LDN Video Interviews and Presentations

Dr Leslie DeGasparis - 15th April 2018 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

Dr Leslie DeGasparis from Seattle in Washington is sharing her experience with Low dose Naltrexone.

I'm an NDA naturopathic doctor. I went to the University of Washington for my undergraduate bachelor's degree. And then from there, I attended the Bastyr university for my doctorate in naturopathic medicine. And since then I've been practising for about 15 years. The first 10 were mostly primary care.

And then the last five I've concentrated on endocrinology with thyroid disorders and hormone balance.

Mostly, I attend women and I'm pretty happy with the outcomes of the infertility cases, especially when, on their last stop using LDN. They've usually already seen fertility doctors. And what I do notice is that something like LDN and really focusing on thyroid as well are often overlooked. So when we add those components to the fertility treatment, that pregnancy can happen.

Regarding LDN dosing times, historically over all these years, I've used it at night because originally that's what was said to work and it has worked. I'm a little wary dosing in the morning, but that being said for compliance reasons, in a few cases, I find that morning needs to be the time.

I'm watching these people to see if they do, as well as the models.

I have some people on doses between two and three milligrams longterm. We can watch their antibodies and we do know they're doing well. So I was very intrigued about the lower dosing and the intermittent dosing discussion in the conference this year.

I've had some pretty phenomenal results with some of the cases I have with children.

Children with autism in the practice where they really didn't know where to turn. And we use nutrition and LDN. 

I treat mostly men with Hashimoto.

I just recently got someone with renal failure. I put them on LDN and he's actually no longer headed for dialysis. He had told him he was going to pass away in the next year or two and he's actually doing very well. And I think LDN was a big part of that.

Regarding gut issues, 'll do a breath test for SIBO and H pylori. Those are best detected by a breath test and then still test them. Or I like to look for overgrowth of fungus, parasites, inflammatory markers, food allergies, that kind of thing. There are blood tests too for food allergies.

I feel like they're a little bit less accurate than the stool test, but I'll use a combo of those things to get to the bottom of the case and get it figured out. If necessary I also put them on an anti-inflammatory, gluten, dairy, and sugar-free diet. I called them kryptonite when I talked to my patients and I feel that they are inflammatory.

Our clinic is in North gate, which is in Seattle, just north of downtown. Our phone number is (206) 925-3525. And our website is www.seattleadvancedthyroid.com.

Summary of Dr Leslie DeGasparis interview. Watch the video for the full interview.

Ellen and Chris - 18th April 2018 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.

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.