Sara from the US shares her Rheumatoid Arthritis and LDN Journey.

Linda Elsegood: I'd like to introduce Sara, who is from Wisconsin in the United States, and she takes LDN for Rheumatoid Arthritis. And interestingly, her dog, Nico also takes LDN for Lyme disease. Thanks for joining us today, Sarah.

Sara: Oh, it's my great pleasure, Linda.

Linda Elsegood: So, who started taking the LDN first? You or your dog?

Sara: Oh, let's see.

I did, because I have a naturopath who told me that he also takes LDN and at the time I was doing pretty well with Rheumatoid Arthritis, like not very much pain. I had done some other things that were helping me, and when I went to my naturopath to talk with him about it. He recommended LDN, but I said, "Oh no, I've got it covered. I'm good." I'm on my way out the door from his office with a flyer for a class that our local compounding pharmacy offers a class once a month in LDN for patients, and I picked up this flyer. And got very curious, started doing some research online and a day or two later called that naturopath and said, "Please put me on, make a prescription for me, please."

And I started LDN on November 2nd, so almost a year ago in the evening and the next morning, nothing was different. I took it the next night. The third morning I woke up and said to my husband. "This is a really important date, and then I said, wait, wait. I don't usually think like that." That was such a change in my thinking because I had been somebody who everything was tedious. I would have said," Sure, I can do it, because I said I would do it, and yes, okay, I can power my way through that too." That was a very bleak way of looking at the world, but that morning I woke up and said," This is an important thing." And I continued to take LDN, and a few weeks or less than a few weeks later, I woke up in the middle of the night chuckling.

I chuckled with myself awake twice, and then again in the morning, I chuckled to myself awake. No, this is not me, not the me that I was. So the way that LDN has been useful for me is more with the mood change. And I have another friend who said that because of LDN, she can now tolerate her pain, and hers is polymyalgia.

So there's a bit of that. In my case, I do think the pain has also decreased. That I was really not so aware of how painful everything had been because I'd had the diagnosis for 13 years. But the pain continues to decrease. Honestly, I'm up to almost a year later. so then I went to the class.

I had already been taking it for two weeks, and I went to the class to learn more about it. And at the class, they had the ending slide there. Was a test that LDN can be used for pets too. And in the class itself, they talked about using it for Lyme disease. For when people have Lyme disease, and a light bulb went off in my head and I, my dog has Lyme disease.

I think you never get rid of that condition either. And he had been tested by the veterinarian and been put on antibiotics very serious for a month and then Gabapentin for the pain, and he was not doing well. His leg would fall out from under him. He was no longer jumping up on our bed. We wouldn't get him and say: "Poor Nico." Lyme disease and can't do anything else for him.

So I'll admit that I started sharing my LDN with him, and I didn't know the dose except that I thought a child that was 20 pounds, there was some little bits of information would take 1.5 milligrams. And so I gave it to him, and he had the same story. Linda, three days later, he was running up the stairs and jumping on our bed and lifting his leg again to pee.

It was both in both cases. It was a little miracle that happened really quickly. So I called my vet, and I said, "Would you learn about LDN?" And she said, "Oh no. We call somebody else." And I made six phone calls, including to ours UWM veterinary science department here, the University of Wisconsin and Madison, and nobody was interested in prescribing that or at the time.

But after six weeks, I called my first vet again, and she said, they had started learning about it. They had two other dogs on LDN. And she would prescribe it to Nico, even if it was just palliative for him. And I didn't fess up to say, "I'm here. He's already been on it for five weeks." But she was willing to do it if he had a liver test.

So I took him in for a liver enzyme test and of course it was fine. LDN is actually used for liver diseases too. And then she started prescribing it for him. And I've learned that there since prescribing it to lots of other pets and other veterinarians in town are as well. So we're all much happier at my house thanks to LDN and thanks to your work.

Linda Elsegood: I assume you're talking about the classes that David Hazel and Sue. I can't remember her other name off the top of my head. Hawaii from Hawaii. Apaka three, In Madison. In Wisconsin. Yes, they are doing amazing things in getting the word out there educating others pharmacists, physicians, patients.

 So, that's really interesting that you went to one of their classes. So if you had to say before you started LDN, your quality of life on a score of one to 10 what would it have been? With ten being really good.

Sara: Just before starting LDN, I would probably say six and a half or seven. It wasn't bad. And then, of course, your next question is, what did it change? I would say 9.9.  The colour of the world has changed. My mood is so different. I just find that I'm motivated to do what needs to be done and what I want to do in a way that I hadn't is for all those 12 or 13 years since the diagnosis.

And honestly, I was probably deficient in endorphins long before the diagnosis. What's true is both of my sisters now take LDN and feel like they're benefiting from it mood-wise. Very other friends are taking it for other conditions, but probably in my family, my mother had depression and died of pancreatic cancer. So, I really think that had we known about LDN sooner, all of us,  the quality of life would have been better for so many of us, but we have it now, and I celebrate it.

Linda Elsegood:  Oh, fantastic! You did say before that you would do something because you said you would do it and you would make yourself do it. Now when you have to do something how do you feel knowing you've got to go somewhere do something? How do you feel these days?

Sara: I'm very much like I, not only I can do it, but it's important, and I want to do it. It's important. That same feeling that I woke up three mornings after taking LDN. This is important, and so there's less of drudgery or pushing myself to do something. It just doesn't have that same effort required.

Linda Elsegood: Yes, because pushing yourself to do things It's very tiring in itself, isn't it? Forcing yourself all the time. I totally get it. Thank you so much for coming and sharing both your story and Nikos, and long may the LDN continue, and the best advocates of LDN are those that LDN has worked well for, so I'm sure you'll be spreading the word as well.

Sara: Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much, Linda.

Linda Elsegood: Thank you. 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, bandwidth, phone lines, and phone calls to be able to continue with their idea of the show.

And thank you for listening.

Any questions or comments you may have, please email me and Linda@ldnrt.org I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for joining us today.

Linda Elsegood: I really appreciate it your company. Until next time, stay safe and keep well.

Any questions or comments you may have, please Contact Us.  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.