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Russell - 29th May 2019 (LDN, low dose naltrexone) from LDN Research Trust on Vimeo.
Linda Elsegood: Today, my guest is Russell from the United States who takes LDN for hypothyroidism, Graves' disease, a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Thank you for joining us today, Russell.
Russell: Hi, Linda. It's a pleasure to be speaking with you
Linda Elsegood: So could you tell us, when did you first notice there was something wrong? How long ago was that?
Russell: So first for me, it was with the non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The cancer was back in 2016. Um, well that's when I got diagnosed, but I, I had a, uh, a lump on my arm near my elbow and, um, I had seen a lot of, uh, or I saw my primary care physician for it.
And I'm fairly young. I'm 29. Just turned 29. Actually. You know, a couple of weeks ago in February 1st and uh, so, you know, no one thought that it was cancer at the time, as I call it. It's a rare chance that it could be, but you won't know until you get it taken out or get a biopsy or anything like that.
At the time, I was busy working and. Uh, I kind of, you know, drug my feet a little bit to actually get, get it, uh, you know, get the imaging studies that were requested, you know, those types of things done, you know, just being busy with work. So it turned out to be about, uh, it's about 14 months later when I actually got diagnosed and, um, and I, that's when I got the cancer diagnosis and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
It's a. Caught 'em anaplastic large cell lymphoma and it's a T cell lymphoma, and it's highly aggressive, and it's, it's, you know, they diagnose it as systemic cause I had a lymph node and, um, it can end up anywhere and everywhere in the body very quickly. And, uh, you know, by the grace of God, at that time, I was diagnosed with stage one.
So that was surgically removed, and I'm kind of taking a step back. So that was surgically removed. That's how I actually found out what was. And so then they referred me to an oncologist. And, uh, so I saw an oncologist and, um, you know, they recommended to chemotherapy. So I did the chemotherapy first-line therapy,
And, um, so that, so that, and then in that context, it was an adjuvant therapy. From what I understand. Based on the terminology, because you know, I had pet scans, CT scans done, you know, after that biopsy. And there was no other detectable disease at the time. So it was stage one, and they said, Oh, since this is stage one, and you know, we think we, uh, you know, can, you know, take care of this with the first-line therapy.
And it was like they said, a 90% chance of longterm, durable remission or cure with chemotherapy. Then ten months later. Um, I, uh, started to get skin lesions that were just popping up. And I'm saying that now cause I know what they are now, but at the time they just look like, like little bumps and um, you know, they started on the legs and arms and they'd get on the back and had some on the face and not a whole lot on my face, but mostly on the, you know, the limbs and trunk and stuff like that as a body.
And it's like, what should go in and get this checked out? So I had told my oncologist about it, and he saw some of them, and he's like, Oh, this is kinda, you know, it looks, you know, it doesn't look like anything cancer-related, but then we'll recommend you to the, you know, the lymphoma, dermatology, ontological specialists.
So, and that was kind of a little, what am I seeing? This guy where I'm in? This doesn't look like him, but they just want to make sure. So I saw him. And, um, you know, he's used to seeing these types of things. And you know, it was kind of shocking to me when I saw his face because he was puzzled. He was kind of like, or not puzzled, I should say, but he was concerned that this was cancer.
And so I did some biopsies there, and they started checking lymph nodes, and they found the lymph node and the growing. And I was like, Oh, we need you to go, you know, and get this a lymph node biopsy as well. So those biopsy results came back. So it came back as a recurrence for the primary, uh, lymphoma that large anaplastic cell in the groin.
And then I had metastasis to my skin and with that, of that same primary lymphoma, then there was one of the other skin biopsies that were done. It was suspicious for. Another type of skin lymphoma called mycosis fun goatees. But they were kind of going back and forth cause it kind of looked like the primary, um, anaplastic large cell lymphoma and this other type.
So then the recommendations, you know, back for all those fines reflected and met my primary colleges. Again, I was like, well, we have the second-line therapy. We still believe it is a high chance. To, uh, to cure this. And those were the terms they used. And, um, so I went through that, and I did four rounds of a targeted drug.
It's called an upper and Tufts and bad. So my client will make antibody. And, um, within two cycles, I got another emission. All the skin lesions, you know, went down at the lymph nodes in the groin were gone. And then, um, the oncologist said, well, in order for us to cure you, we need to get you into, um, high dose chemotherapy with the STEM cell transplant.
So this is not just the normal chemo. I mean, this is like, you know, high dose. They give you enough chemo where they wipe out everything that's in your bone marrow, and they rescue you with a STEM cell transplant. So. Uh, so I was like, you know, at the big, you know, kind of against that, because I looked into a lot of, uh, you know, the side effects and longterm stuff is associated with that.
And there's just a lot of risks with me being young. And I, I was never in favour of doing that. And, um, so my plan then was after I got through a mission, you know, which the mission was done about that, maybe the second cycle. And so I did two more additional. Then after that, my plan was to try to, you know, pursue some holistic type treatment and, um, to, to sort of try to keep it away or whatsoever.
But, you know, look, uh, shortly after that, maybe two to three weeks after I was done with that chemo, I started to get skin lesions again. So, I mean, that kind of shocked me as well. That was pretty quick. I was like, Holy cow. Um, you know, I just got off of the chemotherapy, so I went back in and got some more biopsies, and sure enough, it was the same, you know, stuff in my skin again, this with this lymphoma.
I was like, well, now it's insight, you know, it came back so rapidly. They were like, well, you know, if you don't go into this, you know, high dose chemotherapy with the STEM cell trust that we wouldn't expect, you know, Chris, your condition and with relapse and stuff like that to live past six months.
So that was kind of, I was like, Oh, wow. Yeah. So then, you know, this was, that was in January of 2018 so, I mean, I was, I wasn't convinced that that was gonna cure me because the data that they supply for me, um, you know, the bone marrow transplant team and my primary oncologist, I mean, the data was showing a 30% chance of survival for three years.
You know, and they were saying that secure. I mean, I, and, and I was trying to be objective as possible. And I mean, it just didn't pan out to me. I mean, I have a three-year-old, and I'm thinking to myself, it's like, well, how is this going to cure me? You know, there's no data showing ten years, 20 years, or 30 years.
But I don't know. That's what they told me. And that's what the data said. So that's when I decided to, um, you know, not pursue any more conventional therapy, you know. So I stepped outside of the standard of care, and I went to a, uh, a clinic down in Mexico, ships the hospital, and I got some, um, you know, uh, treatment down there and some natural therapies and some immune therapy, um, called Cooley's toxins.
And this is how we're just starting to get him to the point where, um, I started my LDN. So after, you know, all those treatments and stuff I did down there. Actually, I responded pretty well. Um, you know, a lot of the skin lesions, I had probably about 95% of those was gone when I came back home though, right before I left Mexico.
Um, they had tested, uh, just normal thyroid panel testing and my T, um, TSH was like really, really low. It was like, I think it was like 0.05, and so then I got back here, I got the results, and they sent it to me an email, and I saw my functional medicine doctor, and he was like, Whoa, this looks like graves' disease.
So I'm like, Oh my gosh, you're, this is, you know, I've got another condition. You know, trying to deal with cancer and, and, um, so he did some more tests and some thyroid antibody tests and TSI, those tests like that. And, um, my TSI came back. It was elevated positive for graves' disease. So then that's when he had recommended for me to take, um, LDN low dose naltrexone.
So I started taking that, and he started me off at 1.5 milligrams, and the plan was to escalate that dose over a, you know, go up 1.5 milligrams every two weeks. But what I found is that I wasn't able to do that initially. I mean, I somewhat explain that a little bit. I went from, I think it was what, 1.5 to three and in two weeks, and I tried to go.
Oh to 4.5 then the next weekend, I did have some side effects. I was like, Whoa. I had to, I just felt so exhausted the next day, and you know, really, you know, really tired and fatigue, muscle aches and stuff like that. So I, you know, took a step back and I went back to three. And, uh, took that for a little bit longer than asked my doctor, you know, if it would be okay if I just went to force.
I did that for probably a couple of weeks then. Then I finally went to the 4.5, and that's where I'm at now, taking, taking that every night at bedtime. And, um, some of the side effects that I've experienced. Um. I mean, this is very low. And that's one of the things I like about LDN. There are very low side effects, but I did call sleep services for me in the beginning, and every once in awhile I'll have an issue where I'll find myself, you know, awakened and, um, you know, two or three o'clock in the morning or something like that.
But I started, um, taking some magnesium. With that, because that's been shown to help with sleep and stuff like that. So that's, that's actually been helping me quite a bit here, uh, over the last couple of months. And, uh, so I've been taking it, so I, I haven't, I mentioned when I first started it, I started it back in, uh, was in April of 2018?
So I'm coming up to about a year and, uh, on the LDN. But other than that, I think those were all the side effects that I experienced. And one other, uh, interesting. Um, synergy I think I experienced with LDN because I'm, I'm doing this, this holistic protocol, Gerson therapy, those two different types of therapies for just the maintenance and to keep cancer from coming back.
And I'll kind of, um, I'm not jumping over the place here, but I'll kind of come back to the cancer part a little bit too because I believe it's helping there as well. But, um, yeah. So all the therapies I mentioned, I was doing this Coleys talks and this immunotherapy, so mixed bacterial vaccines, non-infectious, and this is a dead bacteria, but I won't go too much into the details or the history behind that, but it's a very old, um, you know, Dr. William Coley was the father considered the father, you know, therapy. And he actually formulates, came up with the formulation for this mixed bacterial vaccine and found out that, uh. What he, what he saw is that a, a patient that, uh, had sarcoma and of the, I think it was a bone sarcoma, and this patient was not supposed to survive this disease.
And he actually, you know, coldly found him alive and well, you know, long after he was supposed to be gone. And he, uh. They looked into the records and found out what actually happened to him. But this man was breaking out into high fevers and chills and, you know, shake. So he had this, uh, uh, air syphilis infection and, and, you know, dr Coley believed that that caused the tumour regression, and he, you know,
A scientist actually tried to reproduce that, and he was able to do that by infecting people with live bacteria. But he killed a lot of people. And this is doc, well documented in the medical literature, you know, would dr Kohli and his results. But, uh, so then he actually, you know, you can't kill people giving them something to treat a condition.
So he actually, uh, you know, thought that, Hey, what if I heat-killed this bacteria and gave it to people? And, you know, he didn't cause any mortality associated with it, but he did have, uh, some tumour regression. And um. But anyway, so that's a little bit of history behind this vaccine, but there's some literature out there that shows that LDN has the potential to, um, help the maturation of dendritic cells and, you know, Coleys this vaccine actually.
Um, it, it works through your dendritic cells. And, and, um, from my experience when I started taking LDN and continuing my, uh. Immunotherapy vaccine, I notice more the reactions from the vaccine were more intensify. And, uh, and it, that didn't happen before. Like, actually I responded better. Like, one of the metrics for this vaccine is it does cause you to have high fevers.
And, you know, I, I, I didn't really get them consistently and, um, but once I started, you know, using LDN and the vaccine, I mean, it actually. You know, I would get getting consistent, you know, high fevers in some record temperatures and stuff like that. But, um, so I thought that was pretty interesting. So my, all my doctors were kind of on board with me using that.
So I was working with my doctor. I just wasn't, you know, doing experiments and stuff like that by myself. But, um, so kind of, uh, I think that's the gist of. With the, with, with the vaccine, but back to, um, with Gray's disease, as I mentioned, I started taking it in April of last year, and about three months after that, um, in July, I had more thyroid testing done and my graves' disease would, it's remission, you know, just in those three months of taking LDN.
So that was pretty, I was pretty sold on using it. And, uh, as I said, I still use it to this day, so, and, and, um, but my, so regarding cancer, um, so like I said, I've been taking it and, um, you know, also for cancer, but in doing all these other things, but. You know, as I mentioned that my doctor mentioned in January of last year that I wasn't expected to live past six months without that high dose chemotherapy and STEM cell transplant.
And so now I'm actually, you know, it's almost a, it would be going on like 13 months since that, um, prognosis and I had a pet scan back in September of last year, and that actually showed that I didn't have any, you know. Evidence of any tumours or anything like that. So was a clear pet scan.
Linda Elsegood: Yeah. That's amazing.
Russell: So, um, so I'm, uh, you know, and I believe that LDN has helped as well. You know, as I said, especially with the vaccine and, you know, and, uh, so I'm, I am, you know, going to continue to take that and. And, um, and another thing that's pretty interesting that from that I came across is, you know, there's a lot of talks now about cancer STEM cells and circulating tumour cells.
And, you know, the literature is saying that this is what causes a person to relapse. And, you know, what I found highly interesting is, um. No. From some of dr his work and, and some of the, uh, the information that's out there regarding some of the people that he gave LDN after they had, you know, successful cancer treatment.
You know, even if it was conventional or whatsoever surgery, and that people tended not to relapse after taking LDN. And the connection here, and this is some of the conclusions that I've been drawing just from some of the research that I've been doing, but I'm coming out of a university of Michigan, dr max, which I mean, they have one of the leading STEM cell cancer STEM cell research laboratories, and they're kind of leading building this.
But one of the. Cytokines and these are just inflammatory cytokines. It's called interleukin six is what causes these cancer STEM cells to go into the proliferation cycle. And that's kind of what they found from their, their research and the connection with LDN is I've seen some of the data that they looked at some of these cytokines that LDN effects.
And, and this is in particular, I believe you probably though the doctor, I think you've, I've heard you interviewed him, he did some clinical trials with fibromyalgia
Linda Elsegood: Jarred Younger
Russell: Yeah. That, yes, that's his name there. And, uh, one of the tops of the, uh, on the top of that list, my memory serves me correctly, I believe it was to where necrosis factor out was, which is another, you know, uh, typical transcription factor or a cytokine.
I forget. Specifically, but interleukin six is like the second one on that list. So LDN, um, inhibits that. So I meant, I know, as I said, these are some of the conclusions I'm drawing from my research. But, so, I mean, maybe that's by one of the mechanisms by which, you know, LDN may keep a person in remission.
And, uh, so, and I, I've heard a couple of testimonials of people. You know, having, you know, in remission from cancer, especially if LDN, you know, bought them, but that person in remission, you know, and they stopped taking it and have a relapse again. And there's a guy, I believe, I think his name is Kevin. I think he had liver cast.
And I believe you interviewed him and he mentioned the head in an interview, uh, with you regarding, uh, the, the, you know, after he stopped taking ODN and liver cancer came back, I believe his name, Kevin, but, um. But anyway, so I just thought that was interesting in some other, you know, functional medicine doctors have kind of reported some of the similar, um, similar, you know, things happen.
Linda Elsegood: well, you know, it's totally amazing, and I'm sure people find you an absolute inspiration. Definitely.
Russell: Yeah. So, uh, yeah, I'm just very, yeah, I've been blessed in it, you know, I thank God for. You know, everything and you know, the success I'm having, and you know, being in good health right now. And so that's a
Linda Elsegood: yes.
Well, long may you continue in the way in which you are and lead a normal, healthy, happy life.
Russell: Yes.
Linda Elsegood: Thank you, Russell.
Russell: Okay, great, great. And uh, you had the great day and thank you for all that you do. And uh, that's great.
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