LDN Video Interviews and Presentations

Dr Baldeep Bains MD - 23rd Jan 2019 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Linda Elsegood: Today, my guest is Dr Bains, and he is the younger brother of Dr Harpal Bains, who you may have remembered we had on the show a few months ago now. Thank you for joining us, Dr Bains. First of all, can you tell us your background and about you and all the wonderful things that you've done to date. 

Dr Baldeep Bains: I grew up in Malaysia as my sister did, but then I was educated in the UK. I then went to university in Scotland and went to med school in Scotland. While I was in medical school, I had this mad idea that I wanted to join the military and before I knew it I’d signed on the dotted line and probably half of my life to the military. Upon finishing university, I'd spent a bit of time in Virginia. I joined the Navy, the general Navy. Upon finishing the officer's training, I spent about three years getting deployed in nice places, some not very nice places. As a Navy doctor, I’d look after old Marine commanders.

For the first five years after graduation, I spent most of my time doing the two operations. Upon completing them, we have to decide what you're going to do. I initially thought of a surgeon. I started off training to be an orthopaedic surgeon. I spent about four years doing orthopaedic surgery. I enjoyed it up to a certain extent. Then I realized that I was reaching a point where I wasn't passionate about surgery. I think I was passionate about something a bit more so I decided to quit surgery and joined general practice. I did my GP training and I qualified as a GP in 2009. 

My wife got pregnant in 2014 and when I was deployed for six months and I got back just in time before she gave birth. I think reality struck me that I can't continue with military life, I was having a family.

So I left the military in 2015 and then worked as a GP for a short while before my sister suggested that I should join her practice which is where I am now. So I've been at my sister's coming close to a year and a half now and working alongside her is where I heard about LDN. 

I've got to say it was quite a paradigm shift for me because when she first spoke to me about what she was going to do, I thought she was absolutely bonkers. I'm not going to lie to you all. We use nice guidelines and when she was talking to me about functional medicine... we had many arguments about how she was practising medicine and I was like, what are you doing? Are you crazy? Are you mad? Are you dead? I've got to say that we didn't see eye to eye initially with what she's doing. I think fortunately she persevered and she agreed. Even if I could see the way she does things and the way functional medicine works. I’m by no means trying to criticize the general practice. She’s done a fantastic job and I actually appreciate what my colleagues do but there's a certain extent to which we can actually help them and they're quite stuck with the reason I didn't blame them because they are guided by guidelines. A lot of the people who sit in the committees of guidelines are people who've got some vested interests elsewhere. I'm not gonna mention names, but I can understand the restrictions they have and why they can't. 

Yeah. It's quite hard for them to go explore other avenues. That's another way of doing things. I'm really glad I can introduce it as well because had I not been introduced, I think I would have been missing out on a lot, I love my patients. So I'm actually finding it harder and harder to be a GP now because of what I do know.

Linda Elsegood: What would you say are the main conditions that you are treating in the clinic?

Dr Baldeep Bains: I see the lion's share of the male patients. A lot of the male patients that we come across do come in with quite prominent symptoms of testosterone deficiency. That's one of the things, but I'm seeing a lot of patients with some degree of autoimmunity as well. I've seen patients with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, chronic fatigue, Crohn's disease, bowel issues, etc. Increasingly I'm seeing more patients with autoimmune and bowel type issues. 

Linda Elsegood: When a patient first comes in to see you, how long is the initial consultation? Do you do lots of form-filling, questionnaire-answering with all of them? What's the procedure?

Dr Baldeep Bains: Most of the patients, we're looking to get one of their main symptoms, what their diet’s like, how their condition is affecting their activities of daily living. We can be asking quite a lot of questions. We spend anywhere between 1-2 hours with the patients. We try to read the evidence in order to find the root cause. Again, we will see a patient and we will treat the symptoms and the majority of the time that's what we do. But they keep pulling back the same issues again and again. If you don't look into food it takes time to look into a root cause, you can't just expect to spend five minutes with a patient talking about their history and find the root cause. You need to go into a lot more detail, which is what we try to aspire to do; just get into the nitty-gritty and hope to find what might be the root cause for a lot of these symptoms. 

Linda Elsegood: What other testing do you use? 

Dr Baldeep Bains: The majority of the time we will carry out a comprehensive blood panel. It’s one of the baseline things we do. So in a certain comprehensive blood panel, it would include the likes of a full blood count. You carry out a comprehensive biochemistry analysis looking into things like your liver function, kidney function. In our practice we do quite an in-depth hormonal evaluation, looking into quite a few different hormone levels and trying to see if anything that needs to be addressed. Beyond that, if a person does have a lot of bowel type symptoms, we will potentially do something along the lines of a comprehensive, thorough analysis, which is not a simple as microscopy. It gives you a lot more information. We would offer that if your bowel symptoms are quite prominent. I think we might do as well if something known as SIBO testing, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, complaints of quite significant gut symptoms. We'll do something along those lines. We do allergy testing as well, and we use Cyrex. Personally, I feel it's one of the best kits out. I think it has been extremely comprehensive and they will probably them give us an overview as to what is going on, to keep eating the same foods and which is stimulating an inflammatory response. I think that that's the first few stages. Plus, I would normally offer a test when I first see a patient.

Linda Elsegood: When you ask patients about diet, are they honest with you as to what they eat or drink or do they tell you what they think you would like to hear?

Dr Baldeep Bains: That's a tricky one. I like to think my patients are honest with me. I think the majority of the patients we have are quite honest because by the time they come to see us, they're quite desperate. They've tried everything. I think they like to be as open and honest as they can with me. I think they are honest because of how they're feeling and their determination to get better.

Linda Elsegood: I was only asking because my mother lived with us for a few years. Unfortunately she, she got cancer and died. Before that, we would go and see the doctor and the doctor would say, “have you taken salt out of your diet?” I used to hide the salt because she was at the age where she used to use lots of lots of salt. I would sit there and I'd say, “you put so much salt on it, mom. It looks like snow, doesn't it?” And butter. “Have you cut down on the butter?”, “Oh yes. I don't use it as much.” “Mom, you use as much butter. It looks like cheese because it's so thick” but she didn't want to upset them. She wanted to please the doctor by letting them think she had done what she was told, but she didn't use, to tell the truth. I now have to hope that when I get older, my daughter doesn't come with me,

If we just continue treating symptoms and not the root cause, that root cause could be creating a lot of damage. It's vital to find out what that is. That is what's so good with functional medicine.

Dr Baldeep Bains: I completely agree with her. I think we actually have the luxury of time, which is what a GP doesn't have. I've got 10 minutes per patient, and in that time I've got to get a history from the patient, I’ve got to sort dates, I've got to get ready for my next patient. It’s especially complex with complex patients and complex patients are increasing in numbers. I've seen more and more patients with more and more complex problems coming in. I don't think treating symptoms is the answer to that. 

Linda Elsegood: You're seeing more and more people who have chronic conditions. What would you say is the difference between now and 40 years ago? Is it because we're eating different, or due to the fact that food is treated differently? When I was a child, everything was cooked from scratch. There were no additives. I hardly know how to pronounce some of them, let alone know what they are. What do you think is the cause? 

Dr Baldeep Bains: Reverse back 40-50 years ago, you're not seeing the problems that we had in those days. Compared to the number of solid issues we have nowadays it is just phenomenal. I've got no doubt it's to do with our diet. It's all about the fast food, and then you can get your hands on processed food, anything that's microwaveable, low phosphate and nothing else. No one has time to do things, you want everything in an instant. The busy lifestyle, the stress... life is a lot more stressful now because we've got a lot more demands and you've got everything in your face due to social media. I think stress has got a much more significant influence and the fact that we are actually doing less as well. Spending huge amounts of time in front of computer screens and TVs. Get yourself out, playing, get some sunlight, get exposed to sunlight. I can say my childhood is very different from the childhood experience now. 

Linda Elsegood: You were talking before we started and I'm sure you're quite an outdoorsy person, but what is your diet like? I mean, are you gluten-free, dairy-free? Are you a vegan? What is your diet? 

Dr Baldeep Bains: I am none of those, but I am quite careful about what I eat. I limit the amount of processed food I have. My kids have significantly reduced their intake of sugar. I use just for taste, such as half a spoon in my tea or in my coffee. I don't have any fizzy drinks. I drink water or milk. I'm quite fortunate in the sense that I don't really have many intolerances so I can actually cope with gluten. I've got a very narrow relationship to gluten. If I'm going to define myself, I've significantly reduced them on process over refined carbs. If I do have carbs, it traditionally would be half a plate or a quarter. I do love exercise and I need energy. So I still have carbs. Probably half my plate is protein. But I'm currently 43 and I feel fantastic. I train hard and I can sustain my mind. A craving I've got no real issues. I don’t have any fatigue issues, I'm not obese. I’d like to say that I'm in quite a decent shape, I think it's working for me. I don't eat junk. I've read a lot about intermittent fasting and I probably do that about two or three times a week. I try to fast for 16 hours and then tried to eat in the daylight hours which has been shown to be quite effective. I suppose if you say any dietary routine, but that's been quite recent, probably 2-3 weeks ago. I don't find it too hard to do.

Linda Elsegood: We’ve nearly run out of time, but very briefly, for parents who want to make sure that their children grow up as healthy as possible, what would you recommend to do diet-wise with children? Because it's very difficult with all the crisps and sweets and biscuits and advertising on television, how do you go about trying to establish healthy habits?

Dr Baldeep Bains:I think you get a vibe from them whilst they’re a baby. You've got to introduce them to good food and fruit and vegetables. We try to make everything from scratch, making home-cooked fruit. 

Linda Elsegood: You don't buy Robinsons or anything along those lines?

Dr Baldeep Bains: Nothing whatsoever. They drink water. That's the only thing they seem to pick. Once in a while, my daughter has fresh fruit juice, but apart from that, it's water and milk. That's all they have. I think trying to develop habits from the start and you're trying to give them a good breakfast. I try to avoid sugary cereals. I think even a traditional English breakfast as well, they'll have sausage, which I do try to get good quality sausage just for kids. Try to make a lot more home meals and try to get them less processed food. It's not easy on junior kids, even seven done. Life's extremely busy at that time. Everyone's quite time poor. It doesn't take a lot to make a decent kitchen. We know what we need to be doing and we should practice it. 

Linda Elsegood: We've come to the end very quickly. If patients would like to come and see you, how do they get in touch with you?

Dr Baldeep Bains: They can visit our website, www.harpalclinic.co.uk We have two practitioners there: my sister and I. I have a lot of patients with her too. You get the benefits of two practitioners and hopefully, when you come and see me, you can appreciate the frustrations and a lot of patients as well. I can understand what's going on and I can sense the limitations that they face and be able to give them a bit more of a balanced view. I think one thing we pride ourselves on is ongoing support. Most of my patients have an open email conversation. They can email me anytime and I will get back to them and I would advise them. I think on a lot of occasions patients find that quite reassuring. At the end of the day, I do things which are not very conventional. They didn't think their potentially own GP should be asking them, why are you doing such a thing? A good example is I prescribed LDN to one of my patients and I had a bit of a nasty email from a Polish GP asking me, what am I doing now? I think once the people are educated, once the GPs are educated, then you can get a GP alongside the patient and the GPs can work together with a patient and ultimately what we're doing, what we're looking for is to make the patient feel better. That's the aim. 

Linda Elsegood: That's fantastic. We'll have to have you back another day and thank you very much, Dr Baldeep for being our guest today. 

Dr Baldeep Bains: Thank you, Linda.

This show is sponsored by Dixon Chemist, who are experts in LDN at associated treatments in the UK. Dixon Chemist is the most cost-effective for LDN in all forms within the UK and Europe, maintaining safety standards far in excess of what is required. Why would you choose to get your LDN from anywhere else? Call 01414046545 today to speak to LDN experts. 

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

Dr Elliot Udell, DPM - 2nd Jan 2019 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

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

Dr Elliot Udell has 30 years experience as a Podiatrist but learned about LDN (Low Dose Naltrexone) only a few years ago. He has developed a keen interest in pain control, and is amazed at how effective LDN is for pain. 

In this interview Dr Udell describes the various foot problems and how he treats each of them with Low Dose Naltrexone.

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

Dry Farm Wines are coming to the LDN 2019 Conference (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Dr David J Zeiger, 26th Dec 2018 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Linda Elsegood: Today, my guest is Dr David Zeiger, who is a D.O. in Integrative Medicine and a practitioner from Chicago, Illinois. He treats both chronic and acute illnesses as well as neuromuscular pain. Thank you for joining us today, David. 

Dr David Zeiger: Thank you for having me. I'm looking forward to talking to you. 

Linda Elsegood: First of all, could you tell us about you? Who is David Zeiger?

Dr David Zeiger: I have originally boarded in family medicine over 30 years ago, and I recently got boarded in integrative medicine as a speciality about two years ago. I've been practising family medicine, functional medicine and for the past 30 years as well as doing things in neuromusculoskeletal medicine, including osteopathic manipulative medicine and using techniques called prolotherapy or neural therapy to treat chronic pain syndromes. So, a variety of different therapies in my practice gives me a large toolbox to work from as I work with my patients.

Linda Elsegood: So what is the age range of the patient population which you treat? Do you do from the cradle to the grave or do you do adult medicine? 

Dr David Zeiger: It's primarily adult medicine, but I occasionally do see some adolescents, some pre-teens. I mostly see patients from about 20 to about 80. I've had a couple of 90-year-old patients in my practice, it varies. I would say more it sways more towards a female population than a male population because I do a lot of hormone therapy in my practice for menopause, premenopause, infertility, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, et cetera.

Linda Elsegood: Out of interest, I know you prescribe LDN, and this is why I'm interviewing you, but do you use LDN for your patients with fertility problems? 

Dr David Zeiger: I haven't been using it in that direction yet. I've got a few patients who are interested in that and once they get back to me and I will. I have found LDN to be useful for a lot of autoimmune conditions: Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, Rheumatoid arthritis and lately I've been seeing a lot more patients with what's called small intestine bacterial overgrowth and with people who have a variety of different gastrointestinal dysbiotic syndromes, leaky gut syndrome, the inflammation thereof, I found LDN to be very useful in those patients. 

Linda Elsegood: You were saying about mainly females, I think it's usually the female population that has the most autoimmune diseases as well. I think with MS, it’s three women to one man. So that is probably why as well. When you find a patient who is suitable for LDN, how do you go about treating that patient?

Dr David Zeiger: What happens is I generally spend about a good hour with a new patient to get a complete history, do a very thorough physical, literally from head to toe. There's a variety of baseline laboratories that I may use to try and find out what are some of the targets that I'm to go after, be it dysbiotic, guts, the hormonal imbalance, inflammatory markers. I will then put everything together for the patient to explain, “these are the targets that I feel are probably the most significant avenues for therapy and using various different tools, LDN being one of them, I will then broach the patient with the information. I like to refer them to the LDN network, websites and other sources of information. I think that in the States there was a company that used to sell men's clothing and the owner of the company would say, “our best customer is an educated customer.” I feel that the best patient is an educated patient. I feel that as a physician. It's my responsibility and my calling to help, educate and guide patients towards the therapies that I think that are probably the most beneficial to them and answer all the questions I possibly can.

Linda Elsegood: What dose do you start your patients off at? 

Dr David Zeiger: I usually like to start at around 0.5 milligrams and then slowly increase to around 4.5 over a period of about 14-21 days, depending on how they respond. I haven't had the use of microdose. I have a few patients that are currently in my practice where I think it’s worth considering LDN as a beginning point for their therapy.

Linda Elsegood: You said that you have patients that take it for thyroid conditions, and we have learned that some patients who are on thyroid medications have to reduce the thyroid medications because the LDN makes it work more effectively. Have you found that in your patients?

Dr David Zeiger: Most definitely. I have had a number of patients who’ve had Hashimoto's thyroiditis for 15-20 years and they have been to a variety of different practitioners, including integrative practitioners and their antibody levels have been like in the thousands and what I've often found with many of the patients with autoimmune conditions, and I'll specifically talk about how she noticed for a second, is that about 70-80% of the patients with Hashimoto's have a dysbiotic issue, or they may have parasites, they may have protozoa worms, which is what I found in one patient, and by going after these organisms and then treating the results as an inflammatory condition, using LDN as well as other nutraceutical tools, I have been able to lower the antibody levels of these patients and, to improve this as an analogy, decrease the dependence on medications for thyroid over a period of several months. I have several patients where I've actually normalized levels, they have no antibody levels anymore in their thyroid, their TSH has gone down to normal. Their stamina and energy have significantly improved and many things that were tied into that, clinical wise, have also simply improved.

Linda Elsegood: To come off medications, it’s a box with a big tick in it. To achieve that, it's really something. Have you found, in any autoimmune condition, how important do you regard gluten in the diet? 

Dr David Zeiger: Well in SIBO, Dr Mark has been doing research on SIBO for around 25 years and they have published some of the most seminal articles on this, that diet is one of the hallmarks of therapy and when we look at what the components of that are, it revolves around the antigen load from things like gluten and casein from dairy, iron from corn and those are the things that can be major autoimmune triggers in many of these patients.

Linda Elsegood: How long would you say it takes for your patients to notice any improvement? 

Dr David Zeiger: Generally when I start working with the patient, if I had the lab tests and I like to use what is commonly referred to in functional medicine as the 4R program where you remove, replace, reinoculate, rebalance, et cetera. As well as helping the parenchyma of the gut or the gut lining to repair itself. I find that I can usually start seeing results in patients anywhere between 6-8 weeks within a program. They start to notice things like stamina, energy, less gas, less bloating, improvement in brain fog, inflammation in joints improving. I had one fellow who had been suffering from chronic urticaria for years and we're resolving after about six weeks for the first time in years. 

Linda Elsegood: How many new patients notified you of any adverse side effects? 

Dr David Zeiger: You know, that's definitely a case by case basis. I would say the major adverse effects that I see in LDN is a couple of things. Number one, vivid dreaming. Sometimes patients will say, I've never really remembered my dreams, or now I'm remembering my dreams and these are really intense, or they're in colour. The other thing is that sometimes some of our patients suffer from a lack of sleep. Sometimes a spillover into the next day where they might feel kind of groggy. But that usually is short-lived. Gastrointestinal side effects are usually very minimal and those are usually the people where I recommend to them to have a snack at that time with a good eight ounces water, with any sort of medication to mitigate the problems. Some people may have a hypochlorhydria where they’re not able to take tablets. Aside from that, I haven't had any other major problems like headaches or some of the other symptoms some people complain about simply because I really try to warn my patients ahead of time what to expect and if they had any issues, I tell them to give me a call right away. I can usually handle any minor things and address those issues right away. 

Linda Elsegood: What would you say the average dose is? I know you said you try and get them up to 4.5, but do all your patients get up to 4.5 or do some stick at a lower dose? 

Dr David Zeiger: I've had a number of patients stick around 2-2.5 milligrams and they seem to benefit quite well at that dosage. Well, that’s exactly what we found. It's not the higher the dose, the better the benefit. It's really unique and individual per person because some people do really good on two and then they begin to take 3 milligrams and they don't feel as good. Then, by going back they, they feel fine. 

Linda Elsegood: Have you treated any cancer patients?

Dr David Zeiger: I haven't had any cancer patients in my practice at this time. There are a couple of practices out there that have been dealing a lot more with integrative approaches to cancer and so generally what happens is that I will get a patient, they will come in and say they want a sort of functional medical approach to some relative nutritional deficiencies and they may have some other issues, some musculoskeletal issues that I may treat. Then what I may say is, “if you want more of an integrative and well-balanced program…”, I'll refer them out to these other practices that specialize in integrative cancer therapy.

Linda Elsegood: If you had to pick a condition, would you say thyroid is the condition you treat the most in your practice? 

Dr David Zeiger: It’s very interesting that you mentioned that. I would say 70% of my patients have Hashimoto's thyroiditis. It's very rampant.

Linda Elsegood: That's very high. What do you do in order to lower that number of patients? 

Dr David Zeiger: I came onto the Hashimoto's scene probably around 20 years ago and I remember when I was in medical school, we were taught that this was a very rare condition but when I got into practice, I found that it was much more common and actually close to 20% of the patients that have hypothyroidism and the reasons for that were always something that I was curious about. One of the things that I started looking into were things like what are the possible autoimmune triggers. We know from the human genome project that only 12-18% of diseases are actually genetic in nature. The rest of the diseases are due to epigenetic causes. So what are those epigenetic causes? We're looking at things like different pathogen infestations, microorganisms like Blastocystis, hominins, certain protozoa. Another factor in there is stress on the immune system. Diet and nutrition, nutritional deficiencies, another, another factor. Unfortunately, over the past 60-70 years or more, the population has become more and more exposed to these kinds of pathogenic factors and I think this is what is causing a lot of the autoimmune conditions that we see today. 

Linda Elsegood: Do you think people seek you out through word of mouth that you're the man to see if you have a thyroid condition? 

Dr David Zeiger: That's what I hear. So there are people with thyroid conditions, then, of course, those with chronic fatigue syndrome. 

Linda Elsegood: How do you find people with chronic fatigue syndrome compared with the thyroid? I have found people with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue who are ultra-sensitive to all drugs. LDN included.

Dr David Zeiger: What I've come to see is that many of these conditions have a lot of things in common. I guess the rubric that I would use since I'm also trained in homoeopathy is inflammation, which causes this inflammation, and as I mentioned a moment ago, there are many epigenetic triggers for this. So, depending upon the person's individual biochemical makeup, they will be more prone to the manifestation, all various different diseases, be it thyroid or be it adrenal or be it SIBO. What I find is that when I work with a patient, I look for those factors that will create an inflammatory condition, and then based on their family history, based on the physical findings, I can then hone that into various different subsystems or organ systems that I need to focus my attention on. Be it the thyroid, be it the adrenal, be it hormone imbalances between estrogen, progesterone, et cetera.

Linda Elsegood: With regards to the neuromuscular pain that you treat, and as you were just saying there, how inflammation plays a big part in these conditions, what techniques do you use to treat neuromuscular pain? 

Dr David Zeiger: Well, I'm an osteopathic physician. So I have been trained in medicine so using osteopathic manipulative therapies, I use that modality. I was also trained in medical acupuncture. I use that from time to time. If there are other certain other kinds of, say ligamentous instabilities, I will use a technique called prolotherapy, which is an injection technique to regenerate the ligaments. The interesting thing is that we talk about autoimmune conditions, one of the things that we find with SIBO patients or some of these other conditions is that you may have a variant of a syndrome, which is genetically inherited weakness of the ligaments. It can also be related to certain inflammatory factors in the body that can be triggered by various different things I've just mentioned. So looking at all these different kinds of moving parts, you try to get a picture of what is the most impactful on the patients and health then focus on those things that you can start to build a foundation of health for them.

Linda Elsegood: You were saying that you are an osteopathic physician, and I have seen a chiropractor. What is the difference between the two? 

Dr David Zeiger: That's, that's a very good question. Chiropractic actually evolved from osteopathic medicine. Andrew Taylor Still, who was the founder of osteopathic medicine in the 1800s hundreds, developed osteopathic techniques. A fellow by the name of Palmer was a student of Still. He was also at that time was a hypnotist and he went off and founded a chiropractic practice. So the evolution of the two professions sort of had a certain amount of parallelism between the two of them. The difference between chiropractic and osteopathy is that osteopathic medicine is basically maintained, all of official allopathic medicine. As a matter of fact, osteopathic medicine was the first medical professional to incorporate x-rays. As an osteopath, I have an unlimited license to practice medicine and surgery, whereas a chiropractor has a limited license to practice, basically manual medicine. They cannot give injections. They cannot deliver babies. They cannot do ICU medicine. Although some chiropractors now are trying to become what they call internal chiropractors, internal medicine chiropractors. It's more of functional medicine, but they cannot prescribe hypertensive and I happen to take medication. They can't prescribe antibiotics, those kinds of things that I, as an osteopathic physician and surgeon can. 

Linda Elsegood: I have MS and before I was diagnosed different things kept going numb and I saw a chiropractor, but he had this way of running his fingers down my spine and would say, does it hurt here? He would press really hard with his thumbs. But then he would also get a hold of your neck and twist it to the side until it cracked. I didn't like that. That put me off osteopathic medicine. 

Dr David Zeiger: The palpatory techniques are highly developed. Being able to feel for joint mobility, tissue texture changes, is this inflamed? Is this boggy? Is this hard? I can tell you that when we are assessing a patient. Structurally, those are the skills that we use with our hands because we're talking in that way. Also we use our visual perception of like, how a person walks, how they stand, how they sit and then listen to the patient. Are they talking? So we're basically incorporating all of these other skills of palpation percussion, auscultation, which is hearing. As any other doctor does, any other physician does. Then we understand the biomechanics of the body. So when we look at how the shoulder moves or the hip moves, and then getting into finer detail within the cranium. Osteopathy, which has been around for 80 years or more, it's where we can actually palpate the very subtle motions of the movement of the cranial bones. These things don't fuse until death or certain disease states. Cranial osteopaths are able to determine how well they are functioning, how the different bones are functioning in relationship to one another. If you were to look inside the head and you look in the brain and you see the brain sitting on top of what they call the tentorium, which is like these membranes, all the nerves. I come off the brain and go through the membrane, which is all the ligaments, and then go down through like little holes in the skull down into these cranial nerves that go into the eyes and the nose or down to the neck, and if there is head trauma, surgical trauma, inflammation or infection, then these membranes can then become twisted, inflamed, boggy and cause basically a restriction of flow and thereby affect the end-organ tissue. So train cranial osteopaths to look at this when they're treating, children with cerebral palsy or children with autism, or people who have had PTSD or people who have had chronic headaches, migraine headaches, et cetera. 

Linda Elsegood: We've come to the end of the show, but for people who are in Chicago or the Chicago area in Illinois, how do they get a hold of you? Where do they go? 

Dr David Zeiger: You could call my office at 312-255-9444 and the name of the practice is Healthworks Integrative Medical Clinic. 

Linda Elsegood: Do you have a website for that?

Dr David Zeiger: Healthworksimc.com

Linda Elsegood: Do you have a waiting list?

Dr David Zeiger: I do but if somebody calls me up and they say “I really need to see you”, I will get them in somehow. 

Linda Elsegood: Thank you very much for being such an amazing guest today. I do appreciate it. 

Dr David Zeiger: Well, thank you for the opportunity to talk to you and thank you for your time. 

Linda Elsegood: This show is sponsored by Mark Drugs who specialize in the custom compounding of medications, ensuring that the client gets the proper prescriptions for their unique needs and conditions. They work with practitioners integrating knowledge and treatment of experts. To create comprehensive health plans, visit markdrugs.com or call Roselle at (630) 529-3400 or (847) 419-9898.

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

Wendy shares her Psoriasis story 19th Dec 2018 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Gale - Hyperthyroidism and Graves Disease 19th Dec 2018 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Jane - Hashimoto's patient - 5th December 2018 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Linda Elsegood: I'd like to introduce Jane from England who takes LDN for Hashimoto's. Thanks for joining us today, Jane. So could you tell us your story? When did you first notice there was something wrong with you? 

Jane: I first realised that I wasn't feeling well. This was at the beginning of 2015, um, I was in my early thirties, and at the time I was working as a legal advisor in a bank in London.

Um, up until then, I'd never really had any health issues.  My diet was okay but I did eat a lot of dairies, lots of sugary cakes and gluten-containing foods and my favourites were pasta and pizza, the usual. At the same time, I had issues with my relationship. Um, and in all honesty, I wasn't really happy with my job, and it was a lot of pressure.

So I started to suffer from insomnia. Um, and I started to get allergic reactions to the makeup I was wearing, eye shadow in particular, which was very odd. Um, and then one day after a late night, I woke up and, um, I was gasping for air. I couldn't breathe through my nose, and I couldn't believe what was happening to me.

Um, so I went to see my local GP, and I told her that I wasn't feeling well at all, and, um, I couldn't breathe through my nose, and the GP ran some tests and said that everything absolutely fine. Um, and these tests were blood tests. Um, but I wasn't fine. I was ill and I didn't know what was wrong with me.

So, um, I decided to pay to see a specialist in Harley Street and he was a throat, nose and ear specialist. And after some tests, he was looking at my nose and inside, and he said, you know, there's absolutely no reason why I'm unable to breathe through my nose. And he just gave me a steroid nasal spray and said that I would need to use it on a daily basis for the rest of my life in order to breathe through my nose.  I couldn't believe that response, I was just utterly shocked.   I just thought to myself, well, if everything was fine why was I feeling so ill and why could I no longer breathe through my nose?

I wanted to find the answer. And actually, I did a biology degree, so my scientific mind kicked in and I dwelled farther into this issue. And just as a side note, I can describe to you, I would wake up every morning with a swollen face, huge eye bags and I also started to react to random things. For example, I would try a bit of sushi with some soy on it and I would literally want to collapse.

In fact, any form of sugar - I couldn't eat any form of sugar at all, I would literally want to just die basically. It's like if I had a bag of crisps, for example, I would literally need to sleep it off for like two days. It was, it was absolutely crazy. So that was very odd. So the reaction to foods was a real red flag for me.

So I started doing some research. And it was really struggling to find anyone with this issue, you know, suddenly unable to read through the news. And then somehow I managed to stumble upon a website, which was, um, set up by this woman in the US and she talks about chronic mood congestion and how this was down to, uh, an unhealthy diet, uh, which meant an unhealthy gut, i.e. leaky gut. So she said, um, that she had cured herself by taking, uh, lots of different herbs and some enzymes and various herbs. And I then decided to change my diet and I took her advice on board. I purchased these digestive enzymes to assist my gut and some adaptogenic herbs.

It did help; my insomnia disappeared. I just highlight at this point that I'm still working, I'm going to the bank every day in a state where I've got brain fog, I'm not myself and I'm just putting on a fake persona. Nobody really knew what was going on with me, but they could see visibly that I was ill.  

I used to take pride in my work, I know that sounds vain but as a young lady now, I still would make sure that I had my makeup on point and my hair done and here I was coming to work with sunglasses because I was so ashamed of what I looked like. I looked awful, absolutely awful. So anyway, I changed my diet. I started to take these herbs and it was making me function. I relied on coffee to keep me going at work. And the steroid nasal spray every morning, every night, in order to breathe. But I was a shadow of myself. I just looked terrible. So after a period of six months with this new diet, it's anti-candida diet,  no sugar, no particular carbs, just sort of boring root veg. I couldn't even process any fruits to go through the, um, it was just very much meat and veg. And, and the use of these herbs, I could suddenly start to breathe through my nose. This was a massive achievement for me, but again, when I could breathe through my nose, it wasn't like a full deep breath through my nose.  I could just feel like my sinuses were clogged up, and it was, it was 60% better, but at least I didn't have to use the steroid spray anymore so I was very happy about that. But I continued to have brain fog and pressure in the front of my head. And it really wasn't easy. So if you fast forward to November 2016 I was self-medicating.  I was taking 10 to 15 pills a day consisting of random herbs and vitamins, just so I could function really, I had no energy, I would so fatigued it was unbelievable. My reactions to foods continued. People would look at me very oddly when we went out for after works drinks or whatever, and I would just simply say, you know, I can't drink alcohol, I can’t eat this, I can’t eat that.  People would just not get it really. By this time I was too scared, I literally couldn't eat anything slightly interesting, you know, like outtakes or whatever. But anyway, I continued to look terrible. And one morning I woke up and noticed that my thyroid was sticking out from my neck and I immediately knew that there was something seriously wrong with my thyroid.

I decided to privately investigate and I paid for a complete thyroid test analysis. And the result came back so quickly, and the doctor even 

said that  I was actually suffering from Hashimoto's, an autoimmune disease which attacks the thyroid. My antibodies are high thyroglobulin and thyroid peroxidase.  My thyroid hormone output was considered in normal ranges. All this time I had no idea it was my thyroid. I collapsed, I couldn’t believe it, I was very upset. Then again it sort of made sense because it runs in my family, My Mum’s got issues with her thyroid, My Grandmother had issues with her thyroid.  I then decided to check myself from top to bottom, I’d had enough, I wanted to make sure that everything was checked so I did various other blood tests which came back negative, I even had an MRI due to this pressure in my head and that came back negative - it was all fine aside from the thyroid. So then I went to see the results I got in 2015 which the GP had requested to check the thyroid and I found out that the antibodies weren’t checked, just the hormone levels and I was just so frustrated with that because if only they’d checked the thyroid completely, including the antibodies then I would have had a diagnosis much earlier on but I would say that this is typical of the NHS when it comes to testing the thyroid. So I stopped taking these herbs and vitamins, I just wanted to heal my body naturally through diet, I adopted the autoimmune protocol diet, which I’d heard worked for a lot of people.  However my body was just so used to these pills I just suddenly started to decline, mentally, my anxiety just went through the roof and I basically got the worst depression known to humanity and I couldn’t function and eventually, my body broke down and I was worried that I was going to get a heart attack - my heart rate was averaging 116 beats per minute all day, every day, at night - I was given beta blockers to lower the heart rate. I just want to say that I’ve never in my life had any mental issues or anything like that, no anxiety, I was a really headstrong person, level headed.  When I heard about people suffering from anxiety I used to wonder “Oh how does that work, just go and get some therapy” but no, this was an internal reaction that I had no control over and it taught me a lot - now I’ve got great sympathy for people who suffer from this.   My insomnia returned, I was a wreck and had to basically rely on my family for support.  And nothing would lower the stress.  I was then prescribed diazepam by the doctor and I really didn’t want to go down the antidepressant route.  I just wanted my body to heal naturally. The diazepam didn’t even help to be honest with you, I took it for two months and then stopped. I’d basically reached the end - in my eyes, I was done. I told my family it was over, I was probably going to die of a heart attack and I wrote my will. My family supported me through the whole thing and my sister was a great support to me, she told me that “This too shall pass”. I wanted to live and I wanted to get better so I put some posters around my room, positive ones, with positive statements like “You can do this” and then I just started to read about Hashimoto’s and stumbled on a Facebook page regarding LDN and I thought Gosh what is this, people are saying that its a drug called LDN and it’s helped lower antibodies in certain cases and it had actually cured Hashimoto’s and I was totally amazed, I was shocked. Then I purchased your book on LDN and I couldn’t believe your story, it was just completely amazing. I sought assurance and positivity from your video’s, then started to watch your videos when you would interview individuals who suffer from various autoimmune diseases, including Hashimoto's. And, um, and they all said the same thing. That LDN helps in so many different ways and even for depression and anxiety.

And as I said, I've watched these videos continuously, and that gave me hope. And until then, I had no hope whatsoever. Um, so then I said to myself, I need to get LDN and I need this. There’s just no way out. And then I contacted you because I wasn't sure where to get it from. And um, and then you put me in touch with Clinic158 and, um, had the interview with the doctor from there, and he immediately prescribed me LDN, and I started to take it.

Um, firstly it was in liquid format, uh, but it had quite a lot of sugar in it, which didn't bode well with me. Um, so then I changed it to pill format. And, uh, over time I went up, probably two, three milligrams. And, um, I stayed at this level. And, um, as time went on, I started to feel better. Um, it took a few months for me to get better, for insomnia to disappear. Um, however, I'd say within six, seven months, I was enthusiastic about life. I was feeling happier and more level headed, and over time I could sleep, which was impossible for me, I could make conversation with people without running out to a room full of anxiety.

I could. I could just be normal. I could be myself. And this was shocking to me. Um. And my vile depression and my anxiety had just completely disappeared over time, just completely disappeared. Um, and I say, I'd say it took a year to get to the point where I was ready to go back to work because it's during this time I was healing really from the LDN.

And um. I'm just really thankful to LDN, and I'm thankful to you for raising awareness of it because, without that, I honestly didn't think I would survive my ordeal. Um, essentially I had a breakdown, and it restored me from that. It restored my sleeping pattern. It just, it was like a reset button. Um. And I, I'd lost so much weight during my ordeal, 10 kilograms.

I looked like a skeleton, um, due to the stress and the heart rate and everything. And now I've put weight back on and I look more normal now. My, my hair is not shedding anymore and I can, I can function basically. And. What I would say is that my thyroid is still swollen, but I'm working on healing my gut, and I've got to say probiotics have been absolutely key.

And they've really helped. Um, but it's going to take time. Obviously, it's taken years of me eating badly to, to get to the point where I've had to go through this and now it's going to take a while for me too, to heal my gut. So I'm just ready to continue with that, um, healing process. Um, and then just to live my life because I haven't been able to live my life really all this time.

I've just been totally ruined by not knowing what was wrong with me. So, um, in terms of my diets, it's no paleo based. Well, lots of fermented foods. Um, I juice every day. I try and keep healthy. Um, I totally avoid sugar, dairy, gluten, um, alcohol I can't touch. Um, so yeah, I'm, I'm trying my best now to heal. 

Linda Elsegood: Were you given any thyroid medication once you were diagnosed with Hashimoto's? 

Jane: No, I wasn't because, um, according to the doctor, my thyroid levels were normal.

Linda Elsegood: Okay. But the doctor that said that you had Hashimoto's, he didn't offer you any medication either? 

Jane: No, no

Linda Elsegood: it's just purely the LDN that you have always taken, nothing else. 

Jane: That's right. 

Linda Elsegood: Wow, that's amazing, isn't it.

Jane: It's, it's unbelievable what happened to me.

Um, I, I just hope that you know, if there's anyone out there with the same issue that they can take comfort in knowing that if you do ever have chronic nose congestion, there is a way of fixing it and you have to try and heal the gut. And, you know, I was told to take the steroids to spray for the rest of my life. I mean. Just in order to breathe. It was shocking. 

Linda Elsegood: Definitely. What would you say your quality of life is like now on a score of one to 10, 10 being the best?

Jane: I'd say it's um, nine. 

Linda Elsegood: And are you able to work and function? 

Jane: Yes, I am. Yup. In fact, I've just recently got a new job. Um, it's a legal department, high-pressured role in an investment company, so I'm definitely able to work now, whereas before I couldn't.

Linda Elsegood: Oh, that's good. And at your lowest, I don't want to dwell on that, but on a score of one to 10, what would it have been when you were your lowest. 

Jane: It was one. It was the worst for me. Uh, yeah, absolutely. 

Linda Elsegood: Um, well, thank you so much for sharing your really amazing inspirational story with us and long may LDN continue improving your symptoms.

Jane: I'm thinking, thank you for raising awareness regarding LDN. 

Linda Elsegood: thank you. This show is sponsored by our members who made donations. We'd like to get 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 right idea of the show.

And thank you for listening.

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

John Herr, RPh - 21 November 2018 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Paul Battle PA-C - Crohn's Disease (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Dr Melissa Coats, LDN Radio Show 14 Nov 2018 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Linda Elsegood: Today my guest is Dr Melissa Coats from Arizona in the US. She is a naturopathic oncologist. Thank you for joining us today, Melissa. 

Melissa Coats: Thank you for having me. 

Linda Elsegood: Well, could you just give us an idea of your background, first of all, please? 

Melissa Coats: Sure. Initially growing up, I always knew I wanted to be a physician, I think, or in medicine. And when I went to school far away from home in Lynchburg, Virginia at Randolph-Macon Woman's College I focused on biology. And then after that, I didn't exactly know what part of medicine I wanted to do. So I decided to get a Masters in bioethics while I was deciding, and when I discovered bioethics, I stumbled across naturopathic medicine. Once I read the philosophy and what it was all about, I knew that was where I needed to be. Once I finished my Masters at Midwestern University, I went on to the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine, which was in Tempe, Arizona. And I didn't even realize it was in my native state. And so I learned all about naturopathic medicine and went on to school there, and ever since, here I am.

Linda Elsegood: Wow. And when were you first introduced to LDN? 

Melissa Coats: I believe my first introduction was through my mentor and colleague, Dr Daniel Rubin. He had co-written an article about low dose naltrexone, I think back in 2006, for its use in pancreatic cancer. And Dr Berkson who uses it a lot at his clinic, where he does a lot of hepatitis C treatment, also was very interesting to me So I learned a lot from both of them. And from then on, I've been doing more and more research and just using it in a multitude of ways with different types of things beyond cancer. But cancer is obviously one of the bigger ones that we focus on here at our clinic.  

Linda Elsegood: Could you give us an idea of your protocols for treating cancer patients, and which cancers you've actually treated with LDN?

Melissa Coats: Probably one of the bigger ones we typically put people on it for are those who have breast and colon and pancreatic cancer. Those are some that we definitely do, but we know there's some efficacy with ovarian and neuroblastoma and glioblastoma and even squamous cell carcinomas. Pretty much because of the natural killer cell and the immune stimulation that it gives.

We've found it is a very nice adjunctive thing to add on to most treatment protocols, so we utilize it quite often, usually starting with a lower dose. Depending on the sensitivity of the patient, maybe 1.5 all the way up to 4.5 milligrams, depending on what's going on and making sure that we're not conflicting with any pain medication use, of course, if the patient's had surgery or things like that.

We also, me particularly in the clinic, like to use it for other things as well. One of my very first patients actually wasn’t an oncology patient that I utilized it in - it was a person who had undiagnosed celiac disease for 25 years, and her gastrointestinal system was just a giant mess, and she was miserable. It was one of the things that I decided to introduce to a kind of calm her autoimmune issues that were going on, including her thyroid. And it really seemed to calm her gut. And she said it was like a miracle to her, and we even tested going off of it briefly to see if that was truly what was happening. And it was definitely the low dose naltrexone that was helping calm things for her. And so that was one of my first introductions to the power of it. And from then on, I've been utilizing it in many ways since  

Linda Elsegood: What are the therapies you use alongside LDN?

Melissa Coats: Currently, here in Arizona, we have the ability to give IV nutrients, so we use IV alpha-lipoic acid alongside the LDN. Sometimes it's vitamin C, IV. We utilize other supplements, as well, to focus on different parts of what the person needs as far as support if they're during chemotherapy or radiation or other treatments who may have anything going on.

We also utilize sometimes another natural killer cell stimulator, which is mistletoe, but we only give that in a sub Q injection versus IV here in Arizona. There's often a combination of things that we utilize with LDN to help the patient get the best for their immune system and whatever other issues they're having.

...

Melissa Coats: Sometimes, most of those patients are already on LDN, so it's definitely a good part of the mix. We definitely like to make a treatment plan very individualized to each patient, and so there's often quite a multitude of things going on at once, whether it's ... LDN, IVs, a diet plan, whatever it is. We like to bring it all together for them so that they can feel their best. 

Linda Elsegood: And you mentioned a diet plan there. Of course, with cancer, sugar. Is a no, no. What kind of a diet do you suggest patients follow? 

Melissa Coats: A lot of our suggestions as far as diet are either to focus on a very anti-inflammatory or a Mediterranean style diet. The ketogenic diet is obviously big news right now. So that is definitely utilized depending on if the patient's in a good place to do that or not. If they're in a very cachectic state or their weight is very low, we may or may not utilize that, but if they're in a place where it looks like they would benefit greatly from the anti-inflammatory effect of being on the ketogenic diet, we definitely introduce that. Definitely a big part of our consults with patients is spending a lot of time on the diet because we believe food is one of the greatest medicines you can put in your body if you're utilizing it properly.  

Linda Elsegood: And what's the age range of the patients that you treat? 

Melissa Coats: We have little tiny babies all the way up to, I think one of our patients right now that we have that I also believe is onLDN is 89. So we have quite the age range going on here in our clinic. I would say the majority of my patients range in their mid-twenties to like in the seventies and eighties. So we have quite the group. 

Linda Elsegood: And you were saying that you treated the lady with celiac disease. Have you treated any other autoimmune diseases? 

Melissa Coats: Yes. Of the ones that I've seen some benefit, a few patients who have lupus who've seen some benefit; in rheumatoid arthritis we have definitely seen some help in calming some of that; a lot of Crohn's and colitis. I definitely really see a lot of benefit with LDN when you bring in GI issues that are very inflammatory and sometimes immune-mediated. So it's definitely been helpful. I also have utilized it quite often with Hashimoto's thyroiditis to kind of calm the thyroid antibodies, and they seem to note that their thyroid works more efficiently and we see better numbers on labs when they're on the LDN, and less need for medication, which is nice.

Linda Elsegood: So the patients that you know are on LDN for thyroid, do you taper up slowly? How, what is your protocol for that? 

Melissa Coats: The patients mostly have been able to start at three milligrams, and I haven't really had to taper them per se, up or down. Sometimes we just watch the numbers and kind of see how they're feeling, and I may start them at three and just have them check-in with me about how they are feeling, whether that's too much, too little? It hasn't seemed to cause any major side effects, which is why I love using it so much because most people have a great response. 

I forgot about one case that I specifically wanted to tell you about. I have two patients that have autoimmune hepatitis that has been very difficult for them to wean off their steroids. And we have been utilizing LDN probably for the last year and their numbers as far as their liver markers, their AST and ALT have definitely decreased significantly since starting the low dose naltrexone, and I have finally been able to taper to a much lower dose of their steroids, which is wonderful because they hadn’t gotten to a low dose before without the LDN. And we found that using the LDN has made them much more successful and they're very excited about that. The thyroid becomes more efficient with the use of the LDN. They definitely need less medication, which is wonderful. So I usually check thyroid labs when I'm changing things up, every four to six weeks. And so definitely I've had many patients have to reduce their dose because of the LDN, which has been great.

Linda Elsegood: So when a patient comes to see you, let's just say a cancer patient, how would you go about putting that plan together? What is the procedure you follow?

Melissa Coats: When we meet, we initially have at least an hour consultation. We have really extensive forms that they fill out ahead of time, so that I have a really good understanding of their history, and we try to request records so we’re already in the know of what's going on so that we can spend a lot of time talking with each other about goals and where they want to begin.

While we're in consult, we actually type up a protocol so that they leave with a piece of paper that says what labs they are going to get., what treatment plans and treatment options we are interested in doing, whether that's IV or starting low dose naltrexone or some supplements. And then we make sure that there's a clear understanding if we need to check-in and get a diet diary, or what changes should be made immediately.

So they leave with that protocol in their hands so that they feel like not only did we meet and get a good understanding of what's going on, but we have a plan in action that first day, which I think is very powerful in making a patient feel empowered about taking control of their health. And we also kind of keep updating that protocol each time we meet so that if a supplement doesn't work out or we need to add something, they know exactly what's going on and can keep track, which is helpful to everybody involved.

Linda Elsegood: I was speaking to Dr Berkson, and he taught me that alpha-lipoic acid is to be taken intravenously, that it wasn't as effective in tablet form. And the other day somebody was telling me that no, the tablet form works just as well as the intravenous. So I'm now confused. Has it changed? What's your take on it? Exactly. 

Melissa Coats: My understanding is with IVs, you're bypassing the GI and you're getting full absorption; whereas orally you'd have to take a lot more, and obviously the doses are different. The IV amount we go up to is about 600 milligrams, whereas orally we're giving someone up to 1200 milligrams a day. Typically we use both, so when they're not here, they're on it orally. And then when they're in an office, they don't need to take their oral dose that day because they're getting the IV version of it  But from a strengths perspective, and I'll have to check the latest studies, I guess now that you say that, my understanding from Dr Berkson and his protocol that I've been utilizing for a number of years now, that the IV seems to be pretty vital.

Linda Elsegood: That's what he told me, so I've just wanted to check that. 

Melissa Coats: We haven't changed our protocols yet as far as I know. When I can't get numbers to move from oral dosages of things, I definitely bring in the IV protocols, and that seems to make a difference. 

Linda Elsegood: And what about vitamin C taken intravenously? Is that really effective that way? 

Melissa Coats: For absorption issues and things like that? I would say yes, because, from the standpoint of orally, most people can't handle maybe roughly above six to eight grams because it causes a lot of GI distress, even if it's buffered, whereas IV we give people up to a hundred grams, which is way past what anyone could take orally. We know that that creates a different type of stress on the cells, that it can help with reducing vascular endothelial growth factor and other inflammatory markers related to cancer.

Linda Elsegood: And if you read about vitamin C and it talks about water-soluble fat-soluble and it's flushing out of your system if you take too much, or you take too much intravenously.

Melissa Coats: It’s pretty much individualized as well. Some people can't handle certain doses. There are some patients that feel great at 40 grams, and others that can take a hundred grams and feel just as great. So it kinda depends on the person. There are tests to check also whether their plasma level of vitamin C, so that's something that we have utilized in the past.

And then based on our clinical knowledge from using it for a long time. We have kind of figured out where people tend to do well. Yes, it doesn't stay in you forever. It is leaving the body, and there's a lot that's going through the kidneys and being voided out, but for the time that it is in the body and doing what it's doing to the cells.

And if you come on a fairly regular basis, you are creating an environment that is, less available for cancer to grow. So you're creating an environment that is not what they will utilize. So that's why we use it so often. We also use alpha-lipoic acid because it's a powerful antioxidant. And then some of the other nutrients that are out there too. 

Linda Elsegood: A few years ago I had an operation, and as I came to I was in quite a bit of pain, and they gave me intravenous paracetamol, and I was thinking to myself, the pain was quite bad, and I was wondering why they are giving me paracetamol? You know, that's not gonna do any good. And it worked. I was absolutely pieced. I thought, paracetamol isn't very strong, but apparently, it's stronger if it's taken intravenously, as it goes through the metabolism by the liver. It just goes right in. I was surprised at that.

So, vitamin C, minerals, and supplements. Do you have any favourite ones? I mean, obviously, it's individually tailored to the person. But on the whole, what would you say? 

Melissa Coats: We utilize a lot in the oncology world, things that basically kinda change the terrain for cancers. So one of the things that I've utilized a lot is modified citrus pectin, which targets galectin-3, and by lowering that, you allow protection of good, healthy cells and keep other tissues healthy. So, for example, with a woman with breast cancer in one breast, you want to try and protect the other breast. So that we found that this can be helpful. And if she's going to be having surgery or a biopsy, having this on board can kind of help prevent the spread of the other rogue cells. In studies, that's what's been confirmed. So it's something that we've utilized a lot. 

And I use some mushrooms, a whole bunch of different ones. Coriolis mushroom, to help your white blood cells keep your immune system healthy. So that's a big one that we use. And then things that target vascular endothelial growth factor, which is basically kind of a signal for angiogenesis or blood vessels to grow around a tumour.

And so there are numerous things that target angiogenesis. One is a magnolia extract. There are other herbs as well that do that. So obviously vitamin C. And then there's some thought that if you stimulate things like the natural killer cell function with low dose naltrexone, that you may be inhibiting some of those other pathways in a roundabout way. So that's why it's a of things. Quercetin, resveratrol; and curcumin is a huge one, which is the active constituent found in turmeric. There's a lot. And that's why we constantly are trying to throw different curveballs at the immune system to help people fight cancer. And so that's why we utilize so many different things, because if you just use one agent, obviously the immune system and the cancer is going to figure that way around it. And so you want to make sure that we help. 

Linda Elsegood: Do probiotics play a role?

Melissa Coats: Oh, yes, definitely. The GI health and having a really good balanced flora of good bugs in the body is definitely key.

When I'm not focusing on cancer, I really do believe in the gut-brain connection. If your gut is unhealthy, so will your brain be unhealthy. And so making sure that you have good flora can definitely help people's mood and their anxiety and stress responses. It's pretty amazing. So I love probiotics and what they can do. 

Linda Elsegood: I was looking at probiotics, and you start off with what I would call a reasonably priced product. So I was reading the labels - this one has that many million and this one has got different strains in it. I was just lost. I didn't know what it was I should be behind. Which was the best? Is it a case of the more money you spend, the better the product you're getting, or should you be looking deeper than just the price you're paying? 

Melissa Coats: I think it's probably a combination of both. Hopefully, the more expensive products are good. If not, then they're just gouging you. But the main thing for us is it's good to get a variety of strains. So not just acidophilus always. You want to make sure you're getting lactobacillus and bifidobacterium, and you want multiple strains of those types of bacteria depending on what you're trying to work with, with the gut. Also, we're a big fan of billions versus millions because you don't know how much is actually lost or killed off into your absorption and what your stomach acid is doing to those bugs. Depending on how they're put into a capsule, there's always some that aren't going to make it. So the more, the merrier, hoping that you'll be colonizing the gut with some good stuff. I always tell people to rotate brands, and also research the brand and make sure that however they have them, they can prove that when they get their product on the shelf, that those bugs are still alive in there if they're supposed to be, and not been heat shocked in transit and are no longer anything other than a pill filled with nothing. So it may be that that is cost-prohibitive, but normally most of the products that are pretty good are similar in price. 

I think that there's some that are really high in the billions that are intensive protocols that you may only be doing for a week or two, that may be more costly. It just kinda depends, which is why we recommend you usually see someone who has done the research versus just buying a product at the grocery store that's just been sitting on the shelf for you have no idea how long. And so it's good to kind of find that out before you spend the money and then are disappointed.

Oh, vitamin D is another one. Yes, it also depends on the person's absorption. Sometimes I've switched patients from a capsule form to a liquid form and have them hold it under their tongue because they didn't seem to be getting anything from their capsule. And that could be a reflection of the way they absorb through their GI, or if it needs to be more sublingual in their case. And usually, the dose probably needs to be higher than they thought it needed to be. Based on our labs, if someone's our range - here for example, one of the labs we use the range is 30 to 100, and we like to see people between 60 and 80. And so that may take them taking 10,000 units a day for a while, and then they may be able to ramp back, or they may have to take more than that depending on their absorption status. But you kind of play with what seems to work for them. And yeah, there's a lot of different brands on the market. 

Linda Elsegood: What about omega-3s?

Melissa Coats: Yes. The key thing with omega-3s for me is making sure that it's a very pure product, that it's not from fish that are in a farm lot being fed dog food or something horrible like that. They need to be deep-sea coldwater fish, hopefully sustainably raised. And then the capsules themselves, when you're looking at it, you want to make sure that they're fresh. So hopefully the product has some sort of date on it that tells you that those haven't been sitting and becoming rancid.

The key is to look at the EPA and DHA content. If it's fish oil it'll typically show you EPA and DHA, and you want that to add up to over a thousand milligrams within just one or two capsules versus having to take ten capsules to get there because otherwise, you're not getting the benefit of the anti-inflammatory effect, the good healthy cholesterol effect and everything else that goes along with it.

Linda Elsegood: I was talking to a nutritionist a few years ago now. And she was saying if you had an inferior product, they usually have vitamin A in them. And the more tablets you take, the more vitamin A you're taking and you can overdose on vitamin A.

Melissa Coats: Yeah, you've really got to make sure it's a pure product. That could be bad. And that will give you a nasty headache and make you not feel good at all. But the one I believe that we carry here, as far as I know, is just really focused on the omegas aspect of it.

Linda Elsegood: Yes. And what about people who are vegans? Can you take flaxseed oil to do the same?  

Melissa Coats: You could do flax or chia seeds. Also just eating healthy oils like avocado oil, olive oil, coconut oil. You know, there's a lot of different ways to get in. Omega fatty acids that do not necessarily require a fish or krill.

Linda Elsegood: I was reading the other day an article on coconut oil where they were saying that previous research was incorrect and it wasn't as healthy as they made out. What is your stance on that?

Melissa Coats: I don't think it's the healthiest oil, but definitely, but I still see some benefit in using it, particularly the medium-chain triglycerides that come from coconut oil. Or we use MCT oil sometimes instead of just coconut oil. But if someone is just occasionally throwing a little bit of coconut oil into their smoothie, I haven't seen it detrimentally affect them and I've seen some good studies with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's research, that it helps the brain. So the MCT from coconut oil is helpful. 

I think it's also a matter of where you're getting it. If it's this big tub of coconut oil from a big box store, that may not be great versus actually getting small organic coconut oil, which might be a better option. With the ketogenic diet, they often mentioned using MCT oil does help supplement your fat content. And that's been a very pure product, and it usually doesn't have a coconut taste, but it's from coconuts. So people can use that if they don't like the coconut flavour. 

And it's nice because if you need to gain weight, it's a good way to add a hundred calories or more. Most people are not looking for that, but sometimes in the oncology world, we need to help people get more out of their meals. And because that doesn't have a taste like coconut oil, it's helpful. I don't think coconut oil is horrible, but I definitely don't recommend it to be someone's only source of fat for sure. And definitely, it is not an oil that cooks well at high heat. It will actually oxidize it and make it an unhealthy thing. So we usually recommend people use avocado oil for that. 

Linda Elsegood: Wonderful. The half an hour is up. It's gone very quickly. This was Dr Melissa coats and thank you so much. Before we go, can you tell people how they can contact you? 

Melissa Coats: Yes. You can contact us through our website at www.listenandcare.com, or you can give us a call at (480) 990-1111. And you can even have a 10-minute free consultation if you like.

Linda Elsegood: Oh wow, so we have nothing to lose and everything to gain. 

Melissa Coats: Thank you so much for having me.

Linda Elsegood: This show is sponsored by Dickson Chemist, experts in LDN and associated treatments in the UK. Dickson Chemist, the most cost-effective for LDN in all forms within the UK and Europe. They are maintaining safety standards far in excess of what is required. Why would you choose to get your LDN from anywhere else? Call 0800 027 6910 today to speak to the LDN experts.

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