LDN Video Interviews and Presentations

Lili - Denmark: Psoriasis, Psoriatic Arthritis, 11 April 2018 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Lily from Denmark experienced the first symptoms of arthritis 20 years ago, 10 years into that she was diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis as she had developed a horrible rash mainly in her scalp. She was given methotrexate by her specialist. Methotrexate helped her in the beginning but soon stopped helping and Lili was at a loss, she had a lot of pain and very poor sleep and her life was severely affected.  

Lili did her own research online and heard about Low Dose Naltrexone from a Facebook group.  Her doctor was great and prescribed it when she requested it. The first dose helped her, she slept better and had less pain and her psoriasis, on her scalp, cleared up within a fortnight. As she increased her dose her pain also disappeared and she is now able to live a normal life.  Laura walks 8 Km a day now with her dog and sleeps through the night and consequently feels so much better.

Anthony - 11th April 2018 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Anthony shares his Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and Low Dose Naltrexone story on the LDN Radio Show with Linda Elsegood.

Anthony first noticed an issue with his alcohol during teenagehood, when he would continue drinking long after his friends had stopped. From the age of 13 to his early thirties, Anthony barely went a day without drinking.

During this interview Anthony discusses “Alcohol Use Disorder” (AUD) and how successful The Sinclair Method is in treating the problem. Simply explained, the patient takes a 50 mg Naltrexone tablet one hour before drinking alcohol. It negates the effects and over time, reduces the addictive aspects. She explains how this is safe and inexpensive and that the success rate is 78%.

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

Dr Laura Blevin - April 4th 2018 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Dr Laura Blevins from Portland in Oregon, a naturopathic doctor is sharing your experience with Low Dose Naltrexone.

I believe I heard about LDN for the first time back to my first year in medical school. One of my professors who teaches the gastroenterology classes was a very big proponent  Low Dose Naltrexone and introduced us to it pretty early in some of our pathology classes. He was bringing it about in the context of autoimmune disease and my father has had multiple sclerosis since the mid-1970s.

I actually use personally as well. I have Hashimoto's and I largely credit LDN with helping to get my Hashimoto's into remission. And I probably write at least a dozen prescriptions for it a week because I see so frequent autoimmune disease in my practice.

Most patients I'll start with 1.5 milligrams at that time for a week, and then we double it to three milligrams for a week. And then we go up to 4.5 milligrams and as long as they tolerate that, that's the dose that we stay at and I do kind of give them a heads up that some of the more common side effects include restlessness and vivid dreams.

But I let them know with each dose increase that if they start to experience those side effects and that it's bothersome to them, that they need to call or send me a message and check-in so that we can discuss options because I have a few patients that are very sensitive and need to stay at that lower dose and still get good benefits from it, but they can't tolerate the higher dosages.

The children I've used it for the youngest was aged six. We were using it for severe allergies.

And I started her with a quarter milligram and then we ended up moving up to a half milligrams into three-quarters of a milligram. And she ended up staying at a milligram and we did six months worth of therapy and then tapered her off of it and remarkably so far. And we're about a year and a half out.

Now, her allergies are completely gone and have not come back.

She's kind of one of my miracle cases. She had done allergy shots and was on high dose anti-allergy medications every day that made her very drowsy and less functional in her life.

And their parents were so happy that we found this other answer for her.

I've I always counsel my patients about kind of what I call the basic treatment guidelines, exercises, good clean diets, stress management, good sleep.

I look int food intolerances. I do a lot of food allergy testing in my practice or counsel patients on how to do elimination diets.

For good sleep, I talk with them a lot about sleep hygiene, about having a good bedtime routine that generally does not include any kind of screens. I talked with them about how screens inhibit our natural melatonin production and usually counsel them to read a good book before bed, but not anything too exciting.

And especially if they have issues with insomnia, I generally recommend that they read the dictionary or an old college textbook.

And getting to bed at a decent hour, preferably earlier than 11 o'clock, midnight. Oftentimes employing things like white noise machines, because a lot of people tend to be very light sleepers and wake up frequently too small things.

And sometimes as simple as just running an old fan in their bedroom will dramatically improve the quality of their sleep.

I have four basic supplements that I recommend for most patients. Omega 3, probiotics, magnesium and B vitamins.

Another important thing I tell my patients is about the research that shows the opiates can sensitize the brain to pain and over time become less effective and can actually make their pain seem worse. And so that's always an end goal trying to get them off of their narcotics and I talk with them about LDN. It will help to decrease the inflammation, make them feel better by increasing endorphin levels and can help to moderate their pain.

And so I usually taper them down very slowly, give them lots of other kinds of anti-inflammatories curcumin and once they can make it completely off their narcotics for 24 hours, I usually actually have them start at 4.5 milligrams and I actually have been started at 4.5 milligrams of LDN twice a day.

For the first couple of months, oftentimes I find that that helps dramatically with some of the withdrawal symptoms from coming off of the narcotics. They don't get as severe diarrhoea. They have less nausea and sweating and all those kinds of common, narcotic withdrawal symptoms.

 For anxiety and depression symptoms, oftentimes I prescribe herbal things or trying to do some genetic testing, kind of back to that MTHFR genetic pathway and oftentimes that's a major factor.

And once we can kind of get them sorted out with their neuro-transmitters and being on appropriate levels of the B vitamins that their anxiety and depression can improve dramatically.

Patients can contact me through www.wholesomefamilymedicine.com in Southern Oregon.

Summary of Dr Laura Blevins interview. Watch the video for full interview.

The LDN 2018 Conference Details from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo

Dr Nicholas J. Palermo and Pharmacist Gene Gresh guest on the LDN Radio Show 28th March (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Dr Nicholas Palomo and Gene Gresh share their experience with Low dose Naltrexone.

We've been asked to compound LDN occasionally over the past 20 years but Gene really became familiar with it about three years ago.

And we had some pretty amazing success with a number of patients. Gene came across a number of studies and was excited because now we had some evidence that supported a lot of the anecdotal evidence that we had seen over the years.

Dr Nicholas was at his dentist's office and the receptionist was telling him that she had Hashimoto's disease and was on something called Naltrexone at a very small dose and it had basically reversed her Hashimoto's and she had never felt better in her life that turned out to be Low dose Naltrexone.

Dr Nicholas has been patients with all sorts of different symptoms and illnesses from Hashimoto's to colitis, slight arthritis, Polymyalgia rheumatica, significant results with Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, depression, various cancer patients.

Many of them are coming back with saying that their overall state of wellbeing has definitely been better.

Some of his patients have seen results within the first one to two months, others, especially Ms. patients have taken anywhere from six to 12 months. So what I stress now is go low and go slow and that's why I use the protocol of 1.5 milligrams for two weeks, and then see how they do three milligrams.

Then 4.5 milligrams. There have been a few of my patients that haven't done well at nighttime, and I've actually switched them to the daytime. And that seems to have worked really well.

And in that same light, any of my patients who have multiple sensitivities, whatever they may be, as well as multiple allergies, I will start off even at 0.5 even start lower.

And what I've also found is that many of them have genetic snippets that are related, especially MTHFR in particular. And for whatever reason, I'm certainly not a genetic specialist, but they seem to have a different sensitivity as well.

And being fortunate enough to be a family physician, those with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia, I definitely found to have mitochondrial dysfunction.

So I will use a formula to help enhance mitochondrial functioning. And I have found that in concert with LDN, it makes a huge difference. And then I also work with them and I would probably say 60 to 80% of my patients with CFS or fibromyalgia that they have various needs that have not been met from whatever reason.

And we also think it is important to look to other things like gut microbiome, sleeping patterns, hormones,  infection and inflammation, their nutrition and exercise and play. Most of our patients (I've worked with hundreds of chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia patients) are just not getting enough fun in their life.

And then detoxification.

I have a friend who was in the military for many years and has some form of PTSD and severe depression. He was on three different medications and still wasn't doing well and had many breakthroughs. I suggested that he started LDN and after four months, his wife called me up and said: " Oh my goodness gracious. What are you giving him?"

And I also put them on methyl folate because he was MTHFR positive.

I was also at the Berlin conference.

There was especially helpful for me with children and how LDN can be helpful in cases of autism and ADHD.

Summary of Dr. Nicholas Palomo and Gene Gresh interview. Watch the video for the full interview.

Burton Berkson, MD, PhD - 21st March 2018 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Bente from Denmark - 14th March 2018 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Bente from Denmark has problems with a loose tailbone, which calls tailbone nerve pain because it's worn away the cartilage.

"In September 2013, more than more than five years ago now, during a holiday, when I came home, I went to the doctor and he said: "You just have to have patron. It can take up to about a year."

And what happened was because it was so loose, all the movement wore off the cartilage. I had periods 10 to 12 days where I couldn't even sit down for five minutes.

Couldn't get into the car to drive. Couldn't go to work. I've been off work six years.

First my doctor offered me the regular analgesic like Evil but then I ended up with Gabapentin, Lyrica Morphine until February last year.

I had CT steroid injections. They were hesitated to remove the tail bone because the sacrum has already been affected as well and then they sent me off to the pain management clinic and that's where they informed me about LDN. It is difficult to find LDN in Denmark. I only got Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) because I got it from the pain management clinic and then my own doctor couldn't really say no.

I started at 1.5 milligrams of LDN because they gave me 4.5 tablets and then I started with a quarter of a tablet and it took me about six months to find my dosage, which is now at 3.5 milligrams.

When I first started, I felt pain relief nearly immediately only after a couple of days. I did get some nausea and a little bit of headache.

I only have the advantages now. I can tell you now I was the first person my doctor prescribed to and he has about 20 patients now with all different diagnosis on that again. He has learned and he's impressed.

I'm 95% pain free. I can drive in the car for eight hours. No problem.

I can feel my tailbone still clicking.

We have an LDN group in Denmark. When I joined in February last year, we were 800 members. Now we have 3,400. You can find different files in there You can print out and take to your doctor. And a lot of people have had success with those. That's what I do not like is people keep comparing it to the cannabis and think it's sort of a magic pill which obviously it is not. Hou have to have patience to find your right dose.

I  have more energy than before.

Some people wait 8 to 10 years before they go to a pain management clinic"

Summary of Bente's journey with Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN). Listen the full interview.

Dr Andrew David Shiller - 9th March 2018 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

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

Dr Andrew David Shiller is a doctor who goes the extra mile to heal his patients. After completing his “conventional” medical training, he realised it was not enough and studied holistic, functional and integrative medicine. 

He often receives new patients who were not helped by other doctors. He has great success, where others fail by covering the patient’s whole lifestyle and conditions. He has utilised Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) for over 4 years and feels it’s an important tool for many conditions. 

Also important is diet, nutrition, exercise, detox, restful sleep, and addressing allergies. Dr Shiller states that LDN blocks pain, shifts mood, increases energy, moderates the autoimmune system and stimulates anti-inflammatory action.

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

Leesa shares her Hyperthyroidism and LDN story - 7th March 2018 from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo

Leesa from the United States takes Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) for Hypothyroidism and other conditions.

Doctors found my thyroid problems when I was 21. And I am now 36.

So I've been struggling with this for over a decade. I have Hypothyroidism, which is for low active thyroid. On top of the Hypothyroidism, I produced at autoimmune that we are trying to find out what was going on with the autoimmune and never could pinpoint the autoimmune through multiple different specialists and doctors that I continued to go.

My thyroid problems cause body aches, weight gain, hair loss, lack of sleep.

I would get on different medications, and it would make my thyroid go up into hyper. And then I would have the reverse where I could not sleep, lost weight. And so it was just kind of a yoyo effect going back and forth on. I produced  Epstein bar,

That makes me feel lethargic all the time. My serotonin levels are really bad. I'm trying to get up in the morning. The more tasks you have to do during the day they call it a fight or flight mechanism for not having the correct pituitary gland problems with your thyroid not being produced.
So your thyroid usually does not have a problem. It's something else in your body that reacts to that, and it attacks your thyroid.

I had a cyst and some mornings I'd wake up, and I wouldn't have a voice. And if my voice came back, it would be shallow. I would go to eat something, and I would get choked.

I would lay down and feel like I was being suffocated. In 2009, after I years, I ended up having the mass removed on the right side of my whole thyroid on the right side, which I still have just my left thyroid at this point.

So for the rest of my life has to be on the thyroid medicine to regulate my thyroid, since I just have one left side of my thyroid.

I started LDN in March of 2017.  So I've been on LDN for nine months.

Before that, everything that goes with that with the Epstein BARR, I had increased anxiety that I'd never had before. I would wake up, and I had nerve endings that were on the top of my skin. I just felt like I'd been in the freezer.

I had really bad leg cramps, Restless Leg Syndrome starting and they were looking at maybe some Rheumatoid Arthritis.

So in April started feeling a little bit better. Each month we're upping my dose of LDN by the 0.5 mg. I'm currently on 4.5 milligrams, and I've been on that for probably about three months now.
My thyroid is now regulated. I take a natural thyroid medication called WP thyroid. And this is the first time I've been on the same dose for six months now.

My levels always stayed in the middle of where your thyroid levels should be.
I would say my quality of life before LDN on most days I would say probably a two out of ten to where I was just struggling to get up every morning.

And the only reason I was doing that is because I had two kids that were relying on me all the time to be there for them.

Now I am walking jogging three miles. I work four days a week, then massage therapy.

I have at least six clients a day. I am constantly busy, and I'm able to work all day. Now my quality of life is a nine. I'm continuing every day to get better and work on getting better.
I've lost 58 pounds a little over a year. I think my kids are amazed to have their mum be able to do so many things with them where you couldn't before.

Leesa's summary interview. Please watch the video above for the full interview.

Pharmacist Joseph Rossetti - 28th Feb 2018 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.