Matthew from the US shares his LDN and MS Story

Linda Elsegood: Today I'm joined by Matthew from the United States. He's going to share his LDN journey with us. Thank you for joining us, Matthew. 

Matthew: Well, thank you for having me, Linda. I appreciate that. 

Linda Elsegood: So could you tell us, when were you first diagnosed? How long ago was it?

Matthew: Sure. I was diagnosed in October 2004 with relapsing-remitting MS, and I had never heard of LDN,  Low dose, naltrexone. Actually stumbled across it very much by accident. This was before social media and Facebook and things like that. At the time, I was working at a hotel in Florida and doing a medical conference, and my client was actually a doctor, and she had known that I was diagnosed with MS months before, maybe even a year before. She and I became friends and she asked me, have you ever heard of low dose naltrexone, LDN? And I said, no, I have not. And she shared with me all the benefits that it has. 

And she was a doctor in Alabama. She couldn't write a prescription at that particular time, but a funny story was when she had given me a lot of information about it and even provided some literature to me. At that time, I  was seeing a neurologist who I no longer see now. When I spoke to him about it, the very first thing he said was, I have a lot of patients who actually swear by it. I said I want to try it. And I have been on it ever since. I titrated from literally maybe a milligram all the way up to four milligrams. And I've been currently at three milligrams for maybe three, maybe four years. I've been on LDN since about a year after my diagnosis and probably since 2005. 

Linda Elsegood. And what were your MS symptoms like before you started, were you in remission and you didn't know you had MS, were all of your symptoms gone? 

Matthew: My original symptoms were peculiar at that time.  I had the numbing tingling in my fingers. I had cold sensations. If I put my arm on a wooden desk, it felt like I was putting my arm on an ice block.  I was having at that time, some tingling in my legs. I was extremely tired. Fatigue. When  I talked with my wife I knew something was not right. I went to my original family physician, and he aid, you know Matthew, it sounds like MS.  But I don't want you to get on the internet and look it up, but it sounds like. And what do you think the first thing I did, I went back home and I looked it up. Every symptom that was listed on there was exactly that. Again, this was before social media, so there wasn't a lot that I could lean on. Now the different support groups out there are asking questions and getting different answers. So a lot of it was Googling and trying to find as much information as possible.

Linda Elsegood: So after starting LDN, did your symptoms start to improve? 

Matthew: My symptoms did improve. The biggest noticeable one that I have then I noticed immediately was my fatigue. My fatigue dropped altogether. If there is a day that I skip my LDN,  sometimes I'll skip it once every two or three weeks to clear the pathways. Now I'm not suggesting it. One of my close doctor friends suggested that to me and I have done that and I have noticed a difference. AAs an example, when I was not on my LDN, the fatigue was overwhelming. When I started taking it within the second day, maybe third day, it was completely turned around. 

Linda Elsegood: Have you had any more problems with your legs? 

Matthew: I've had MS since I was diagnosed in 2004. I suspect I probably had it prior to that because looking back, I had a couple of symptoms back in 2002. Having it for 14, maybe 16 years, unfortunately, it is a progressive type of disease. It has taken a toll on me, not just the disease, but I was in a very high-stress job and that definitely took a toll on me. As I shared with you, Linda, in my email several weeks ago, one of my goals was always to walk every one of my four girls down their wedding aisle. And I have successfully been able to do that with two of my girls, and I still have two more to go. I expect that that's going to continue throughout. 

Linda Elsegood: Wow. So if you had to rate your quality of life on a score of one to 10 before you started LDN, what would it have been?

Matthew:  Linda, because I was very early onset of MS at that time, my quality of life was still very good. I was still able to do many things. I was able to still run. I was still able to do those types of things. I would say my quality of life definitely got better without question after getting on the LDN. The elimination of fatigue helps a lot. It also helps the pain receptors. I hear and see a lot of people talking about the pain that they have with MS. And I'm pretty fortunate that I don't have pain and I truly believe that has everything to do with the LDN. I just don't have certain pains. Are there times of uncomfortability? Absolutely. Without question, but there's never the time of true pain. But if you are really fatigued, everything you try and do that day, it's very difficult? It's hard to explain what fatigue is like to somebody who doesn't have fatigue, but it's like waking up. And your batteries are flashing red, and you still got to go through the whole day, and every day it can be different.

And even if you have a full night's sleep, you can still wake up feeling just as tired in the morning. So it's the struggle, isn't it? When you have fatigue. If that is all LDN had done for me, it would still be amazing, wouldn't it?  Absolutely. People have asked that same question, this fatigue just means you're tired. And I'm like, well, it's more than just, you know, it's not like feeling sleepy. It's like you feel like you want to take a nap, but you can't fall asleep, and your body is just exhausted. The LDN has tremendously helped with that without question. That's what I would say to everybody.

Anytime I get on the social sites and see people talk about how fatigued they are I let them know to get on LDN, contact your doctor immediately to get this cause that's a big symptom or a big side effect with MS that people battle. There are so many other medications than drugs that people can be drugged upon. And without having all the side effects. It doesn't have any of those side effects, it really is a wonderful aspect of it. 

Linda Elsegood: Wow. Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us, Matthew. Your second-oldest daughter just had a baby. Is that right?  And you've got another one due next year, so you're hopefully going to be a very hands-on granddad and be very busy. 

Matthew: Well, thank you. I expect it. We will be travelling back to Florida a couple more times, but yes, I do expect it.

Linda Elsegood: Good. Well, thank you very much for joining us today, Matthew. 

Matthew: All right, thank you so much, Linda. You have a great day. 

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

And thank you for listening. Any questions or comments you may have, please email mat 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.