LDN Video Interviews and Presentations

Radio Show interviews, and Presentations from the LDN 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 Conferences

They are also on our    Vimeo Channel    and    YouTube Channel

Angie Fielden - LDN Specialist, LDN Radio Show (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Angie Fielden is a highly motivated director of marketing for Solutions Pharmacy with 22 years of pharmacy experience. She works alongside Solutions Pharmacy’s team of knowledgeable pharmacists, which currently serve over 20 states. She specializes in marketing, public relations, external business relationships, sales, brand management, Social media marketing, hormone replacement therapy and is an LDN specialist. She is responsible for educating providers on the compounded medications Solutions Pharmacy produces. Angie is a powerful force in the medical industry and uses her positive attitude and tireless energy to encourage others to work hard and never become complacent, which is a personal motto she lives by. Angie’s desire is to help millions of patients achieve a better quality of life. In 2000, Angie formed a society of providers that learned how to prescribe, problem-solve and maintain physiological hormone levels using Bio-Identical Replacement Therapy (BHRT). The providers were located in 5 different countries, but most of them were from the US. This was a growing field during this time and helped to expand Solutions Pharmacy. In 2003 Solutions Pharmacy was mentioned in the back of Suzanne Somer’s books as one of the few compounding pharmacies specializing in compounded BHRT. American Medical Review noted solutions Pharmacy as “A leading expert in bio-identical hormone replacement therapy.” From 2003 to current Angie attends medical conferences regularly to expand her knowledge base about medical issues and compounded medications to help patients achieve a better quality of life. In August 2013, Solutions Pharmacy opened a new location in Ooltewah, TN, a state-of-the-art compounding pharmacy operating as a 503A pharmacy. Angie is inspired daily by God. She loves spending time with her husband Jim, Ryker, their Doberman and the rest of their family.

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

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

Deirdre - US: Small Intestinal Bacteria Overgrowth (SIBO) (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Deirdre shares her SIBO and Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) story on the LDN Radio Show with Linda Elsegood.

Deirdre first noticed an issue with her digestive system upon returning from Mexico. At the time, she was only 20 years old and the issues weren’t attributed to anything serious. However, this progressed to the point where her diet became very restricted and she was only capable of eating certain foods without triggering a reaction.

Her symptoms developed to the point where her joints began to ache and she sought out a solution to her problem, which is when she found that Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) can be effective in treating patients with Small Irritable Bowel Syndrome (SIBO).

The LDN has enabled Deidre to expand her diet and return to regular exercise, removing the joint pain. In this interview she emphasises that she is hugely relieved and owes her recovery to LDN.

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

Charlotte - US: Hashimoto's Thyroiditis 03 July 2019 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Linda Elsegood: Today, my guest is Charlotte from the United States, who takes LDN for Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Thank you for joining us today, Charlotte. Could you tell us how old you were when you noticed there was something wrong with you? 

Charlotte: So I noticed something was going on with me around the age of 30. After I had my daughter, I started to have some symptoms of rashes and extreme fatigue, and then I just thought it was just age. I really didn't know what was wrong. 

Linda Elsegood: So what did you do? Did you tell your doctor at that time or did you just grin and bear it? 

Charlotte: At that time I talked to my doctor and of course I got the typical treatment. “We'll put you on some allergy medicine for the rash. You're a young mom with two children. You're tired for that reason.” I lived with the symptoms, and it wasn't actually until about a year ago that I started to really consult with my doctor to dig deeper and find out what was wrong with me. So I actually got diagnosed with Hashimoto's in the fall of 2017, so fairly recently.

Linda Elsegood: So when you were diagnosed at that point, what would you say a normal day for you was like? 

Charlotte: Oh, it was completely awful. A normal day would be sleeping for 10 hours through the night, but waking up around 3:00 AM, feeling completely exhausted after sleeping 10 hours. I remember almost falling asleep on the way to work. So even after sleeping all that time, I can only really describe that as debilitating fatigue. By the end of the day, I just wanted to go to bed. I became kind of antisocial. I didn't really want to do much. Everything felt very overwhelming. So even small tasks were very overwhelming.

I was always cold. So at this point in my journey with the disease, I was freezing all the time. I didn't sweat when I worked out, which I thought was kind of interesting and I didn't realize later that was part of Hashimoto's. So I was pretty much at a point where I was not feeling human.  But my thyroid levels were coming back normal. So my regular primary care doctor said, “There's nothing wrong with you. Your levels are great.” But I sought out a different doctor who was willing to explore other options.

Linda Elsegood: How long ago were you diagnosed, you said 2017, is that right? 

Charlotte: Yes, that's correct. 

Linda Elsegood: At that point, when you were diagnosed, what medication were you given?

Charlotte: I was given a natural desiccated thyroid hormone. So I started at a very low dose and I eventually went up to 4.5mg, but switched to another and that's what I still take to this day. But at that point, other than the vitamin D prescription I had, those were the only two medications I took.

Linda Elsegood: And did you adjust your diet at all? 

Charlotte: Yeah. So I'm actually a corporate wellness strategist, so wellness has been my whole life for the last decade. So I was already doing a lot of lifestyle factors, like working out, avoiding gluten and dairy. I had done that for years already. At the time of diagnosis, I found another Hashimoto's Facebook page that talked about autoimmune illnesses. I did try that diet. That diet proved to be a little bit interesting for me. When I reintroduced nightshades, in particular, I started to get a new symptom of extreme joint pain. Also on that diet, I gained weight. I gained seven pounds. Most people lose weight. It is actually after that diet that I went back to my doctor and talked about LDN. 

Linda Elsegood: How open was your doctor to prescribing LDN? 

Charlotte: Actually this doctor, in particular, mentioned it to me first. At that point, I didn’t know very much about it. So upon my diagnosis, he talked about it a little bit, and I said I don't want another medication. So when he talked to me about it, that's when the diet wasn't working for me, that's when I went back and did some research on LDN and actually found the LDN Research Trust Facebook page and really dug deep. When I realized the benefits and the stories behind it, that's when I went back to him and said, “Okay, I want to try it.” So he was more than happy to prescribe it to me. He actually told me one of two things will happen according to what he'd seen in his practice. Either nothing will happen at all, or you'll feel better. So he started me off at 1.5mg. I started right there, and I took it for about two or three weeks. Then I started to feel kind of bad again. I felt really great in the first two weeks. I felt like I never felt before:  energy. I was sleeping really well through the night. I wasn't cold anymore. I started to sweat during my workouts.  And then I started to feel kind of blue and tired again. I had actually reached out to the Facebook page, which is a huge lifesaver. I wrote what I was, my symptoms, and how I felt. Someone said to skip the night and if you feel better the next day, you just needed to skip a night and clear your receptors. I did just that. I felt a hundred per cent better the next day, probably better than I felt ever since I can remember. So that's kind of the approach I took from then on out.

I think that actually gave my doctor a bit of knowledge in that area because I told him what I learned. I'm so happy for that page because I think if I would've kept feeling that way I would have just stopped the medication completely, not skipping a night. So once a week I would skip a night, and then I would never have that same experience. So I've been taking it then for nine whole months. I'm up to 4.5 milligrams, and I only skip a night once a month now, if that. It's been an amazing life-changing experience. 

Linda Elsegood: So what would you say a normal day for you is like now? 

Charlotte: A normal day now is seven hours of sleep. I can actually go to bed later and enjoy my free time. After my kids go to bed, I wake up with energy, so I wake up and I’m ready to take on the day. I actually don't even need caffeine anymore to get me through it. Just drink tea, like green tea, in the morning. I can think clearly. I can actually process what people say, which is huge. The brain fog was so bad before, I might not even understand what someone just said. I can find my words. So before I would be conversing with someone and I wouldn't even know the word I wanted to say next. Brain fog has been eliminated. I have energy, I sweat. I'm not cold. The only thing that hasn't changed is the joint pain that I get. So it's getting better. But other than that I have almost complete resolution of my symptoms.

Linda Elsegood: Well, that's amazing. How did you manage with your children when you were having to sleep 10 hours? Did they ever wake up in the night? You know, when you've got a new baby, they tend to do that and need your attention; and when they need it, they need it now. How did you cope? 

Charlotte: Well, it was really, it was really rough. I have to say, I leaned on my mother for support a lot. She helps me with my household stuff because I work a lot. I'm also an army reservist, so I spend one weekend a month away from my kids and my house. So she really helped pick up a lot of things; the chores that I just didn't have the energy to do she would do. I have to say I wasn't the best mom. My children had the iPad in front of them or the TV on, so I could lay there. Then my husband, who now joins us, was actually active in the Army, and now he's retired. But he’s got the best of me because when he actually gets to spend time with us now, I'm actually better. I really leaned on other people a lot to cope. But now I feel like a great mom because if they want to play a board game in the evening, I'll do it. If they want to go outside and play, I'll do it. I have the energy to do that. I remember laying in bed after getting home from work at five, and laying in bed and not being able to move. That wasn’t the best feeling. Now it's like, yeah I'll stay up till 10. I'm good with that. I have the energy to do that. It was really hard for me. But you manage, and you just get through, and that's kind of how life is. I guess I didn't realize how bad it was until I got better.

Linda Elsegood: Well, I'm sure your children really appreciate having a mum that can play and join in, and not just lie on the sofa; and feed them real meals, and be attentive. 

Charlotte: I noticed that before, I just couldn't do much, so I would just be whatever they needed, I’d make sure they have it, but I wasn't involved. 

Linda Elsegood: Of course for your husband, having his wife back is a big thing as well, isn't it? To actually be able to socialize as well. 

Charlotte: Yeah. That's another thing, I'm naturally an introverted person. I didn't realize how the Hashimoto's had made it worse. Just the thought of doing something outside of my normal activities of going to work and coming home was completely overwhelming. So I was like, wow, I didn't realize I actually like to do this. 

Linda Elsegood: Well, what an inspirational story, and thank you very much for sharing it with us today.

Charlotte: Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity. I know when I was in my journey of trying to figure out solutions, the LDN Research Trust, the page, the interviews that you do, really helped me. I appreciated that so much. So I hope that somebody has the same thing from hopefully, my story.

Linda Elsegood: Thank you very much. Thank you. Have a wonderful day. 

This show is sponsored by our members who made donations. We'd like to give them a very big thank you. We have to cover the monthly costs of the radio station software, bandwidth, phone lines, and phone calls to be able to continue with the radio show.  And thank you for listening. 

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

Pharmacist Stephen Dickson, LDN Radio Show 30 Jan 2020 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Stephen Dickson, Pharm shares his Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) expereince on the LDN Radio Show with Linda Elsegood.

Stephen Dickson has been working with LDN for over a decade in the UK. As well as running the well established private medical department of Dickson Chemist, he also runs 7 NHS pharmacies in Glasgow. 

Dickson’s Pharmacy has compounded LDN since 2006 and is a leading producer and educator of this safe, effective, and inexpensive off-label drug. Now, many thousands of patients are benefiting from LDN, and ever-increasing numbers of doctors are recognizing it’s powers and prescribing it with confidence. 

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

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

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

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

Dr Richard Nahas, LDN Radio Show 2014 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

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 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.