John Kim
Apr 29, 20222 min
Your physician may not know about LDN.
LDN is not taught in medical schools; LDN is not taught in residencies and fellowships where doctors receive clinical training in their chosen specialties.
For example, I have gone through medical school, family medicine residency, preventive medicine residency, UCLA acupuncture training, and a residential integrative medicine fellowship with Dr. Andrew Weil. Surely, I must have learned about LDN from one of these sources.
My own introduction came from a highly intelligent patient whom I respect tremendously.
She asked me if I would be willing to research LDN.
I did and I could not find any potential harm.
So, I began prescribing LDN and never stopped.
My point is that someone like me who had been trained by the best minds in healing did not know about it and I had to learn from my patient. Fortunately I have an open mind and tremendous respect for my patients.
Below is the steps I recommend how to approach your doctor:
1. Use scholar.google.com or pubmed.gov to do the research.
Scholar.google.com captures more studies than pubmed.gov.
Type in LDN and *condition*
i.e. LDN and Pain
1. Find a review article which will summarize clinical trials
2. Find a clinical trial
For discussion about use of general LDN below is an excellent resource:
Low-Dose Naltrexone (LDN)—Review of Therapeutic Utilization
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3271/6/4/82
For discussion about use of LDN for pain, below is an excellent resource:
Treating chronic pain with low dose naltrexone and ultralow dose naltrexone: a review paper
https://www.yoonhangkim.com/_files/ugd/989c76_d02e148980704b6db5e74069eac349ab.pdf
PRINT the article(s) - but not more than three.
Then ask "Would you mind reading these articles? These seems to indicate LDN can help - at least it would not hurt me."
If run into trouble, ask the LDN FB group for advice.
Also, now we have telemedicine outfits which can facilitate obtaining LDN.
Best of luck!