, you know, I just realized is there anything else that I can do to help me out? Because I just feel like I'm doing everything humanly possible to make this work. And it's still not. It's still not giving me, you know, full results. What else out there is there? And that's when I heard about LDN from a good friend who is a very naturally focused person, but said, you know, Hey, I've heard about this LDN and it might help you cause it's helping other people with autoimmune issues.

And then my, when I went to see the naturopath, I basically said, you know, I'm frustrated. I'm tired of trying to fight this battle with just the diet alone. Is there anything else we can do? And she said you know what? I was going to tell you the same thing, you're working so hard, and need some more help.

And so I was going to bring up, uh, see if you were willing to take LDN. And that's when I started. That was about two years into the disease cycle. So I started losing my hair in 2013 June of 2013, and I started taking all the end in about June of 2015 

Linda Elsegood: and what did you notice when you first started? Did you have any introductory side effects? 

Simon: I'd read and learned that you might get vivid dreams. So I was actually kind of excited about that. I thought, well, that might be interesting. I've never been one for taking a lot of drugs or anything. So we started slow. We started with a. I think a 1.5 mg dose and then went for about two weeks, went to three, and then about two weeks went to four and a half. Um, I did get some vivid dreams. Um, and I think, uh, it's just, you know, your, maybe your body's reaction to when those endorphins kick in or something that, uh, things go crazy, but it wasn't too bad.

But the first side effect that I noticed that I didn't expect was about two weeks into the 4.5-milligram dose. I noticed I didn't have any anxiety and you know I'm senior-level management position at work. I am a senior person, in my church community do I do a lot of public speaking.

I do a lot of preparations of Bible studies and things like that. And at the time when I started taking LDN, I was getting ready for a, uh, I was going to be doing some teaching at a Bible school for teenagers. And I was really working hard, trying to get classes prepared. And normally that process, uh, creates a lot of anxiety I really get worried about, not having enough time and not making enough progress.

I ended up talking to my wife and she calms me down and says, you know, just keep moving, keep moving. And all of a sudden, I noticed. I wasn't doing that I was just working. I was worried about all this stress, and I was like, wow, I don't care if I never have my hair ever come back the rest of my life because this is a wonderful feeling.

Just not feeling anxious. And I didn't realize how, how it affected me. So that was the first, uh, the first surprise. Um, then I started noticing my nails, uh, improving. As, you know, many will know that LP should also affect your nails and they get pitted and streaked with white, and they get brittle.

And especially my toenails, you know, they looked almost like you had a fungus on your, on your toenail. And, uh, I started noticing that there was this Ridge. And unfortunately, I never ever took a picture of it, but. There was this defined line where, you know, close to the nail bed and the cuticle, it was totally clear and above the nail bed, you know, towards the end of the nail. Um, you know, across the line it was, it was all streaked and pitted, and everything was like overnight, something changed in that area where the nail was growing, and it was getting clear, and I was like, wow, this is amazing. If this can help my nails and my head, I know nails and hair related, then I'm hopeful that my hair will come back to, so then it was about, probably about three months later.

Yeah, September-ish timeframe that I took my next sort of set of pictures of my head because I was still depressed of what my head looked like, and I noticed that the hair that was coming in now before it had come in and these weird patches, it. My kids and I used to laugh because at one point, you know, like, what shape do you see in daddy's head?

With the hair that's growing back, you know, it's like looking at the clouds and seeing things. So we played games with that, but the hair that started on the LDN. It was coming in kind of all over. It was still thin. And, um, but it was coming in all over my head, and I was like, wow, this is really starting to really work.

At this point, I was still doing my diet, and keeping up with the LDN and just sort of kept progressing, uh, you know, slowly, not overnight for sure, but just slowly, slowly, slowly getting more hair, getting more hair. Um, yeah. So that was really exciting. 

Linda Elsegood: And when it came back, was it the same texture as before or was it fine or was it the same colour or had it changed colour?

Simon: I would say it's not the same texture. You know,I finally got to the point where I'm growing it I'm 18 months in, and it was just September of this year, October of this year that I said, I'm just going to let it grow out and see what it looks like.

So it's grey but I was going grey before I lost my hair, but it's greyer for sure. Um, and it, it's a little coarser, I would say at this point than it was when I lost it. Yeah. And I'm just sort of interested to see, you know, how it continues to grow in and if it reverts back or not.

It was browner, it was a Brown sort of colour, and now I would say it's more black and more grey, um, as it comes in. And definitely coarser. 

Linda Elsegood: What about your eyebrows and eyelashes? Have they grown back? 

Simon: I've, I've got a few eyebrows definitely coming in there and my eyelashes

I've got a few that are starting to grow, and I'm interested to see what sort of comes with that. Um, I've got definitely a little bit more facial hair. I was a person that used to wear a sort of big long sideburns. You know, that's the other thing. I guess I used to shave maybe, you know, before the alopecia, I would shave every day or every other day.

I didn't have a heavy beard, but,  then when I had alopecia, I mean, I might shave once every year. It'd be smooth-skinned and no problem. Then just maybe see one weird hair growing out there that just have randomly successfully grown and now I'm back to shaving maybe every three days.

Cause if I don't, I do have enough hair that it's noticeable. Um, so that's coming in more and more too. I see more on the sideburns and more in my or my beard area. 

Linda Elsegood: And what about the colour of your eyelashes? Eyebrows and you say beard, is that a different colour as well? And 

Simon: texture? Um, so far I would say it's pretty normal.

I mean, normally that hair is more coarse. Right? So I'd say it looks fairly normal actually. 

Linda Elsegood: that's really interesting. And how has that made you feel self-esteem wise? 

Simon: Oh, it's, well, it felt great. I mean, I just, um, those guys in the office now that, you know, those guys are normal male pattern baldness that, you know, of course before I had more hair than them.

And then during psoriasis, I had maybe the same haircut as them, and they said, welcome to the club, and they were happy, and now they're jealous again. Uh, so yeah, it's made me feel good. Um, just, you know, I just look like maybe a normal guy who's, maybe receding hairline type guy, and I think as a youth, I probably would've sworn I'd never looked like this. I would've if I was going to lose my hair and shave it all off. But now that it's growing back, you know, I'm, I'm happier to have it. I feel better. And now on the bad side, I've had so much success that it's mentally sort of tricked me into going off my diet.

And I've been off my diet for about seven months. You know, it's hard to say because I definitely am still having progress with hair growth, but I think I'd have more and be doing better if I was back on my diet and having the LDN there as a support.

Um, so I'm sort of steeling myself to moving back towards having my diet. I mean, the other thing was this is the second major autoimmune disease that I've had. I had rheumatoid juvenile arthritis as a child from age nine to 14, I went into remission when I went through puberty.

You know, as part of this journey that I'm on, learning lots from the community around, LDN and naturopaths and stuff like that. I just realized that I can't eat like a normal, person. I've got to take care of myself a lot more because I've had rheumatoid arthritis.

I've had alopecia. I developed massive hayfever allergies when I was 18. They just came out of nowhere. There are probably other things that have come and gone that I haven't noticed, but, I'm one of those people that are super susceptible and I don't want lupus or MS or any of these other really devastating conditions or rheumatoid arthritis again, that was awful. Alopecia is bad, but it's not like those other ones. I also had low thyroid with this condition. And that's the other thing that's changed a lot is maybe even before the hair started growing back in, about the same time as, as I noticed my anxiety going away and my nails changing as I was getting my thyroid tested, um, I started getting, I started noticing that I started out at about 120 milligrams of desiccated thyroid at the start of my journey, and now I'm down to 30 and all along the way. Uh, I keep sort of going above range and feeling kind of jittery, and they said let's take another dosage off.

That's really awesome. It's my thyroid healing. And so that connected with all of this too. So I'm feeling really encouraged that I don't think they could have done it on a diet alone maybe there's too many toxins and things in food that I just can't control, I know I'm not sleeping enough I have a stressful job. So there are some things that you just can't, get out of your life without making, you know, full change. Like quit your job, move to desert Island somewhere and be stress-free. That wasn't going to work for me, I needed some help.

LDN, I am 100% convinced it'd helped me. Um, and I'm really thankful for the people that sort of brought it to my attention. And now the community I'm connected with. It's helped me understand, you know, what other things I might be able to do to make more progress.

Linda Elsegood: Well, I think it's very interesting. For other people with alopecia that you has is not going to come back overnight. You've got to give it time. If the was somebody in your position who's just been newly diagnosed, or they've just found out their hair is falling out, what would you say to them about trying LDN?

Simon: I would, wouldn't hesitate for a minute. And I'm kind of a promoter of it to almost anybody who I come in contact with. I'm trying to say It's showing that it's helped cancer and other people too. But for anybody with alopecia I know there's not a lot of evidence out there yet.

I mean, when I first started I’d say it's helping people with ms. It's helping people with fibromyalgia, and maybe it'll help me too. But definitely, I believe it will help you. It's, it's going to help your body heal itself, and that's the root cause, right? As you've got either leaky gut or whatever going on in you right? Maybe having a problem and it's going to help accelerate your healing process. And I'm proof that even going back to just regular eating, it's still helping me.

That's how powerful I think it is. Uh, and then there are the benefits for me of not having anxiety. So between those things, I have no hesitation at all it's been really, really helpful.

Linda Elsegood: Any questions or comments you may have, please Contact Us.  I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for joining us today. We really appreciated your company. Until next time, stay safe and keep well.

Pharmacist Stephen Dickson, LDN Radio Show 2014 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Pharmacist Stephen Dickson from Scotland shares his experience as a LDN compounding pharmacist.

We have got on LDN around 5,000 and that's in the last three to four years.

Basically LDN is compatible with most medications that you're on for a chronic disease. It just means sometimes it needs to be done in a slightly different way or taking a different way or your medication that you are taking altered slightly to enable you to take it.

The obvious exception to that is on the very strong opiate medications. You really have to be very careful not to take the two of those together if you are on a sort of long term, strong opiate painkiller, not because it's going to do any major harm or stop the LDN potentially from working but actually, because the Low Dose Naltrexone stopped the painkiller from working.

Now that doesn't mean that you can't still do that. You just have to be quite clever with your timing and that's where your pharmacist or your doctor can help you with that.

Another one of the questions with interactions, we get very frequently is: "Can I take LDN with Interferon or Tysabri or any of the newer sort of MS drugs?" And certainly there isn't really any logical reason why you can't take the two of them together.

I think what we're finding as time has gone on is that both drugs, Interferon and LDN are modulators of the immune system, but they don't necessarily work in the same subsets of cells or the same receptors and therefore can theoretically compliment each other.

Regarding steroids, there is no direct relationship between steroids and Naltrexone. For example, the main steroids is Prednisone alone and there's no direct interaction between those.

And we certainly tell people that you can continue to take LDN during the whole period of being on a course of steroids, for example, for a chest infection or for a flare up of Emma or for anything.

There's no reason to stop taking it.

People ask what happens if they need to go to the dentist and have a filling or go to hospital for an operation. If you're going into hospital for an operation, we would normally say to people to stop LDN two or three days before you go in. The absolute latest, you would stop with maybe 24 hours before.

And that's not really for any reason other than to make it more simple for your doctors in the hospital. If you were to, for example, taking LDN and you were in a car accident, the amount of opiate painkillers give you in order to relieve your pain if you had a broken leg or something, would still work. They might need to give you slightly more, but it's still complicated. I wouldn't really consider stopping taking LDN before going to the dentist.

The dentists are very limited and the opiates that they can use, generally, if you're having an operation  they'll use a mild sedative and that's via drip, or we'll use an injection, which is a local anesthetic.

LDN has gone from being something that we were very skeptical of initially used in a small number of people with Multiple Sclerosis to something that I'm convinced as a very positive effect in a large number of autoimmune diseases.

One of the most amazing things with LDN is that with people with Fibromyalgia  you would never have thought, I certainly would never have thought would have responded.

I'll never forget the patient who looked at death's door, just absolutely dreadful.

She was exhausted, had been off work for months and months and she just looked terrible. Basically Dr. Tom had given her LDN. Three, four months down the line and the woman was back at work.

It felt great. It looked fabulous. I couldn't believe that something had such a marked effect.

Also the people with Psoriasis, which is like a skin auto immune disease. They tried every cream lotion portion and then eight weeks on LDN and it started to clear up.

These are things that we just don't normally see in a normal practice.

So I'd certainly say LDN for me, it's been very exciting, very interesting.

Now there are over 300 doctors on our database who prescribed LDN in the UK. S couple of years ago, that that was about six, so I think the LDN research trust has been doing an incredible job of promoting awareness of this cause.

And it's something that we hope to continue to be able to support for a long time.

Summary of Pharmacist Stephen Dickson's interview. Listen the above video for the full interview.

Louise - England: Psoriasis (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

We’re speaking with Louise from England. She takes LDN for psoriasis. Thank you for joining me, Louise. 

Louise: Thank you. 

Linda Elsegood: Could you tell us when you first noticed there was something wrong with your skin?

Louise: It was approximately 20 years ago, just after my dad died. I had it on my elbows, and the doctor diagnosed it as psoriasis. It's in my family, but it didn't really bother me too much at the time because it stayed on my elbows for a good few years before it started to spread. And I tried all the different creams that the doctor gave us, but it didn't work. So I just sort of ignored it for a while until it started to spread.

Linda Elsegood: So how long do you think you had it before it started to spread? 

Louise: I can't really remember, but possibly as much as between five and ten years. I'm guessing, to be honest. I don't know exactly. 

Linda Elsegood: So when it spread, where did it spread?

Louise: Well, it's spread more around my arms, and I've got some patches on my knees and this stayed like that for quite a while before spreading again. And then it spread all up and down my arms and to my lower legs. And it got quite bad. My arms got infected, but I didn't know what was wrong with them at the time. So it was a while before I went to the doctors. And what happens is if psoriasis gets infected, it just spreads like wildfire, and there is not a word to describe the intense itching. It's really awful, and it really makes your life very miserable. 

Linda Elsegood: So how far did that spread at that point? 

Louise: All up and down my arms. 

Linda Elsegood: So it was contained just your arms and your legs?

Louise: At that point in time, it was. 

Linda Elsegood: Even at that point, the medications didn't do much. Is that right? 

Louise: That's right. I probably thought it knocked it back at a little bit, but they certainly didn't make it go away. It just continued to get worse.

Linda Elsegood: And I suppose the more you worried about it, probably made it worse.

Louise: Probably. Yeah. 

Linda Elsegood: So did it go any further than just your arms and legs? 

Louise: Well, five years ago I had light treatment on my arms and legs. And it worked really well. I thought, Ooh, it's gone after it. Nobody told us it was going to come back. I thought that was it. So 10 to 12 months later, it started creeping back, and it came back worse than before the light treatment. And it just continued to get worse, really bad. And then my legs got infected, but I knew what it was because I had infected arms. And last July I was badly infected and went to the doctor, and went on the waiting list for light treatment again. I spent from August last year to March this year having all three light treatments. So I had the yellow light first, cause that's the mildest form. After a few weeks, they knew it wasn't going to work, so they put us on to the pink light and then it became obvious after a few weeks that that wasn't going to work. I was desperate because I really thought that it worked five years previously.

And then they put us on the UV light with psoralen, and that started to work. But I was going through a divorce at the time which was not very nice, and it just stopped working halfway through it, and my psoriasis, because it was stress-induced, it really came back very badly.

And I was actually accidentally burned with the light on my body because I had some on my stomach by then. And I ended up actually with more than what I had and it would actually be easier to tell you where I didn't have it. The only places I haven't got it is on my scalp, palms of my hands, and the soles of my feet. It is everywhere else; quite prolific. And you just feel like a complete - I want to say the word, but you just feel like a freak and like, you've got to cover yourself up; I've even got it on my face from my neck right down to my feet, even in the summer, which is really awkward.

And it’s just cruel in that it just makes you feel so isolated. When it was infected really bad, I just looked like I had the bubonic plague. I just couldn't bear in the morning when I go in the bath in the winter, I get up early in the morning, it's still dark, and I don't put the light on because I can't bear to look at myself, which doesn't work in the summer. Cause obviously you get off so bad, I couldn't stand even looking at myself. And when I tell people how bad it was, they say I look all right, and I say that’s because I'm wearing clothes so you can't see it.

And I'm very good at covering up the redness on my face so it isn't obvious to other people when I'm in my day-to-day life, but I know it’s there. It's uncomfortable. It's itchy. It's unsightly. And I just felt like quite frankly, if I could shoot myself in the head, I probably would have done, to be honest before I got onto the LDN.

Linda Elsegood: Wow. Did you have any other symptoms, other than the skin?

Louise: Yeah, I've had uveitis two or three times, which is inflammation of the coloured part of the eye that's linked to it. And I've also had arthritis and muscle soreness, but that was about 12 years ago. And unfortunately, it hasn't fled since, and it just destroyed a joint in my toe, which is neither here nor there. It doesn't affect my life in any way, but it just shows you the damage it can do when it comes back. Both it hasn’t, touch wood, it hasn't come back and the only incidence I’ve had is arthritis. 

Linda Elsegood: Wow. The skin - I mean, that sounds horrendous! 

Louise: When it started on the face, I couldn't believe it. I was kind of stopped because you can’t cover the rest of your body. I thought I'll attack that with creams, you know, two and three times the strength you’re supposed to, but I couldn't let it spread because once it takes the hold, it doesn't let go.

Well, four months ago I started on LDN because the doctors at the hospital wanted to give us methotrexate and I didn't want to take it because I work and I don't want to lose my immunity in what I'm doing, I'm in the wrong job for that. But also my sister, who has psoriasis, she took it years ago, and she suffered severe nausea and hair loss. So I just didn't want to take it. 

So when I heard about LDN, I thought I would like to give that a try, cause it appears to have little or no side effects. So I contacted the doctor in Glasgow, Dr. Andrew McCall. He prescribed it for me. So I've been taking it for just over four months now. And I would say within the last week that I've noticed an improvement, but I have to say it did get worse before it got better. And I'd watched a YouTube video of it - Jenny, I think she was called, and she had said it got worse before it got better. So I wasn't too worried when it got worse, and she talked about how she was getting completely better. So I just kept persevering with it. And within the last week, I've noticed that there is a dramatic improvement. 

Linda Elsegood: Wow. That's amazing. 

Louise: And that for the first time, in many, many, many years, this last week I've got bare arms outside in the sun. Oh, I'm thrilled that I can actually show part of myself, and just be comfortable in the hot weather and have the sleeveless top on, because I couldn't do that for years. I couldn't possibly do it. 

Linda Elsegood: That is such a great story. Isn't it? It really isn't so inspirational for the people to listen to it. Like you listened to Jenny's story. It's very important to share. 

Louise: Absolutely, because I think people should definitely try it. 

Linda Elsegood: That's amazing. 

Louise: Cause I'm so glad that I actually heard about it on an American support site. And it was where you send your emails through with a list of different threads that I've gone on with different conversations. And I just thought, well, I don't even know what naltrexone is, I'll click on it. I think it was prescribed in America for quite a long time. And this man was taking it and said that he tried all the other treatments that are heard of, some of which have horrible side effects, and he'd been taken this and there were no side effects. And so that's why I investigated it, not just taking it off the internet. 

Linda Elsegood: I actually like to interview you next year and find out how you are getting on.

Louise: Yeah, that's fine.

Linda Elsegood: Okay, well, thank you very much for sharing your story with us, Louise.

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

Linda Elsegood is interviewed by Dr Jess Armine, 2014 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Dr Jess Armine: Good evening everyone. This is Dr Jess Armine here at the bio individualized medical centre in South Eastern Pennsylvania. We have a very exciting show for you tonight. And we have a very special guest. We're going to be talking about LDN or low dose naltrexone, which is being used for the treatment of chronic illnesses.

We have the honour of speaking with Linda Elsegood hope I pronounce that right. And she is the leader in the movement to educate patients and doctors about LDN she'll tell you her story and what she's been doing. You realize that she is the epitome of the tireless individual, the indefatigable individual that is required to get this type of information out to people.

Please understand that this particular interview is being prerecorded. So there will not be an opportunity for live Q and. A. But, uh, Linda tells me that we'll have the methodology of asking questions or getting more information that will cue you in towards the end of the lecture. So, welcome, Linda, how are you today?

Linda Elsegood: Oh, I'm fine. Thank you very much for inviting me. 

Dr Jess Armine: It is our honour. So please tell us your story. 

Linda Elsegood: Okay. My life was working full time. I had two children, so I ran the home, did the cooking, the cleaning, the gardening, the decorating and working. I was a wonder, woman. I thought I could do anything. I was a bank manager at the time, life was fine and I was healthy, which I took for granted. And one day I came home from work and my father phoned. Now my father never ever phoned. He didn't like the phone. And he said, your mother's had a heart attack. She's now going in the ambulance. And I literally just got in and took my coat off. I put my coat back on, to get to the hospital.

My father was in a wheelchair, and the ambulance people wouldn't take him with my mother because he had to have somebody to look after him when he got there. So I said, well, tell them to take you. I will be on my way. And this was Christmas 2000. And um. It's icy. It's been snowing. The roads were terrible.

It would normally take me about an hour and a half to drive that. It took a good two hours. Now my mother took some medication to keep her alive. It was a very major heart attack, and I sat beside her bed. I'm an only child. My husband came and took my father home because they wouldn't let him stay overnight in case there was a fire or whatever. But I had it in my mind that if I held my mother's hand and sat with her, she would be fine. If I went to sleep, she would go to sleep, and that would be it. So I kept myself awake for 48 hours, which is rather silly, but it did make sense to me at the time. And, my mother came home. She had to have somebody look after her. So. I had both my parents here with me. I had to go back to work. A friend of mine was a nurse, and she came and helped me look after my parents, and I was tired.

I was so unbelievably tired. And then I started to get ill. Different things were happening to me. My leg became numb. I had this awful fatigue. I didn't really have the energy to do anything. So what happened then I said to my husband, I'm just having fatigue, I had flu, I had gastroenteritis. I was just so sick I want to go away. I want to go have a vacation, come back, and I'll feel fine. He couldn't come he was working, so I took my youngest daughter and while we were on holiday. We went to Portugal, and it should have been hot. It was Easter time, but it was freezing cold, and it was raining. So we decided to stay in or walk out in the rain. So we went out in the rain, and the left-hand side of my face was numb, it was as if I'd had a filling.

And I couldn't understand why I had this numbness on the face, and the left-hand side of my tongue felt as though I had eaten melted cheese and burnt my tongue. So we managed, and luckily we were only away for a week. And when I came back, I went to see my doctor who sent me to see a neurologist and he thought I had to have a mild stroke or I had a foreign disease of some kind, or I got MS. I didn't really like any of those options.

Dr Jess Armine: I don't blame you. 

Linda Elsegood: Oh, a brain tumour. That was the other thing. 

Dr Jess Armine: that's even better. Yeah. 

Linda Elsegood: I just wanted something where I could say, you know, here's a pill. Go home, and you're going to be fine.

So it went on and on. I was just so tired. I couldn't cope with working five days a week. I went part-time, I only worked four days a week, but that didn't make any difference. And then I got double vision I lost my hearing in my left ear, and at which point I could not move. So I had to give in. I couldn't go to work, I couldn't move. I had an MRI, a lumbar puncture, and was told it was MS.

I had a three-day course of intravenous steroids, and six weeks later I was given another course of intravenous steroids because they thought I was going to lose my hearing and my eyesight completely, which made me put on so much weight on a pale person my face was like a red beach ball. It was unbelievable. I didn't look like myself, but the second course of steroids didn't work. But at that time I was so ill. When I say ill, I was on the toilet the whole time. I didn't have any bladder control and my bowels. I know it's not the done thing to talk about one's bowels, but... Do I explain 

Dr Jess Armine: all the time, the major subject all the time. 

Linda Elsegood: Yeah. It was like sneezing. You know how you feel a sneeze coming, and you go, ah, choo. But it was like that from the bowels, and there was no control at all. It would be a case of it's going to happen, and it would happen. So you don't want to leave the house until what happens, because it happens every day, but never at the same time. Which would have been more convenient, I had no balance. I had to do a furniture walk. People with MS will know what I mean by furniture walking. But I would trip, I would stumble over nothing. I had very bad vertigo, when I moved, everything would spin, and my legs became as though they were rubber bands.

So I used to bounce a lot. So when trying to move, I ended up on the floor most of the time through one reason or another, but the left-hand side, this numbness on my face and my tongue spread, and after a few weeks you could draw a line right down my face, half my, my nose, my tongue, my cheeks, my chest. The whole left-hand side was numb with pins and needles, but numb in a way that any clothing or bedding that touched me was really, really painful.

And on top of that, I had twitching muscles, and I had burning limbs. Like you had a sunburn, and I used to say to my husband feel my legs they are on fire. I don't want to feel your leg, I would say please, please just feel my leg. 

Dr Jess Armine: I know when you're dating, they want to feel your legs

Linda Elsegood: he would feel my legs and say, what are you talking about? Your legs are cold. But to me they were, you know, they were on fire. So, cognitively, Oh my goodness. English became a second language. I couldn't recall vocabulary. Everything was crazy I would try, and I would say, could you make me a cup of tea?

I never ever drink tea. I only drink coffee. So my husband says, well, don't you mean coffee? And I'd say, well, didn't I say coffee? It’s like saying can you let the cat out he wants to go to the toilet. Don't you mean the dog? Well, you know what I mean why do you have to keep correcting me, you're depressing me. Please don't keep correcting me. I think I'm saying it right. And it's really depressing. So he would say to me. I'm telling you, so you'll know for next time. We'll know it doesn't work like that because I think I'm saying it correctly anyway. You know, next time I could call the dog a duck and still think I'm saying dog. But it was depressing. So every time I spoke, he was correcting me.

And then I started to get where I was choking on my food. So every time I swallowed something, he'd come and hit me on the back, and it didn't really help either. The only way I could speak to try and make sense because everything was so muddled in my head. I had to speak slowly, so I sounded as if I'd had a stroke because it was such a struggle. It was so tiring to try and get together the information to make a sentence, which to me made sense, but it didn't to other people. And then I couldn't find my mouth, my daughter used to have to put the cup to my mouth because I couldn't find where my mouth was.

Only saving grace was I slept most of the time. I was asleep for about 20 hours a day. I was only awake for like four hours, which was marvelous because I didn't feel anything while I was asleep. But then I also had pains in my head, really bad pains, and I do believe the doctors thought I was making it up. It used to be a pain size of the top of the wine glass. Sometimes it would be at the front right, sometimes the back left. it would move, but the pain was so intense. It used to make me feel nauseous. So yes, I was taking some very strong painkillers, which made the pain bearable. It didn't remove it. It made it bearable, but the nausea was even worse and I had optic neuritis where I felt like somebody was sticking a pencil in my eye, to move my eyeballs up, down, left or right, really, really painful. And I was in a wheelchair. I could furniture walk in the house, outside of the house I had to use a wheelchair.

And moving forward with now. It was October 2003, and I went to see my neurologist, and he examined me. He sat down. He looked at me, he leant across the desk, held his hand out, shook hands with me, and said, I'm really sorry to tell you, you're secondary progressive; then got up, opened the door and said, there's nothing more we can do for you. And showed me out. 

It was awful. I sat in the car, and I said to my husband, he may as well as say, go home and die quietly; don't make a fuss, you are an embarrassment, you know, there was no plan B. There was nothing anybody could do to help me. It was awful. I felt totally alone, frightened because I couldn't live my life like that.

One day the doctor came out to see me and bought me some more painkillers. I was in the house on my own, and he very kindly fetched me a glass of water and he left. My neighbour was keeping his eye on me, as my husband was working, and I thought the thing that really got to me was the look in everybody's eyes, family and friends. They all felt helpless they all wanted to help me, and there was nothing that anyone could do. And to see that in their eyes was awful.

Dr Jess Armine: I'm sorry. Okay, good. Deep breath. So it's a tough story. I understand. 

Linda Elsegood: So I'd got the tablets, and I thought that the family would understand if I took them. They would know why, and at least that way everybody, once they got over the shock, could be able to get their lives back. I was just lying watching the days passing without me participating, I couldn't do anything. I couldn't achieve anything, anything I wanted to do, I felt a total failure.

Dr Jess Armine: Okay. Take a breath, kid. Relax. Relax. Okay. We really appreciate you sharing your story with us because I know how much this hurts.

Linda Elsegood: Luckily managed to think who was going to find me. Would it be my 15-year-old daughter? So I couldn't do that. The only option was to fight it, to get something so that I could actually live again.

Between my many toilet visits, I used to sit at the computer. I thought there must be other people out there. I couldn't be so unique that I was the only one who ever felt like this. And, I found LDN and, I found some people that were taking it. And luckily. Some of these people were willing to talk to me and everybody said the same, if it wasn't going to do me any good, it wasn't going to do me any harm.

I printed out all the information I had, and I went to see my own doctor, who had retired by then, I had a nice new young lady doctor who was very kind and understanding and she said she was going to give the information to the partners and would I go back in two weeks? I went back, and she said she wasn't able to prescribe it for me, but if it was me, if it was her, she would like to try it so I could find somebody who would prescribe it for me she would be happy to monitor me. Now I found a doctor who would prescribe it for me, and amazingly, in three weeks, this awful feeling in my head where I couldn't think was like living in a television set that wasn't tuned in. All that came back in three weeks, and it was just amazing. I was able to think clearly it was such a big deal. I wasn't talking rubbish anymore.

Dr Jess Armine: So you were speaking coherently. 

Linda Elsegood: Yes. 

Dr Jess Armine: Yes. Wonderful. Wonderful. Yeah, 

Linda Elsegood: but my husband still says, I talk rubbish  (laugh)

It was for three weeks, and that was totally amazing. Now, my daughter, when she was 15, spent the whole of the summer holiday looking after me. Washing me, feeding me, and washing my hair. It was role reversed. So, you know, put your head back, close your eyes, you'll be getting soap in them. 

And guess what: she is now a nurse.

Dr Jess Armine: boy, that's a surprise. Yep. 

Linda Elsegood: She’s worked on a stroke rehabilitation unit for 18 months, and now she would like to train to be a nurse practitioner. She was very good at looking after me, I gradually got my balance back. Now, if you think I'd been years of not being able to carry anything because of the furniture walking, I mean, carrying a glass with anything and it would have just been too dangerous. And one day she said to me, could you get me a glass of orange juice? And I thought I haven't fallen over for a while. I think I can do this. So it was all in slow motion, going to the cupboard, getting the glass out, putting it down, opening the fridge, bringing out the orange juice, then taking it to her. I didn't fill it right up in case I spilt it. But anyway, I took it to her, and I came back, and I said to my husband, I've just taken Laura a glass of orange juice, and I didn't spill it, you know, it was to be a really, really big deal that I did. I'd achieved something.

Dr Jess Armine: beyond a big deal.

Linda Elsegood: Yeah. She didn't know how cognitively I thought I was suffering from some form of Alzheimer's. I thought everything was going to go, you know, the only thing I've got left was my memory, and that was slipping away from me, and that was my biggest fear that I was just going to lose myself completely. She came in with the empty glass and put it on the countertop and said, it's very kind of you to bring me a glass mom, but you didn't put any orange in it. Now because my state of mind had been so bad, I believed her and not myself. I thought I had imagined putting that orange in there and I just burst into tears. I'm thinking, well, that's it. You know, I was afraid I had lost it, but she was joking. 

Dr Jess Armine: Beautiful. 

Linda Elsegood: Honestly, I believed her and not myself

Dr Jess Armine: Well, you have good reason to, and she had good reasons to play with you a little bit and make you giggle. That's great. 

Linda Elsegood: Yeah. So with the LDN I was getting better and better, and I carried on improving for 18 months.

What was I going to do after being told there was nothing more that could do for me in life wasn't worth living. And suddenly it was again, did I say, okay I’m one of the lucky ones. Or do I tell the people who have been told, there's nothing more that can do for you who are in that really deep, dark place who perhaps didn't have the strength to carry on as I did?

So I decided, I wanted to tell everybody, you know, that it's not a miracle drug. It's not a cure. It doesn't help everybody, but it's something that you could try. It took five months, to become a registered charity, the LDN research trust was established ten years ago. So that was a big milestone. And we've helped over 14,000 people around the world.

LDN can work for any condition that has an autoimmune component. And so far we know of 174 conditions that LDN has been used for.

Dr Jess Armine: Let's go back a little bit. If we could, Would you explain to our audience what exactly low dose naltrexone is? 

Linda Elsegood: Okay. Naltrexone in its full strength was used for heroin and drug addiction back in the late seventies, early eighties and not used in low doses. It helps - according to D. Ian Zagon, who did lots of studies of LDN back in the late seventies early eighties - it helps regulate a dysfunctional immune system.

And Dr Bernard Bihari was using it in his practice for AIDS. And the friends of his had got a daughter who had got MS, and he decided that he would try it on this young lady. And it worked very well, and she was on it for many years. She did actually stop after a while thinking that she'd been misdiagnosed and her MS wasn't really MS after all. And when she stopped, she relapsed. Dr Bernad Bihari had been using LDN for many conditions. Cancer too. But that's the problem with LDN. When you say it can be used for all these different conditions, it loses some credibility because it sounds like it's too good to be true. 

Dr Jess Armine: It sounds like a panacea. Anything that's considered a panacea has veracity problems. 

Linda Elsegood: Yes, exactly. So when it was trialed in its full strength and people were taking it 50-milligram tablets three times a day, so it was 150 milligrams, It was only harmful to the liver in doses of 300 mg a day. And with LDN, which stands for low dose naltrexone, people normally take around 3.0 mg to 4.5 mg. So it's a very low dose.

Dr Jess Armine: In your opinion. And not going to hold you to this cause, you know, I realized that in the research nobody really knows the exact mechanism on how this works. But in your opinion, what do you think it works? 

Linda Elsegood: It helps boost endorphins. And it also helps with the Toll-like receptors So there are two different mechanisms there. And there are many YouTube videos from LDN prescribing doctors and scientists explaining how they think that LDN works. But people start on LDN, on a very low dose usually around about 1.5 mg and titrate it up by 0.5 mg every two weeks if tolerated. But in 2005 people were starting on 3.0 mg, and 3.0 mg was too high for some people and was always going to be too high. Some people were dropping out, but by starting on the lower dose and increasing it gradually the fallout rate has really dropped.

And there are different forms in which you can have LDN. Now, initially, it was just capsules. But some people had problems with their stomach. They could get very bad nausea, diarrhoea, especially people with Crohn's and ulcerative colitis. So there is now the capsules and we have a liquid, and there are sublingual drops, which is relatively new. I think the first was about August last year, and that's absorbed differently, which bypasses the stomach. So for those people that had problems with them, stomach issues, that's now no longer a problem.

Years ago it was told you could only take it at night because that's when your body makes more endorphins. But so many doctors have found that it did cause sleep issues with some people, and they tell their patients to try it in the morning, and they still get very good benefits. But full studies and trials are needed to find out.

With LDN it isn’t the case of height, weight ratio, we have many men that can't take 3.0 mg, and these are big men, and you get a very small lady who can take 4.5 mg, no problem. It is what dose suits you best.

Dr Jess Armine: I'm getting the impression that this can support or be effective in a myriad of autoimmune conditions, in your experience in talking to people. And again, I know we're, you know, we have our limitations of what we can talk about, only because we have to be careful about the men in black going to show up at our doors. Okay. But, in raising awareness about LDN, people are still asking I have X. What can you do for it?

What are some of the things that, in your experience and what you've seen, you interacted with a lot of people, obviously, what have you seen? I know it doesn't work with everybody. So with all of those caveats, okay, what are the things that you've seen that works best for.

Linda Elsegood: Okay Crohn's is a really good one, psoriasis, amazing, But with psoriasis, people have to be patient. I mean, there are people who will say that they noticed improvements after the first week, but normally with psoriasis, I would say it takes about six months. And do you know how angry psoriasis looks and red and scabby after six months, normally it starts to look like skin colour and then just all fades. It, to me, just is amazing. It's like normal skin.

Banking was my thing, I wasn’t medical, I had a first-aid certificate that was my whole knowledge of medical conditions. But this lady had alopecia. She also had Crohn's type symptoms and she was a mess. She was a young girl, very, very pretty and she had a high powered job. She has a little small velvety spot that she used to rub that she thought was quite cute, but the small spot spreads and slowly all the hair was just falling out. And her consultant said to her that there were some very pretty scarfs out there these days, she was in her early twenties she was horrified. She lost her eyebrows and her eyelashes, and she said that she'd lost her whole identity. She'd look in the mirror, and she'd gone, she wasn't there. And she thought everything she had was probably autoimmune, she found LDN and started it, and slowly her hair came back. Can you believe her hair came back? 

Dr Jess Armine: I believe anything you tell me 

Linda Elsegood: And, her hair came back black and white or black and grey mottled, even though she was young. People thought she'd had this really expensive colour job done on her hair, and she thought it was quite trendy, and left it as it was. It didn't come back the same texture. It was finer, more like baby hair but she had a full head of hair.

Dr Jess Armine: as you have with chemotherapy, it comes back 

Linda Elsegood: But she got her hair back and to her, that was just absolutely life-changing.

Dr Jess Armine: It sounds to me that if you have a chronic illness, especially in the immunological range, like autoimmune or whatever, LDN sounds like it might be worth a try. What are the risks, benefit factors? Are there any risks using LDN? 

Linda Elsegood: As I say, it was only found harmful if you took 300 milligrams a day of Naltrexone. So it's a safe drug. 

Dr Jess Armine: In low dose. 

Linda Elsegood: Yes. It's not toxic. And it's, of course, it's very inexpensive. People in the States pay around about $26 a month. It's not an expensive drug, but it's out of patent. So. drug companies are not interested in trialing it because there's no profit. But there is a company set up now called TNI  biotech, and they're planning some trials and studies to get LDN out there, and they have promised that LDN would never be more than a dollar a day.

Dr Jess Armine: Wow that's pretty amazing for anybody in the pharmaceutical industry to even say. Here in America, the more, the better. Yeah. More money they can charge for it, the better. 

Linda Elsegood: And we have a new medical advisor called Dr Pradeep Chopra, and he's from Rhode Island. Amazing man he's a pain specialist who uses LDN. You can listen to the interviews on the LDN research trust video channel. Very amazing. 

Dr Jess Armine: I was saying you were very kind to send me a bunch of links that we'll be putting on my website. Is that link included in there?

Linda Elsegood: It should be, he has patients come to him, he's usually the last in the line—people with fibromyalgia, neuropathy, regional pain syndrome. People that have been on morphine and fentanyl patches and that pain is still in between a nine and a ten every day. These are people that have to cope with such bad pain, and there's nothing, and a narcotic. 

He was told that they weren't working anyway, so he weaned them off, which is quite a complex thing. And nobody should ever stop taking any painkillers without medical supervision.

So he got them off these medications and started them on LDN, and he said to me, they came back and the feedback he got was that the pain was bearable. It was still there, but it was bearable, or it had reduced from what it was and for some, it hadn't gone. So he wanted to know whether it was a placebo, so he told these people that he was going to stop the LDN.

So he would know whether it was actually the LDN or mind over matter. So he said to them, okay, you've been on LDN now for this many weeks. Um, I'd like you to stop taking it. And he said, without exception, every single one said, you're not stopping. The LDN is the only thing that's ever worked for me. And he's done one small pilot study on, um, LDN, which he presented.

At the LDN conference in Chicago, he spoke and it was absolutely amazing that something so minuscule can have a better effect for these people than they were having with morphine? Absolutely unbelievable. And I had one doctor I met, and unfortunately, both he and his wife and daughter had MS, and he wanted them to try LDN, he was also a diabetic and had neuropathy. He had no feeling any toes, apart from pain which was awful, he tried LDN. And I think he said in 30 years, the pain that he'd experienced had virtually gone. It was no longer a problem for him. And that was the first time that I'd actually spoken to somebody. This was in around about 2008.

I didn't finish completing my story the numbness and pins and needles went, vertigo went, the balance problems went. I had my bowel and bladder control back. Cognitive, things cleared,  my eyesight is not as good as it was, but it's, it's okay. The hearing in my left ear is back probably 75% of the time, and it's amazing. I can achieve things. I know I've got MS. I'm not back to how I used to be, but if I plan things and pace myself. I can do anything, which is amazing. 

Dr Jess Armine: having a life, isn't it? 

Linda Elsegood: It is called having a life, 

Dr Jess Armine: And, I am so impressed I really am. You got tears in my eyes, right. 

Linda Elsegood: I set up the charity in such a way that nobody would ever get paid. So I work without any pay. But my payment is when people get LDN who's found it very difficult and they've been on it for a while, and they come back and say, thank you so much I feel like me again, or I feel I've been given a second chance, or I feel I've been given my life back. That is just so rewarding.

Dr Jess Armine: Absolutely. If your suffering was to have any meaning, that you've taken that suffering and served your fellow human beings is in this particular and, very expensive manner. You know, I always tell people, when I meet people like you, as I always say, that God has a special place roped off in heaven for you guys. You know, because it's true. 

Uh, I know the questions are going to be, excuse me. Is this a prescribed drug? Does it need to be prescribed by a medical person?

Linda Elsegood: Yes, it's a prescription-only drug.

Dr Jess Armine: Is there a listing of physicians that people can access, whether it's in the UK or United States or Canada? Is there a listing of physicians who are willing to work with people with LDN?

Linda Elsegood: Yes, some don't mind having that information out there, others chooses to operate under the radar. I do have a list ,and if anybody is interested and would like to find an a doctor in their area, if they email me - contact@ldnresearchtrust.org - I'm more than willing to help anybody wherever they live, to find a doctor. 

Dr Jess Armine: And I will, I will put that on during the show and I will have it on my website. It doesn't sound like it's expensive. It sounds like the risk-benefit factor is very low. It sounds like it handles the inflammatory portion of many, many different conditions, which a beautiful thing. There is an indication in what I've read, that there are conferences coming up tell us a little bit about that.

Linda Elsegood: We had one, as I referred to, earlier last year in Chicago, and for your listeners, if they would like to watch the whole conference in separate parts from each speaker, there are 12 parts, if they put in the search bar https://ldnresearchtrust.org/content/ldn-2013-conference

(Note: previously the LDN 2013 Conference was behind a paywall; it now is not.)

Dr Jess Armine: that's reasonable about how much is it? 

Linda Elsegood: It should be $40, but if they put in the code, Jess2014 They will get 25% off, so it will cost $30 instead of the 40

Dr Jess Armine: Thank you so much. You know that's going to be, a beautiful thing for people to listen to, and that's a reasonable price. And like you said, it's to cover costs. 

Linda Elsegood: Yes. We have Dr Pradeep Chopra talking about pain. We have. Dr Jill Smith. If anybody knows anything about the Crohn's, she's done Crohn's research, absolutely amazing work, where she's done an endoscopy and seeing what people's intestines are like. Crohn's is also absolutely awful. Five months later, absolutely clear, like the back of somebody's throat. We had Dr Deanna Wyndham from the Whitaker Wellness Center and she explained she herself had lupus, systemic lupus. She would have died if it hadn't been for LDN. But she uses it in her practice for many different autoimmune conditions, and with children as well.

And I forgot to say, LDN is also used for autism, and can be given in a cream applied to the skin, and that works really well. Dr Jacqueline McCandless did some studies with LDN for autism. She and her husband also did studies for HIV in Mali, which is also a very exciting project that was happening there.

Anyway, the survey should tell you that. So last year, the conference was very good. We had talked about cancer etc, and the air was electric. You could actually feel it crackle. It was a nice thing. And we have another one this year. It's going to be in Las Vegas, and be held over two days next time because we have so many great speakers.

Dr Jess Armine: There's a conference in Las Vegas.

Linda Elsegood: It's going to be November, and it will be the seventh and eighth, which is going to be a Friday and a Saturday. 

Dr Jess Armine: I'm going to do my best to come. 

Linda Elsegood: That would be a nice thing to have you join us.

Dr Jess Armine: Would be great to meet your guys. That is wonderful. So we have just a few minutes left. Believe it or not, the hour went rather quickly, didn't it?

Linda Elsegood: I told you I could talk!

Dr Jess Armine: No, it's good. You were worried about being able to cover stuff, and I said, no, no, no you'll just do it. Okay. Do you have any parting words, anything that you'd like to give as advice to someone out there who may have a chronic problem? How should they go about investigating whether LDN maybe a possible treatment; how should they approach their healthcare practitioner ,and so forth?

Linda Elsegood: Well, we have a doctor's information pack that we always say to people, print it off, take it to your doctor, they need to research it. I mean, there are some doctors that now have heard of LDN.

I think it's a case of if they specialize in a condition, like fibromyalgia or something. The patients are educating the doctors. You know, like you're the sixth person that's asked me for LDN, and they eventually look into it. But I would always say to people, don't take my word for it. Don't take anybody else's word for it. Do your own research. Read up as much as you can and find out if it's something that you think is right for you.

Dr Jess Armine: I want to reiterate the fact that this is a grassroots movement, the patients telling the doctors what they want; and what is that the doctors should learn is catching on. Let me tell you something. I have a lot of physicians who I mentor right now. It's because their patients have been arguing with them saying, you have to know this stuff. I'm getting better because of what Dr so-and-so is doing because he understands X, X, and X. How come you don't?

Six months ago, that doctor would have just said, that's not important. And then they learned that it was good. Doctors will look to train, other doctors will continue to ignore it, and you know, poopoo it away. In which case you change doctors, because let's face it, especially in most of the areas of the country, especially here in Philadelphia, they're not the only game in town. You deserve to be treated well and with respect and with knowledge, and you should demand that your doctors do the appropriate training. Okay? And this is how you bring them the information. Okay.

Such organizations like Linda's. Are invaluable because guess what? Now you have ammunition. Now you have information to say, Hey, this might work. Okay, there's no risk. There's only benefit. Let's try it. And if it's helping me, great. If not, you know, no harm, no foul.

Linda Elsegood: And I think people should try something sooner rather than later,  I've stabilized, and prior to that, I was deteriorating rapidly. It's a progressive disease, but it has halted the disease since I have now been on LDN. It was ten years on the 3rd of December last year. And honestly, I have had no progression since that time.. And I'm touching wood here.

Dr Jess Armine: And the bottom line truly is, if this particular substance gets you to a certain plateau point, and even if you had to take it every day as you said, it's about a dollar a day as opposed to some neuropsychiatric medicines that are better thousand dollars a month.

Okay. So. Again, even if it isn't the total answer and you have a chronic condition that can not be cured, it can be managed, it can be managed more effectively, and you can have a life rather than an existence  Linda, I want to thank you so much for being on our show tonight and sharing your knowledge and sharing your story, sharing your struggles.

You've given me several email addresses and links which will appear on my website. I can tell you that, giving of yourself in this manner, you're going to be helping hundreds and thousands of more people because this will spread the awareness of LDN. I learned a lot from myself tonight. I just want to take the time to thank you for your story. Thank you for you and thank you for all your hard work. 

Linda Elsegood: Thank you. It was my pleasure. 

Dr Jess Armine: Take care. We'll talk to you soon. 

Linda Elsegood: Thank you. Bye. Bye.

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

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

Dr Bob Lawrence from Wales was shocked when he first came across Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN), puzzled as to why such a simple treatment could be so effective at treating such devastating diseases.

He has found LDN to be very successful in his patients, some of whom have noticed improvements in their health within a matter of days.

He first prescribed LDN in 2000 and within weeks he had many of his patients on the drug. In this interview he explains LDN’s benefits and his shock as to why mainstream medicine is yet to adopt LDN as an integral component of treatment programs.

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

Jeni - England: Psoriasis (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Jeni:  Im here to talk about psoriasis and, um, my experience of using LDN with psoriasis and, and hopefully it'll help other people with psoriasis just to give them another option of treatment. Since I was, I had quite good success with it. Say, Just bit about the psoriasis. It affects approximately 2% of the UK population in varying degrees.

And it's a chronic skin condition, which causes basically red scaly practice to appear. And it's quite uncomfortable. It can be if it's all over, which is what I had, um, it's related to the immune system, but I think it's not knowing exactly, um, how. How it's related, or any say current treatments involve steroid creams and versed alignments moisturize.

Um, there are some immune system drugs out there at the moment. I think they just, they were long term. So, and they have quite a lot of side effects. So I've never been keen to try layers, or any of the confess, the physical effects that easy to see. But if it's. Quite, um, considerable coverage of psoriasis, then it can have other emotional and personal effects to you.

So let's start skiing is Rossi's when I was about 21, 22, funnily enough, when I was at Penn state university studying over there. So it wasn't a where they're doing the research at the time, unfortunately. Um, Um, stopped is just a small patch, my neck, and then gradually over the next couple of months, spread everywhere, basically arms, legs, body, face, scalp, every way you can think of really so pretty much covered, um, not very comfortable condition to have really, but I tried to not let it face anything all day, really day today, but for some people, it can affect the DC living.

Is that you tried various creams or ointments steroid creams? UVB light which is, which was quite successful, but don't want to repeat it too many times anything and different diets, gluten-free diets. Um, do you sing herbal remedies, acupuncture? Pretty much everything you could think of, but nothing really.

Whereas degree affects, obviously you didn't do some treatments were better than others, and everything varies for different people. Some things were better. Okay. So I was looking for something else to try basically. So after doing a lot of trailing around and the internet, I discovered LDN about a year ago and decided to give it a try. So I've seen his name. Mmm. The side effects as far as I can see. And you may say I visited the essential health clinic in Glasgow and started off taking malaria steaks. Congratulated next few months increase the dosage, um, by about, after about three months.

And I was kind of thinking, Oh, was not really working, couldn't see any effect really, and they're a great improvement, but if it was continued taking it off, six has no side effects I can see.

 so I've spent after about five, six months, my skin was clearing and all the red patches getting less red, basically less itchy and uncomfortable.

And it was very beneficial saying some. Pictures the evidence and all the leftovers, the exam on her face had it all in my face and both sides, forehead, um, psoriasis can vary. So in the song, they would get better sometimes because with the sunlight we can improve. But on the right-hand side, it's been a bit of better, better foods.

Actually, that was probably my camera phone, and neither was decent: because he wants to see. Completely clear to my face. Anyway, that's just the more back before on the left-hand side. It was pretty much covered. Um, and on the right-hand side, a few months later,

it's not great for our team, but I can kind of see Jose on the left-hand side is covered in red patches and, um, is actually, I think that was bout after two or three months taking it. So that's not the worst it's been. But I'm like no legs now. Completely clear. Same. So luxury to have skin pain, to be honest, search thing in conclusion, LDN definitely works for me.

I've actually, um, being offered every few months now. Cause I'm expecting a baby in February and it didn't kind of mix with morning sickness at the time, but it seems to have prolonged effects. And then my skin hasn't come back very, very much over the last four or five months stayed pretty constant,  which is good.

it hasn't. Suddenly the whole come back, which is great. And hopefully, it can help a lot of people with psoriasis and has actually talked to my GP yesterday for something else. And she mentioned she'd be prescribing LDN more, but didn't realize it more for psoriasis. So hopefully. I can educate her, get her to try on some other people.

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

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

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

Gil: Thank you.

Linda Elsegood: Could you tell us when you first noticed there was something wrong with your skin?

Gil: Um, I was 30 years old. It was about 25 years ago, and I started to getting psoriasis on my forehead, and I thought it was just some kind of a fungus or something.

So immediately I went to the doctor, and he said, Nope, it's psoriasis. And it's going to get worse. Every year for yourself. Yeah. Yeah.

Linda Elsegood: So what treatments did he give you apart from that little snippet of information?

Gil: He had depressing information, but, um, he gave me some creams, uh, to put on like topical that helped it a little bit, but, um, that was it.

Uh, but for the last 25 years, I just never took no for an answer. Just keep trying different things.

Linda Elsegood: What would you say you've tried?

Gil: I think I've tried everything. I haven't tried UV light, but I tried, um, I've had like ten different acupuncturists over the years. I've done your Vedic. I've done different diets.

I've done different supplements. I bought a sauna. I did the fast exercises, special foods. Um, Chiropractor, everything that anything that anybody ever said, I just did all that stuff. And, you know, things helped a little bit, but nothing made it go away. It just, it did keep getting worse every year.

Linda Elsegood: So could you describe for us and explain, um, what areas on your body were covered before you, um, discovered LDN and how that impacted on your life?

Gil: Um, I was kind of, you know, it was like, it was never like on my face, so I could kind of cover it in, cover it up the whole time. Uh, but it was always on my, my legs, my thighs, my knees, my elbows, buttocks back, uh, scalp, um, you know, front and back, even though the front of the body. Um, and then through the years it would just like it.

Sometimes it would go away and then come back worse. Um, And then it would like sometimes he would get a rash and then the rash would turn into psoriasis and whole part or parts that you had reached. Um, so, uh, the impacting my, my life would be the first thing is just feeling itchy all the time. My, my skin would hurt.

Uh, we were to have a lot of, um, psoriasis if I had to sit on it or lean on it. Um, that was painful, sleeping at night was uncomfortable. Um, and then also always was covered up cause I was, um, I just felt very self-conscious to be out in public.

Linda Elsegood: So what about swimming or anything like that? Did you ever do those kinds of activities?

Gil: Less and less, um, you know, the first ten years or so. Yeah, but the last 15 years, um, haven't gotten like massages. Haven't done a lot of swimming, the public hasn't gotten to like tropical places or beaches where I'm wearing shorts and t-shirts, that was just kind of taken away year by year and more, more and more, um, out of my life, without even noticing it.

You just kind of like. You just don't do those things anymore. And don't notice how much your life has gotten smaller in some ways.

Linda Elsegood: Yeah. Did you experience any other symptoms other than the skin with your psoriasis?

Gil: Uh, just the skin. Um, I was lucky it didn't turn into arthritis. Um, it was just skin, uh, flaky and then burning sensations on the skin, but that was about it.

Linda Elsegood: And how did you hear about LDN?

Gil: Um, actually you know, it's from not giving up. Um, I kept asking different people and different doctors and I was, um, in Yuma at a friend's party. And there was a doctor there, um, from Australia that practices in Mexico. And I sat down with him. I said, well, what can we do about psoriasis?

And his first reply was like. There's nothing. It just keeps getting worse, this nothing. And then he stopped, and he thought about it, and he went, you know what. LDN. And he looked it up and has been working with cancer patients with LDN, and I think other autoimmune conditions as well. And you looked it up, and psoriasis is on there.

So, um, he gave me a prescription for LDN that day.

Linda Elsegood: How long ago was that? 

Gil: That was about ten months or nine months ago.

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

Gil: side effects, you know, um, not sleeping the first week. It was harder for me to sleep, but it's because I had so much energy.

Um, all the side effects I had were really. Great. I mean, um, more mental focus, um, a lot more energy. Um, I have to tell you, as I said, I took it at night and then the next day had the most horrible bowel movement. It was black and smelly, and it was like all the toxins from my stomach came out, and it was the next morning.

And I think LDN just started working then. Wow.

Linda Elsegood: And how long did it take before you started to notice a difference on your psoriasis?

Gil: It took about six months to notice the difference. Um, but I've noticed so many other positive changes with me, with my body and outlook on life and energy, from when I started, um, the LDN that I was just very hopeful.

I felt like, you know, this is going to do it. And sure enough, six months later, I could just see, wow, the patches aren't angry anymore, and they're not fighting back so much. And my skin feels better.

Linda Elsegood: And, and how would you say your skin is today? Ten months later,

Gil: 10 months later. It's about 70% better. Um, it's not angry.

It's not fighting back. It's not angry. Um, I still do the, uh, topical creams. But I don't need to stay on them as much, whereas before it's like, Oh, you have to do it twice a day. You have to stay in everything. Now it's more like a little bit of a kind of irritation. I have to still take care of this. Um, but it feels like it's not there.

I still have like 30% of it, but it's just, it's just going away. Wow.

Linda Elsegood: So have you got areas of your skin that had psoriasis that actually now looks like clear skin?

Gil: Yes. Yeah. There are areas on my, my legs were, um, you know, six months ago or so they only were crusty. They were dark. They were inflamed.

And the Queens weren't helping. I mean, it was just, it was just getting worse and worse and, um, They're gone completely. I mean, it's pink, beautiful, smooth skin. And also I realized like, after a few months of taking LDN, I already realized that I wasn't getting the itchy feeling and the rashes weren't appearing.

So there was a certain level that I was already taken care of that.

Linda Elsegood: Well, if we have a very good summer next year, maybe you'll go swimming.

Gil: Yes, definitely. Actually, I already got a massage. I haven't had one in 15 years. We went to Hawaii, had a vacation at shorts and tee-shirt on, and I got a massage, and I was just ready to cry, and I'm ready to cry now. It's just so amazing.

Linda Elsegood: Wonderful. Make it so much easier for you to sleep anyway, without having the itching and the burning and yes, all that is amazing. And what would you say to other people with psoriasis who are very sceptical about LDN? I know we spoke before the recording, how a lot of people with psoriasis had tried everything and they're just fed up with hearing about new remedies.

Gil: Exactly exactly what I, I don't know. I think the first thing is, is you have to keep trying different things in order to find a solution. And the second thing is that, uh, you know, LDN worked really good for me and the side effects were minimal and positive. I mean, even if I don't have sort of fits, I keep taking LDN for everything else that is, that it's giving me.

Linda Elsegood: I mean, I don't want to give anyone. False hope we know that this is actually working for everybody, but for the majority of people, they do notice some improvements. So, so that itself is certainly worth trying with the lack of side effects and it not being expensive, et cetera, et cetera. Oh, that's really inspirational. And thank you so much for sharing your story with us. I do appreciate it.

 

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

Dr Tom O’Bryan, LDN Radio Show 27 Sept 2017 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Dr Tom O'Bryan shares his Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) experience on the LDN Radio Show with Linda Elsegood.

Dr Tom O’Bryan discusses his book, The Autoimmune Fix. Expect continual OMGs.The prevalance of autoimmune disease is the #3 cause of getting sick and dying in the world. Autoimmune diseases progress over years, till enough tissue is damaged that enough symptoms appear to get a diagnosis. For example, a very early sign of Parkinson's is loss of sense of smell, and can be predictive of death within 5 years.

Measuring our antibodies can predict illness in its early stages. Antibodies cause cellular damage, then tissue damage, then inflammation, and eventually organ damage. 

Getting this in control early is important. Most of us are bombarded with toxins every day, so learning how to avoid them is crucial to a good healthy life. LDN is helpful in bolstering and regulating our immune system so that it can naturally fight off these elevated antibodies.

This interview includes some valuable knowledge for all listeners concerned with how to combat autoimmune diseases, cancers etc.

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

Nurse Practitioner Seth Merritt, LDN Radio Show (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Seth Merrit, LMT, FNP, CATOM, CLS

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

Seth Merritt is a nurse practitioner from Portland, Oregon who prescribes Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN). He himself takes LDN for psoriasis and has a great deal of success.

Having witnessed his own recovery on LDN, he was determined to ensure that others do not miss out on the opportunity to try the drug. 

In this interview he explains how he finds LDN to be very successful in treating many of his patients with fibromyalgia.

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

Dr Scott Zashin, LDN Radio Show 2017 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

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

Doctor Zashin from Dallas, Texas, is a Rheumatologist who is Board Certified in Internal Medicine. 20 years ago he changed his practice to specialize in autoimmune conditions which required more time to evaluate and treat. 

Unlike most Doctors who allow only 10 to 15 minutes per visit, he spends an hour or more as necessary to get a firm grasp of the patient's problems. He discusses the many autoimmune conditions he treats and how LDN fits in, and why diet and exercise are very important.

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