AutoImmune Diseases and Low Dose Naltrexone

I have blogged before about my Mother's illnesses. She had 2 diseases that were AutoImmune Diseases. Sometime in the early 90's, she was diagnosed with Primary Biliary Cirrhosis which targets mainly middle age women. This required her to be put on a transplant list. She had the transplant successfully in 1995. She did remarkably well, for the next 15+ years. She was a tried and true believer in Western medicine and her transplant Doctor who advised her to never take any natural remedies. In fact he and her other medical team did not even recommend a change in eating habits. Sometime in 2011, she was next diagnosed with the autoimmune disease Scleroderma. In my research I did discover, that these 2 diseases sometimes, go hand in hand, wreaking havoc on people. Since my mom was adamant about continuing with Western Medicine we continued to go to Specialist, upon Specialist. There was no successful answers, nor treatments for her condition and she continued to decline. There was certainly some symptom management, but nothing that really alleviated or stopped the progression of her symptoms. In fact some medications may have made her condition worse and I blogged about that here: http://www.lifesustainers.com/blog/2016/antibiotics-side-effects

Back when I was caring for my mother, my research on these conditions and possible alternative treatments never turned up, this LDN treatment, which has been around since 1985. This is when a Dr. Bernard Bihari, MD first began experimenting with it. Normally in higher doses, Naltrexone was used to help heroine addicts.  However Dr. Bihari found that using a low dose helped those affected by HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In the mid-1990's, Dr. Bihari used LDN with Lymphoma and Pancreatic Cancer patients with dramatic results. Then he tried it with those who had an autoimmune disease, like Lupus with great improvements.  His colleague, and childhood friend, David Gluck, MD who specializes in Internal and Preventive Medicine continued to promote the awareness of LDN, as Dr. Bihari unfortunately died in 2010. Dr. Gluck continues to promote the awareness of LDN, Low Dose Naltrexone and it's ability to help so many diseases via this website:  http://www.lowdosenaltrexone.org

With many anecdotal trials and other research, it has been shown to help many other autoimmune diseases, central nervous diseases, other Cancers and Lyme. The list of diseases are numerous:

Cancers

• Bladder Cancer

• Breast Cancer

• Carcinoid

• Colon & Rectal Cancer

• Glioblastoma

• Liver Cancer

• Lung Cancer (Non-Small Cell)

• Lymphocytic Leukemia (chronic)

• Lymphoma (Hodgkin's and Non-Hodgkin's)

• Malignant Melanoma

• Multiple Myeloma

• Neuroblastoma

• Ovarian Cancer

• Pancreatic Cancer

• Prostate Cancer (untreated)

• Renal Cell Carcinoma

• Throat Cancer

• Uterine Cancer

Other Diseases

• Common Colds (URI’s)

• Emphysema (COPD)

• HIV/AIDS

• Depression (Major; and Bipolar)

• Lyme Disease (LATE Stage)

Neurodegenerative:

• ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease)

• Alzheimer's Disease

• Autism Spectrum Disorders

• Hereditary Spastic Paraparesis

• Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

• Parkinson's Disease

• Post-Polio Syndrome

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

• Primary Lateral Sclerosis (PLS)

• Progressive Supranuclear Palsy

• Transverse Myelitis

Other Autoimmune Diseases:

• Ankylosing Spondylitis

• Behcet's Disease

• Celiac Disease

• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

• CREST syndrome

• Crohn's Disease

• Dermatomyositis

• Dystonia

• Endometriosis

• Fibromyalgia

• Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis

• Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)

• Myasthenia Gravis (MG)

• Nephrotic Syndrome

• Pemphigoid

• Primary Biliary Cirrhosis

• Psoriasis

• Rheumatoid Arthritis

• Sarcoidosis

• Scleroderma

• Sjogren’s Syndrome

• Stiff Person Syndrome (SPS)

• Systemic Lupus (SLE)

• Ulcerative Colitis

• Wegener's Granulomatosis

My mother also had Sjogren's Syndrome also listed above. She was told it was a symptom of the Primary Biliary Cirrhosis. Also I did not know this, but my mother was on Synthroid. I was not aware of this until I became her primary caregiver and was tending to her medical care. Synthroid is a drug used to treat hypothyroidism. Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is in the autoimmune diseases also listed above and is also known as chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis, which often leads to an underactive thyroid gland (hypothyroidism). Hashimoto's disease is the most common cause of hypothyroidism. When the thyroid is being attacked it also leads to other autoimmune diseases. Were the autoimmune diseases my mother had a progression from her thyroid issue? I really did not know how many years she was on Synthroid and I did not make this connection until it was too late.  I still looked for other ways to help her though as I said before, she was reluctant to try the alternative treatments that I did find (like nutritional supplementation and dietary changes).

My own health issues lead me to the path in Holistic Nutrition. I took the Institute of Holistic Nutrition's program while my mother was still living. My mother made her transition to the spirit world in March 2015. However, as I said previously, I did not come across this LDN treatment until just recently. I listened to Dr Izabella Wentz's Summit, "The Thyroid Secret" streamed online in January of this year. She also blogs about LDN, and Hashimoto's and you can check that out here: https://thyroidpharmacist.com/articles/5-stages-hashimotos-thyroiditis/ and here: https://thyroidpharmacist.com/articles/5-stages-hashimotos-thyroiditis/

Another article about the scientific research for LDN is listed here. https://selfhacked.com/blog/top-22-scientific-health-benefits-low-dose-naltrexone/ The little (R)'s in the article are links to the research. 

Dr Wentz, provides a list of Dr.'s that are aware of her protocols. Here is a list of those in Ontario. They may have knowledge of LDN and would possibly prescribe it. It is medicine, that is only made available through prescription and only a compounding pharmacy can compound the low doses considered for these treatments for these specific diseases.  

Provided by Dr. Izabella Wentz, your Thyroid Pharmacist

I did not find this information in time to see if it would have helped my mother. Hopefully, it can help someone else affected by Autoimmune and other diseases listed above. I provide this for your information, please do your own research on your diagnosed disease. 

Neuropathy, the Debilitating Side Effects of Antibiotics?

It is almost 1 year since my mother left for the spirit world. When I returned home in 2011 to help care for her, I did a bit of research into her conditions. She had been diagnosed with Scleroderma. It is an autoimmune condition. I also researched some of the medication she had been taken. She had also been diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy, cause unknown to those Dr's treating her. My once on-the-go mom, had become a shuffle walker. She had been prescribed a drug called Flagyl or Metronidazole as early as 2009.  In my research I discovered that there were cases of the drug Flagyl causing peripheral neuropathy.  She was prescribed Flagyl and had many repeats on the prescription, which is clearly not recommended for long term use. When I asked a few of her specialists if this could be the cause, they quickly dismissed it. However later on when she changed family doctors, her new family doctor acknowledged this could possibly have caused it. As early as 2006 the medical community were seeing signs of this occurring: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16901452

Apparently there are also other antibiotics that can cause neuropathy and they are the class of fluoroquinolone antibiotics – Cipro, Levaquin, Avelox, Floxin. This is new information to me. There is a website dedicated to helping people recover from what is being called Fluoroquinolone Toxicity Syndrome. It is a page called Floxie Hope.  There is also a FB page for Floxie Hope.  Lisa, who started the Floxie Hope website had experienced all these symptoms after being prescribed Cipro: peripheral neuropathy, urticaria, loss of energy/stamina, loss of memory and reading comprehension, autonomic nervous system dysfunction, painful and inflamed tendons, muscle weakness, and more.  Here is a host of other symptoms experienced by others:  symptoms include dry eyes, mouth and skin; ringing in his ears; delayed urination; uncontrollable shaking; burning pain in eyes and feet; occasional tingling in hands and feet; heart palpitations; and muscle spasms. That is not the whole list either. Here are some more taken from an article in the New York Times. "the drugs in rare cases can seriously injure the central nervous system (causing “brain fog,” depression, hallucinations and psychotic reactions), the heart, liver, skin (painful, disfiguring rashes and phototoxicity), the gastrointestinal system (nausea and diarrhea), hearing and blood sugar metabolism." 

Apparently Fluoroquinolone toxicity resembles Autoimmune diseases.  I am quite sure there were times that my mother was also prescribed Cipro. Did my mother have Scleroderma or the effects of too many antibiotics? She did have some of the same symptoms described above, as well as other symptoms. My mother was also a 19 year liver transplant surviver.  We can't really know for sure, now. I do know that medical intervention in terms of the liver transplant and anti-rejection drugs gave us another 19 years with our mother. My mother was adamant about not taking natural remedies as advised by her liver transplant specialist. However did the reliance on too many pharmaceuticals cause some of her later conditions and deterioration. Again we don't know the answer. However I am telling this story for other to be alerted to some of the serious side effects of these particular pharmaceuticals. 

Here is also an MD, talking about the antibiotics that can cause Neuropathy. Antibiotics and Neuropathy: What's the Latest? Medscape. Sep 17, 2013.

I share this information, not to incite fear or disrespect for Allopathic medicine or Big Pharma. Certainly there are plenty of times that Pharmaceuticals are life saving. However, we absolutely must be aware of the side effects, black box warning signs (that apparently only the physician sees) We have a right to ask questions about meds being prescribed.  We can look for other alternatives in medicines and treatments and yes resort to natural treatments first, especially when treating things like sinus infections, bronchitis, and earaches. I think most people are becoming aware that the over-prescription of antibiotics is causing antibiotic resistance and superbugs. Naturopaths can also be that alternative. Prevention is also important, ensuring what we put into our bodies is life sustaining and not life draining. Do your research and be well informed about your own health issues. 

My mother had a wish to donate her body to science, so that she could help others. However, we could not do that. She was an incredible helper to many in her earth walk journey. I thought this blog is one way her helping nature could continue in a divine way. I was awakened at 4:20am this morning and events lead me to write this blog. 

When I wrote this article in 2016, I did not come across any Canadian references about the dangers of fluoroquinolone antibiotics. However Health Canada issued this warning in January 2017:  

http://healthycanadians.gc.ca/recall-alert-rappel-avis/hc-sc/2017/61920a-eng.php