LDN Video Interviews and Presentations

Pharmacist Terri Weisenbach, LDN Radio Show (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Pharmacist Terri Weisenbach shares her Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) experience on the LDN Radio Show with Linda Elsegood.

Pharmacist Terri Weisenbach is a partner and vice president of Belmar pharmacy in Colorado, which has been compounding since 1985. They began in hormone replacement therapy yet realised the effectiveness of Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) a long time ago.

Her abundant knowledge and experience of prescribing LDN has benefited many of her patients in avoiding any potential side-effects of LDN while finding the optimal dose in order to combat the patient’s illness.

Terri Weisenbach’s pharmacy ships to 44 States, covering the majority of the USA. 

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

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

Pharmacist Tapio from Norway who takes Low Dose Naltrexone shares his experience.

Since I am taking LDN I have more energy. I sleep better. And another thing has to do with blood circulation. I have hemorrhoids, bleeding sometimes, but since I started with LDN, then the bleeding is it's going away.

It's not easy to get a prescription here in Norway because doctors are not aware of this stuff.

There is a discussion group in Facebook with LDN that is amazing. There's like 8,000 members there.

And a prescription here can be quite expensive so to anybody in Norway I suggest looking for a prescription and buying it at boots Pharmacy.

If you get the doctor who is not interested, so you will have problems getting a prescription. I know we have lots of people getting their prescriptions via England.

Summary from Pharmacist Tapio's interview from Norway. Listen the above YouTube video for the full interview.

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

Pharmacist Susan Merinstein shares her Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) experience on the LDN Radio Show with Linda Elsegood.

Susan Merinstein has been a practicing pharmacist for 33 years and became a compounding pharmacist 13 years ago. She received my Bachelor of Science degree from University of Pittsburgh. She has an active license to practice pharmacy in the state of Pennsylvania.

She have obtained more than 300 hours of continuing education in hormone balancing and compounding, holistic approaches to individual patient problems with focus on the biochemistry and interactions of thyroid, adrenals and sex steroids.

In this interview she explains the success behind Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN), delving into the science.

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

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.

Pharmacist Rosella Pirulli Menta, LDN Radio Show 19 June 2019 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Linda Elsegood: Today I'm joined by a pharmacist and naturopathic doctor, Rosella Pirulli, mentor. Thank you for joining us today. Rosella.

Rosella: Thank you for having me.

Linda Elsegood: Now you said that you got an extraordinary story to tell us:  Your journey. Would you like to explain that to us?

Rosella: Well, I went to St John's University in Queens, and that's where I got my degree in pharmacy and when I started working at a pharmacy in the Bronx of New York I wasn't very happy with just filling prescriptions and checking them and I felt that was not for me. I felt that, if I was going to have a profession and be successful, I wanted to show my children a different way to have a great life and also to be a part of a profession that helps people feeling amazingly well.

So that was my goal and so I only worked in that type of scenery for a few years and then I decided to look into other avenues. I went into homoeopathy where I did get a certificate in homoeopathy and I also looked into supplemental products because I really enjoy the supplements and teaching people how to take the correct supplements, especially if they are on certain medications that require supplements because of the problems that supplements can cause as a side effect. And the first thing I did learn was when patients were taking stands that they need to coQ10 we had a lot of patients that would complain of muscle weakness, fatigue and so I said: " You know what? I need to help patients with  drug issues and side effects." And that was the first step. And then patients would come into the store and I had a lot of patients that would complain about half flashes. And so I said, let me look into that avenue. And so, I started to dwell on how I could start a career in compounding and in that store I really couldn't do it as well but I did get my training to PTCA, and they are an FDA approved facility where I got most of my training from compounding and also in the avenue of bioidentical hormones. And then from there Rye Beach pharmacy took me on because they had a full compounding lab at the time and so they asked me if we did the store for a few years afterwards to be more in compliant, because we're now accredited by the board of PCAB and we also 700 compliance, soon to be 800 compliant by the end of the year.

But in the interim, I had to move to Florida where I worked part-time for Rye Beach pharmacy, and then I worked for a pharmacy in Florida so I had my license there as well. And I was commuting back and forth. I would come here and market to doctors because when I did graduate, I received my bachelor's in pharmacy, but I also, not knowingly, I minored in marketing, so I was I guess then I knew I was going to market, which is great because I enjoy networking.

That's like the passion for me to get doctors together, doctors and pharmacies together. It's my passion to help people get to know each other and there's always room for other avenues. So that's my enjoyment. And right now, I do have my own office where I see patients, I do phone consults as well and I also review blood work with patients. I'm really close to many of the doctors. So that's where I learned more about LDN because I went to PTCA conference and learned about LDN and how important it was for patients in different disease states.

Linda Elsegood: So, you are a supermom. You have five children.

Wow. How does it fit in with a career?

Rosella: Well, it's amazing because my kids understand that we're a team. That's it. We're a team. We work together and we all love each other so much. So my kids are so amazing with each other. They all help each other out.

So the oldest is 22. That's my daughter. My son's 20. My other daughter's 18. And I have a 15-year-old and ten years old. So we are constantly figuring things out and make it work and I think that makes them stronger and closer to the family 

Linda Elsegood: Wow, wonderful! And when did you first really get involved with LDN?

Was it at that PCCA meeting? Had you heard about LDN before then?

Rosella: I heard about it before then because we had a specific doctor that was a Lyme specialist that was working with LDN. So I asked her why was she prescribing LDN and she said it was because she had a lot of patients that were immunocompromised and fatigued, and the LDN is really helpful because it increases immune response. So I said:" That's really interesting. I'd like to learn more about it." So I did some research on it, I spoke with other doctors that were writing for it, why they were writing for it and I had one particular patient that had Crohn's disease. I asked him if he would want to try it and he's been on it ever since. So this is, at least six years that he's been on LDN. He's doing really well and will not stop it. That's for sure. I also took an autoimmune class on LDN. Not only is it great for pain. I actually had another patient that came to see me. She had a severe car accident. She had a lot of neurological issues going on and was on many other pain medications. So I helped wean her off of those pain medications and put her on LDN. Her starting dose was at 1.5 mg. We went up to 4.5 mg and then I said to her: "Let's try 5 milligrams and see if that works for you." That's when she started getting a side effect. She felt very strange. She said in mind a little weird. We went back down to 4.5 mg and she's been on 4.5 mg since about two years now. She's very happy with it. Every once in a while she has to take a Lyrica or something else.

It depends on the stressful situation in our lives, but, I mean, she's off most of her other pain meds because LDN is really working well for her.

Then I have a few other patients that I'm looking into the fertility aspect of it because I do work with a lot of fertility doctors and a lot of them don't know about LDN.

So I did more research on it to see how effective it would be. So right now I'm working with an endocrinologist who's going to start his patients on LDN and see how they do. A lot of people are fascinated by it and they want to try it. They want to help patients this way and I'm happy about that too.

Linda Elsegood: Well, there was a paper released last week by Dr Scott Zashin. He's a rheumatologist in Texas for Sjogren's Syndrome. That was quite good. The more papers and research that people do, it's going to make prescribers more confident in prescribing LDN.

Rosella: I forgot to mention I do have an ALS patient that is using it. This is amazing because he wasn't able to move his fingers and he wasn't speaking. Now it took a little bit of time. He can move his fingers, he can speak a little bit. At one point he didn't have the LDN. His doctor didn't authorize it because I think he was away and he wasn't speaking. So his sister said they need it because this was the only thing that they noticed that he needed. So I called the doctor, and I said:" Just put like PRN refills because this man is doing well with it.

Linda Elsegood: Interesting. So what I was going to say was, how long has the pharmacy been compounding LDN?

Rosella: Let's see. They've been in business for over 50 years and compounding around maybe 15 years.

Linda Elsegood: And what forms do you compound LDN in?

Rosella: Capsules right now for the most part and some creams. I haven't done any sublingual yet, but I think it's worth a try for some patients.

Linda Elsegood: Sublingual is quite a useful tool when people have gut issues that obviously absorb differently and bypasses the stomach so that is hell in some patients, but maybe all your patients can tolerate the capsules quite well. What filler do you use?

Rosella: We use acidophilus. Most patients don't have any issues with that.

Linda Elsegood: Yes. Do you know roughly what patient population you normally treat or is it all autoimmune condition patients?

Rosella: It is hard to say because I'm not in the lab that much. There are a few days that I do work in the lab when they need me but basically working in my own office and I work with a lot of bioidentical patients. So my thought is to really work with thyroid issues and help patients with Hashimoto's.

From what I've read and what I've seen with other patients, LDN really helps to decrease the antibodies in Hashimoto's patients. So that'll also help them with their thyroid. That's going to be my push as well as other autoimmune diseases. And I was looking into other inflammatory diseases like endometriosis, PCOS because I feel that LDN may have a good positive result with those patients as well.

Linda Elsegood: It certainly does. I can speak from experience myself, and with endometriosis worked amazingly.

Rosella: Good to hear. Very good to hear.

Linda Elsegood: I would also like to mention when you treat thyroid patients with LDN, you have to be very careful of the levels of the dose if they're taking thyroid medication because normally they have to start reducing the dose as you increase the LDN.

That is something to look out for. This is why we always say to people who have thyroid conditions to keep in constant contact with the prescriber because you can hit some problems if you are taking too much of your thyroid medication.

Rosella: I agree with you on that. I do work with a lot of patients and I have one endocrinologist that we monitor thyroid and we compound different strengths of thyroid T3,  T4 depending on their blood levels. So we do look at that TSH really carefully and free T3. We also look at FT4, but mainly I look at the TSH and FT3. That to me is very important. I could see a difference in patients if their level changes just a bit. They can start having hair loss or weight gain and fatigue.

That's why  I do tell my patients it's so important that we monitor them, get blood levels done every few weeks to see where they are.

Linda Elsegood: The internet is an amazing tool. It helps people do their own research, but the warning is you can't take notice as gospel truth from just a person on the internet who's not a doctor, not a prescriber, but who is giving advice.

We always say the proper advice is to speak to a pharmacist or a prescriber. You people have had years of training and experience where it's all well and good listening to other people, but when you are talking about your health, you should be talking to a medical professional.

Rosella: Correct. I agree with you on that.

Linda Elsegood: Yes. I mean, it's quite scary. We had an email from a lady who had been given some kind of advice from a friend of a friend of a doctor and their advice was totally wrong. And also you should not buy LDN off the internet. It's illegal. Naltrexone is a prescription-only drug, and therefore you need a prescription to make sure all the safety standards are met.

You said that you were PCAB accredited. So just to explain to people what you have to go through to prove that your pharmacy and your compounding is spot on with the regulations.

Rosella: The regulations are intense and immense. It took us, at least about two years and we're still perfecting it to pass all of the inspection qualifications because if we're ever audited, yes.  PCAB is a credentialing organization. It takes some time for us to make sure we follow every different legality as to having our compounding lab as perfect as possible. Every aspect of it is really important. We have SLPs, and we have meetings every week to make sure that we're following our SLPs. Keeping every temperature in the lab correct, the airflow. We have to make sure that they're wearing their masks, their hats,  jackets and gloves and everything has to be precise and follow to the T. If we ever get inspected, they could definitely find us for anything that they feel that is necessary. We're trying our best to make sure we keep up with it. It's very intense. It really is. That's why we always offer our doctors to come to visit the lab or patients. We have them look through the window because they can't come into the lab and see how we are following protocol per se.

Linda Elsegood: And what are your thoughts on people purchasing LDN off the internet?

Rosella: I just found out that they're selling a prescription item on the internet, and I'm appalled. I don't know how they're doing it. I feel the same way as you. Being that we're a credential lab and we work really hard to keep up with all the laws and the regulations, I don't know where this lab is. It's making the LDN. I have no idea. I would not recommend it at all.

Linda Elsegood: Exactly. The MHRA, which is the medicines regulatory body here in the UK quoted something like 85% of drugs that are shipped into the UK without a prescription is counterfeit. Mostly they're just fillers, they are harmless but some of them are actually lethal.

They're very dangerous. Don't play Russian roulette with your life. Get LDN from a reputable compounding pharmacy.

Rosella: I agree with you. We require to keep it as clean, pure and stable and it's really important to deal with the pharmacy credentials because you never know what you're getting out there. We work hard and we respect it.

Linda Elsegood: And not only that. You have your LDN tested so you have to prove in a 4.5 capsule that there is 4.5 of Naltrexone.

Rosella: Yes, we do.

Linda Elsegood: So if there were no checks, it could be 1 mg, 6 mg, or it could just all be fillers.

Rosella: Exactly. You're right. We do send it out for testing. We send out batches every day of different types of compounds, and then we get our results back within the right range, and we're happy we dispense it. So it's important that we do that.

It can cost up to $200 or more depending on what you're testing.

Linda Elsegood: So pain. Are you using any ultra-low-dose naltrexone yet? It's quite relatively new still. I don't know if that's something that your doctors yet know about.

Rosella: No, I don't think so.

I really haven't heard of that either. So how low is the dose then because I'd like to speak to my doctors about that.

Linda Elsegood: Well it's micro-dosing. It's probably 0.01  kind of thing. But it's really interesting. People who are on high doses of pain medication and have been for years, it's awful how it's not just America, it's all around the world how people are becoming addicted to these pain medications. I know that the whole idea is to try and get patients off the pain medications, but the withdrawals can be quite horrendous. So by using this ultra-low-dose naltrexone in micro-dosing, you can use that alongside with opioids.

They don't have to be off the opioids, but such a small dose makes the opioids far more effective. So it makes them work better, and therefore the patient is able to reduce the amount that they're taking. If you look at it as a sliding scale, you slowly increase the ultra-low dose, and we're still talking microdosing here, and then they can gradually reduce their opioids until they're on the LDN.

Most pain specialists say that they can get their patients off the opioids completely.  Some say that they just take it when they need to. They're not taking it constantly. So I think that is something that's really interesting and something new to many people but how wonderful to get these people off pain medications.  I've spoken to many people who've been on Morphine, Fentanyl, patches, and cocktails of medication and they say that they're still in pain. It doesn't work. So if we can get LDN out there and use to help these people to come off all these pain medications.

how wonderful is that? Tell us what do high doses of painkillers long term do to the body?

Rosella: They can cause a whole host of things, bone loss, blood pressure issues. It depends. I'm looking at patients that not only the opioids but if they take a NSAID what it could cause in the long run. I just believe that most of these medications,  some patients become suicidal too. Depression is another problem, weight gain. So many different things that opioids cause.  I think that if we can help patients come off of them and give them more supplementation and also LDN in a combination that'd be great.

Even Curcumin, Boswellia. There are so many amazing products out there that patients don't know about. They're just scared to come off of their opioids because of the dependency.

Linda Elsegood: Definitely. So how do patients get hold of you for a consultation?

Rosella: On the website. There is the introduction of what I do. I have a video there as well and there's also an evaluation form they can download. So on the website, there is an appointment maker there called shore, so they can make an appointment with me and it makes it really convenient for them.

Most doctors that know what I do, tell the patients to call me or go on the website or email. I have my business cards and I have that for them and that's how they get in touch with me. They used to call here. I have an assistant, her name is Tiffany, and she helps me with setting up appointments, and she's also a technician that helps to fill our scripts.

So that works out really help me.

Linda Elsegood: And do you have a waiting list, or can you see patients quite quickly?

Rosella: It depends on the month because I do marketing two days a week. So that's why it's really convenient for them to make their own schedule. It could range from a week waiting, maybe two weeks at most, then I try to fit them in. So for instance, if they can't see me within the special time frame that I have, which is usually between like eight in the morning and six,  I see them on the weekends if I can. I'll set up that schedule for patients. So I try to make it convenient, try to fit people in as quickly as possible.

Linda Elsegood: And where are you situated?

Rosella: Where am I situated? I'm in the Rye, New York. In Westchester County.

Linda Elsegood: Is it wheelchair friendly for patients too?

Rosella: Well, it is. We are a hybrid store, so downstairs is mainly where we have the retail establishment.

We have home health care and our vitamin line where we have a pharmacist that's full time working in that area. We also have the upstairs where my lab is, and where also is my office and other offices as well. If a patient needs to see me and can't walk up the stairs, there is another office downstairs that I could see them in. That works out for those patients.

Linda Elsegood: Wonderful! And could you just tell us your website?

Rosella: It's www.ryerx.com.

Linda Elsegood: Wonderful. Wow. We need to end of the show.

Rosella: Oh, great. I just wanted to clear something up. I'm not a physician. I'm a naturopath, so I cannot prescribe. I just wanted to clarify that if you don't mind.

Linda Elsegood: No, that's absolutely fine.

 Just explain what a naturopath does.

Rosella: Well, I took some courses in it, and I basically learned more about supplementation. It's a little bit different. I wanted to become a naturopathic physician, but I didn't have the time. I was basically between the kids and working full time.

I didn't go into that avenue. But it's been mainly as like learning about supplementation, helping patients with that as well as a little bit of nutrition. So I would like to go into clinical nutrition as well, but we'll see if I can cross that path when I get a chance to, once all the kids are in college, I guess, I don't know.

I'll figure it out.

Linda Elsegood: Do you test for supplementation to find out what people are low in?

Rosella: We do some blood work for sure. New York is really tough when it comes to other types of testing, so we can only do blood tests and that's how we test and we just saliva testing for the hormones. We are limited to a lot of different types of testing unless a patient lives in Connecticut or New Jersey, then we can test them with the different kits that we have.

Linda Elsegood: What about vitamins? Can you test for vitamin levels or not in New York?

Rosella: It could be tested for sure because we work with a lot of doctors that do a lot of IV therapy and they test all sorts of vitamins.

It depends on the lab that does it. But here are many labs that do testing for vitamins.

Linda Elsegood: Do you find that people in New York are deficient in vitamin D? Do you get enough sunshine there?

Rosella: I would say that everyone is deficient in vitamin D, everyone in America must be, but definitely in New York.

And then, once we rectify that, they feel better. We get them to a certain level, and they could stay on the supplementation for a good long time. Usually, I don't recommend that they come off of it, but if they have levels to go higher than  50, with the doctors ok, we'll bring down the dose a little bit.

Linda Elsegood: How would a patient feel if the vitamin D levels were low?

Rosella: Some patients tell me that they feel achy, others tell me they feel tired or depressed.

Some patients don't have any symptoms at all, so it just depends on the person. I know when I had my levels low, I would feel a little down and when it was a rainy day, I wouldn't feel myself. But now that my levels are normal it doesn't bother me.

So it's really strange how I used to feel.

Linda Elsegood: That's really interesting, isn't it? So anybody out there who would like to come and see you go online, they can find out more about you, play the video and make an appointment, come and see you and the bonuses is they can actually have a look at your compounding lab looking through the window, of course.

But that's also interesting to some people. I'm sure.

Rosella: Yes, absolutely. They love it, especially because we have a clean room as well, and it's separate from the rest of the lab, and that's where we make all the injections of HTG and b12 and they find that very interesting.

Linda Elsegood: Well, thank you very for being our guest today. We learned a lot from you.

Rosella: Thank you very much for having me and have a great day.

Linda Elsegood: Thank you.

Rosella: Thank you. Bye-bye.

Linda Elsegood: Each pharmacy has been family owned since 1946 they are a PCAB accredited compounding pharmacy growing from a corner drugstore to a wellness centre that helps patients to achieve their optimal health covering Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts. New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.

Visit www.ryerx.com, and I hope for the opportunity to earn trust.

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 Rick Upson, LDN Radio Show (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

After years working in other pharmacies, Rick did not hear about low dose naltrexone (LDN) until he bought Palm Beach Compounding Pharmacy in Florida in 2009 – the previous owner had been compounding LDN. The forms they prepare it in are capsules, an oral liquid form dispensed with a syringe to measure it easily, and a topical cream. That has been prescribed a couple of times by Dr. Brian Udell, who is about an hour away, in Davie FL. They haven’t been asked to compound LDN as sublingual drops, which can be helpful for patients whose stomach gets upset from swallowing LDN; but they have compounded troches, a lozenge to dissolve in the mouth so it is absorbed through the lining of the mouth rather than the stomach. Then to the liver, where it will be metabolized.

Conditions he’s aware of being treated with LDN include fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, autism, ADD and other behavioral disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus. Rick’s clients have not reported negative side effects from LDN, however notes that The LDN Book says approximately 8% of people have some sleep disturbance, which is a pretty low incidence. He commented on how it can take three months to get full effect of what LDN can do for you, so impatient people need to be aware.

Linda Elsegood commented on the progressive nature of most autoimmune conditions, and how amazing it is to hold the progression with LDN. She noted that surveys found most people notice something around 4 months on LDN, although some are not stabilized until as long as 18 months on LDN. So patience is needed.

Rick tells of a Facebook page [LDN Got Endorphins?] with many patient stories, that has been informative. He has been selling The LDN Book and finds it valuable, though some content might be too technical for patients. He appreciates how it explains not only LDN, but the related body systems and how they work together, and relevant tests. Linda replied that sales of The LDN Book have done really really well, and it is aimed for both the lay person and prescribers. Rick has focused on getting the book out to those who prescribe compounded medications, as they are the kind who think outside the box.  He knows many who treat things that would benefit from LDN: gastroenterologists who treat Crohn’s disease and inflammatory bowel disease, fibromyalgia, and other similar difficult to treat conditions.

Keywords: fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, autism, ADD and other behavioral disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, Crohn’s disease and inflammatory bowel disease. The LDN Book, compounding, side effects, low dose naltrexone, LDN

Summary from pharmacist Rick Upson, listen to the video for the show.

 Any questions or comments you may have, please contact us. I look forward to hearing from you. 

Pharmacist Mike Graeff, LDN Radio Show (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Mike Graeff, a compounding pharmacist from Oregon in the United States shares his experience with Low Dose Naltrexone.

I've been a compounding pharmacist in the United States in both Oregon and Washington for 40 years. I worked with a lot of people with specific problems like Multiple Sclerosis. I did a lot of end stage pain management therapy, pediatric work, hormone replacement therapy, etc

And now I worked for Walgreens regional compounding center in Portland, Oregon. We're a regional compounding center one of the largest in the Northwestern United States.

We have six to 10 physicians that prescribe Low  Dose Naltrexone. We have been doing it for 15 years with good results.

I haven't had any untoward side effects reported. Most patients have just responded that it's been extremely effective and it's been very helpful and managing their disease and states that LDN makes a better quality of life for them, but have not really heard of any significant side effects that occurred as of this date.

We make it up as a pure powder formulation, and we take the tablet and make it up into a compound at capsule. So we have two dosage forms available. A lot of times third party carriers, insurance companies don't cover the powder but they will cover the tablet if you formulate it into a capsule formula.

LDN is a very important medication that can be used as an adjunct therapy to patients that are struggling in attempting to get some relief and some improvement in their quality of life. And I think it's marvelous that it is available and I find it very satisfying as a compounding pharmacists to be able to provide this treatment for these patients and for these doctors who  have patients that are looking for this type of medication.

Summary of Mike Graeff's interview, a compounding pharmacist.  Listen the YouTube video for the full interview.

Pharmacist Masoud Rashidi, LDN Radio Show 11 Dec 2019 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Linda Elsegood:  I'd like to welcome my guest, Dr Masoud Rashidi.  He was from California, the owner with his wife, Dr Anna.  They own their own compounding pharmacy in Folsom.  Thanks for joining us today, Masoud. 

Masoud Rashidi:  Thank you, Linda, for having me on the show.

Linda Elsegood:  Could you tell us what made you decide to get into pharmacy?

Masoud Rashidi:   It started back in high school.  My dad knew a pharmacist, and I was able to shadow with him for a day.  It was interesting how you can help people and get to know them.  I wanted to pursue pharmacy after that.

Linda Elsegood:  Wow.  That's amazing, isn't it?  So how long have you been a pharmacist now?  Did they know about LDN?

Masoud Rashidi:  I've been a pharmacist for 15 years now, since 2004.  That's when I graduated from Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California.  That's where I received my doctorate degree and started working a few months thereafter.  I started working at a chain, like everybody else out of school.  They did not know about LDN.  After a few years, I started working at a chain in California.  A couple of years later, I decided to explore, because there was a need for a compounding pharmacy in town.  There was none available at the time.  So, we had rotations back to school to learn about compounding, but we still didn't know about LDN until I began compounding and started our own company in 2007.  That's where we became involved in compounding LDN.

Linda Elsegood:  So, in your pharmacy, what forms of LDN do you offer?

Masoud Rashidi:  We provide a few different ones.  Mainly, we do capsules in many different dosages.  We also do lozenges.  We've compounded a topical, such as a transdermal application; also a liquid, both in aqueous solution or oil, depending on the situation  The kid may take the oil or not, so we go from there, depending on what flavors we can incorporate into the different formation.  We pretty much do every possible dosing that is available right now.

Linda Elsegood:  And what strength do you normally start with?  Do you do a micro-dose?

Masoud Rashidi:  Yes, we do micro-dosing; actually we've done a few of them.  Our most common one, of course, is the typical dosing, 1.5 mg, 3.0 mg, and 4.5 mg, but the last few years everything has changed.  We’re doing so many different doses every day.  We've done from 0.1 mg all the way to 9.0 mg.

With micro-dosing, we do from 1 microgram to 5, 10, depending on where are going to end up with that particular patient and their needs.  We've been doing both, like several different dosing, and we send our products to third-party testing to ensure potency and quality.

Linda Elsegood:  Having spoken to so many pharmacists, it's very difficult to say that one microgram of LDN is very difficult to know.  It's very hard to prove.  You have to find the right people to have it tested.  Lots of people, I'm sure, who take LDN are not aware of all the efforts that compounding pharmacies must go through.  Would you like to tell us a bit about that? 

Masoud Rashidi:   We received two different chemicals of Naltrexone from a couple of different wholesalers.  Then we send it for testing after compounding to determine the best one to use.  It’s not a requirement to do all this testing, but we go above and beyond to make sure we get the right dosing.  We send samples to the third-party lab to be tested to see if it is within range.  Legally, you can have 10% variation on the capsules, but in our lab, we like to keep it less than 3% to be even more accurate.  When we send it out, we tried to keep it less than 5%, especially when you get to low doses.  Ten per cent is a lot of variation when dealing with one microgram, so we try to keep that even lower than what's legally allowed to ensure higher quality.  In the past, they've rejected a chemical because it had too much water content.

Linda Elsegood:  What kinds of doctors are you dealing with?  Naturopathic doctors, pain specialists, MD’s, and other prescribers?

Masoud Rashidi:  Yes, you are right on.  One of our biggest prescribers is a nurse practitioner who specializes in women's health and sees many people with Hashimoto's and autoimmune.  We have an MD, after going to the LDN Research Trust Conference a few months ago, has become big on LDN.  We have a few naturopaths.  I go to different doctor's offices and educate them on LDN.  In California, unfortunately, a lot of naturopaths cannot prescribe; they must have oversight MD’s.  They must find a naturopath who can prescribe it because not every naturopath in California can do so.  We do have MDs, nurse practitioners, a variety of different doctors, even paediatrics.  One of our best cases was an autism patient, with a prescribing MD.  It was amazing.  Every time I think about it I get goosebumps because of what happened.  A few days later, the mom calls and says, “Oh, my kid is actually communicating with two siblings!”  It was three days later at 0.1 milligrams.  It's been about three months, and she's one of the best advocates for LDN.  She calls us all the time.  This child is talking more and more with the siblings and the parents and having eye-to-eye contact.  The mom said it was life-changing, and that's what we hear all the time.  My life has changed after LDN.  It's rewarding when you hear those words, and that's why we keep doing what we're doing.  We continue to conduct seminars for the public and for the doctors to increase awareness.  It's been very good for the patients, and our goal is to increase awareness on how great it is and how it can help in so many ways, especially with all the research articles available now.

Linda Elsegood:  What case studies do you have, feedback from patients, and their conditions?

Masoud Rashidi:  One of the biggest ones we get is RA or rheumatoid arthritis.  They get a lot of good response.  After a week or two, they can move their fingers, and they don't have much pain.  They've tried all these different drugs, and nothing works.  Now after a week or two, it's amazing sometimes.  For some patients, it takes a few months, but sometimes, within a week they call you back, and it's like, “Oh my God, what is this? This is working amazingly.” 

One amazing result was an MS (multiple sclerosis) patients.  I was brand new to compounding, six months.  We didn’t have that many employees, so we knew every patient that came in the door. He comes in with a wheelchair.  He’s tried everything.  We consulted with MS experts, and that's how we started with LDN, just speaking with them.  I kid you not, three months later, he comes in, WALKS into the pharmacy.  I'm like, whoa!  He was in tears.  He says, “I’ve been in a wheelchair for so many years.  I've tried all these drugs, and nothing has worked.  This has been amazing.”  That's when we started promoting LDN more, talking to different doctors about it.  We get to a lot of good feedback like that.  There are just too many of them to share.

Linda Elsegood:  What about patients with GI problems?  Have you had any feedback from those?

Masoud Rashidi:  Actually, we’ve seen IBS, IBD, Crohn’s disease, and things like that having really good results.  Of course, as we all know, not every drug is going to do 100% for every patient.  But we’ve had about 80% good results.  The funny part is that they’ve tried all other drugs that are commercially available, and nothing has worked.  At this point, they contact us.  After so many doctors, so many drugs, and they come in and then have good success with LDN.  Every time we do our seminars, people come in and ask, “Oh, would it work for this?”  So, we start researching.  Our latest question, Mom called us and said, “Okay, my daughter's addicted to narcotics.  They put her on Suboxone.  What can I do with LDN?  She's now more addicted to Suboxone than she was addicted to narcotics.”  We're researching that right now.  It's amazing how one drug can treat so many different conditions.

Linda Elsegood:  Definitely.  Still talking about GI, do you have any patients using it for SIBO, (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth)?

Masoud Rashidi:  I've read a lot about it.  We have a patient wanting to try it, but the doctor was not willing to prescribe it.  We referred care to this new physician.  This is our first case, and we'll find out hopefully soon.

Linda Elsegood:  What about Lyme? Is that something you've seen 

Masoud Rashidi:  Lyme…yes, we have.  So many people go undiagnosed, and then they get diagnosed, and they don’t know what to give them.  Then they're on pain meds and stuff like that.  We had a Lyme patient, we talked to her doctor and put her on LDN.  It has helped her a lot with her symptoms.  We've had quite a few patients, but she was a really severe case with multiple issues.  About two and a half months later she was off many of her medications, and she was feeling much better.  She could resume driving, not being on all these different drugs.  Previously, she was depressed.  Now she gets up, and she can do things in the morning.  We’ve had other cases with very good results as well.

Linda Elsegood:  Okay. And have you got vets around who prescribe LDN for animals?

Masoud Rashidi:  I've talked to quite a few veterinarians in town.  We’re writing a protocol on how to use LDN for pets.  One veterinarian has used it, and it helps with all the issues that humans have.  There are a lot of articles on that.  We've been starting them on the lower doses.  We do make it mostly liquid in an oil suspension so that it lasts longer.  We have had a few now.  The vets have been very happy, and the owners have been happy.  The dog had arthritic pain and could not move as much.  We gave him the LDN, the veterinarians prescribed it, and then a month or so later the dog is doing much better.  Veterinarians talk to each other.  We get more questions from different veterinarians every day and hope that we can get more awareness of LDN for pets.  It works for them.  We've seen results, few, not many, but I've read a lot of research studies on it.  I am hoping that it's going to become more popular sooner rather than later in the pet world, too.

Linda Elsegood:   Right.  It's all to do with raising awareness and making the doctors feel comfortable.  Not surprised that you have so many MD’s prescribing LDN.  Again, they are traditionally trained and many of them take some convincing to look outside the box.  You were saying ND’s in your area often can't prescribe the LDN.  What about physician assistants?  Are they allowed to prescribe?

Masoud Rashidi:  Oh yeah, they do.  We have one who's a big proponent of it because he's seen really good results.  He's a functional medicine PA.  He involved the doctor and everybody else.  It's contagious when you see good results.  They tell each other, and they start calling it in.  Yes, we have quite a few PA’s that prescribe.  Not as many as I want.  They're coming on board because we’re holding seminars in large scale now.

Linda Elsegood:  Yes, PA’s tend to have more time to listen to patients than doctors.  It's amazing what these service providers are doing.  We'd be lost without them.  

Masoud Rashidi:  You're absolutely right.  As far as they have more time to spend with the patient because doctors have a lot of other things going on at the same time. 

Linda Elsegood:  When you have a chronic disease, let's say MS or lupus, even fibromyalgia, trying to get the diagnosis isn't easy.  And then you’ve got to find somebody to help you to get the right treatment because obviously everybody is different.  It also helps to have that patient, doctor and pharmacist relationship, doesn't it?  You know, the triangle.  Presenting LDN to more doctors and letting them know that you're there to answer any questions or queries they may have I would think helps them become more confident in prescribing LDN.

Masoud Rashidi:  That's true.  Even in our patient's seminar, we had last month, we had four prescribers show up at the seminar that was for the patient.  It was very interesting.  In future seminars, we may broadcast on Facebook Live or somewhere, so more people can be reached who cannot come in.  All our seminars are free.  We do this for awareness.  We have people come in and share their stories.  Patients talk to each other, and then they start getting up and talking to the whole group.  That's amazing, too, because then they are hearing from the patient, not from us.

Linda Elsegood:  Of course, patients, as soon as they learn about LDN, they then go and find a doctor or educate their own doctor.  I think patients also play a big part in raising awareness of LDN, especially when they have good results.

Masoud Rashidi:  Exactly.  We give them a whole binder.  We've seen that patient take those binders to their doctor and show them some of the research studies, because some doctors are still thinking of Naltrexone as a whole dose Naltrexone and they're like, “Oh, you don't need it.”  We tell them, take this to your doctor, and that has helped.  You are absolutely right.  Patients are the best advocate for this whole thing because they see results.

Linda Elsegood:  We’ve come to the end of the show.  Thank you so much for having been my guest today.  It really was a pleasure speaking with you.

Masoud Rashidi:  Thank you for having us, and it was a pleasure speaking with you.  

Linda Elsegood:  Thank you. 

This show is sponsored by Doctors Masoud and Anna Rashidi.  They graduated in 2004 from Western University with a Doctor of Pharmacy degrees. Soon after in 2007, they opened the PCAP accredited Innovative Compounding Pharmacy located at 820 Wales Drive, Suite 3, Folsom, California  95630.  To better serve the community, for more information, please call (866) 470-9197 or visit www.icpfolsom.com.  

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

Pharmacist Mary-Louise Condon, LDN Radio Show (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Mary-Louise Condon is a pharmacist from Brisbane Australia, and an integrative practitioner. She heard about low dose naltrexone (LDN) over the last 8 years, first at an anti-aging convention in Melbourne, as a treatment for autoimmune diseases. After the conference she met with local prescribers to talk about trends in healthcare and how best to support patients on their journey to better health. Several were interested in LDN for patients with Crohn’s disease, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, who were not doing well on dietary modifications or medications. Being able to offer LDN brought profound improvement in the quality of life of patients, including those who had been housebound, those who couldn’t find items on menus that would agree with them, those losing weight.

They compound LDN as a capsule generally, and at times are able to add a supplement into the LDN that the patient needs, such as magnesium, or alpha lipoic acid for a patient with autoimmune disease. They are considering sublingual and transdermal forms for patients who can’t tolerate capsuled LDN.  Most common side effects noted are sleep disturbance, with upset stomach as second. For some sleep disturbances they recommend taking LDN in the morning

The use of LDN in Australia is in its infancy, and the best way to gain acceptance is through networking among patients, prescribers, and pharmacists. Pharmacists can help network patients with LDN prescribers, or help their prescriber understand LDN. A wide variety of prescribers write for LDN, not just general practitioners.

Generally, sleep issues or gastric upset are the common side effects. They did discontinue LDN for one older woman who developed some sort of neuropathic pain on LDN that may be from the NMDA receptor analog blocking effect, but regardless, Mary-Louise would not hesitate to recommend LDN for that or any relevant condition.

When instructing patients about LDN she stresses the time to see improvement can take 3-6 months. It might take that long for a patient to be able to tolerate even 1 mg. Linda Elsegood commented that they have found that it’s not always that a higher dose is better, but what suits the patient. It may take weeks of months to titrate up the dosage of LDN. In England, liquid LDN is used to titrate the dose up. Mary-Louise noted that they can go lower than 0.5 mg in capsules, but haven’t had the need as yet.

To contact The Compounding Lab go to https://compoundinglab.com.au/. They post throughout Australia, and Mary-Louise consults out of Brisbane. Their email is enquiries@compoundinglab.com.au. This information and more is on their website. They can answer questions about LDN, and help patients find a practitioner who is open to prescribing LDN; or they can make appointments with Mary-Louse or one of their other doctors.

Keywords: low dose naltrexone, LDN, antiaging, integrative, autoimmune, Crohn’s, Hashimoto’s, thyroid, alpha lipoic acid, compounding, side effects,

Summary from pharmacist Mary Louise Condon, listen to the video for the show.

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 Larry Frieders, LDN Radio Show (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Pharmacist Larry Frieders from the United States shares experience with LDN. Archived Show

Many years ago Dr. Bernard Bihari called me and told me about how he was using Low Dose Naltrexone. And he was looking for another pharmacist to help make some in the, particularly in the middle part of the United States. He had a couple of pharmacists working with him on the East coast, but there was interest in my area around the city of Chicago.

And after we talked a while, I figured: "What harm would it do to at least give this a try?" I mean, the standard dose for Naltrexone is 300 or so milligrams per day. And here was this doctor talking about a three milligram dose. I figured 1% of the recommended dose, the chances of side effects are practically zero.

And if this guy says it works with all of his experience and background, Who was I to argue with him? So he gave me an order for a couple of people in the Chicago area. And that's where this whole thing started.  Dr. Bihari mentioned to me that he was using it for AIDS patients and cancer patients, but he was just beginning to see the effects with some of the immune type diseases.

And the first two patients we dealt with were Multiple Sclerosis patients and they had it refilled regularly because it was helping them feel better.

We have now around 500 to a thousand people currently using LDN in the Midwest Chicago area.

And the number of conditions that people are using it for seems to be expanding almost every year. I just talked to a doctor yesterday who was very excited about using it for Rheumatoid Arthritis. And we've also had people with Irritable Bowel disease, other types of immune disorders who were successful with it.

One question that many patients ask is about fillers

We found that maybe calcium was not the best filler to use because there was some binding going on. And definitely we didn't want people using slow release. So we were recommending just the regular prompter lease type filler.

And I've always not liked lactose as a filler because there's a great number of people who have a sensitivity to lactose, because even though there's a small amount in there, just wasn't worth it in my mind to use lactose. So we've been using a cellulose seller for many, many years. And for people who don't like that idea, we also use rice powder, just plain old white rice powder.

Also they are concerned about side effects. Vivid dreams seems to be what happens, but they do go away very quickly.

The only real side effect that I think is worthwhile keeping in mind is that the drug should not be used if you're also using an opioid or a narcotic pain reliever of any kind.

Well, we've actually one of our oncology doctors here in the area actually had two customers, two patients who reacted pretty violent, some kinds of withdrawal type symptoms when they have been on pain relievers. So we've got a hard rule. Don't use Naltrexone if you're also using pain relievers that have narcotics in them, that's about it.

The LDN Research Trust did a survey about four years ago, I think were about 400 people that took part and we found that only 5% of people experienced any side effects at all.

Another important thing is the amount of medications patients take. In fact, I actually wrote a book of that title called "The on drug". I came to the conclusion or the realization that too many of us take too many drugs. And when I was in school, If people took three drugs, we have a statistical table that showed that their risk of serious side effects was about 80% higher than if they weren't taking any. And probably in most of the Western type societies, people are taking 10, 15, 20 drugs per day.

In fact, in my pharmacy, we don't sell commercial drugs. We only do the compounded versions.

LDN seems to be like the only real chemical drug that we have available on a regular basis, but it's a different perspective and I can come at this from the position of a pharmacist.

Summary of Pharmacist Larry Frieders's interview. Watch YouTube video for full interview.

https://ldnresearchtrust.org/