top of page

How to Approach Your Doctor to Prescribe LDN

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!



54 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

My favorite functional medicine tests

One of advantages of functional medicine is its emphasis in advances in scientific technology - especially labs. My three favorite labs are listed below: Micronutrient Testing Microbiome Testing Compr

What is Integrative Oncology?

American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is a professional organization for oncology practitioners and researchers. Recently, ASCO has endorsed the use of integrative medicine to treat breast can

What is SIBO and can it be treated naturally?

Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) is caused by bacterial overgrowth in small intestines resulting in a number of uncomfortable symptoms including bloating, extreme abdominal pain (some descr

bottom of page