From the Desk of Dr. Z: AgelessRx Co-founder and Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Sajad Zalzala offers his insightful perspective on topics related to longevity. With a wealth of experience and a deep-seated passion for disease prevention and extending healthy lifespans, Dr. Z is dedicated to sharing his knowledge on the secrets to longevity. Today, he shares his knowledge on the benefits of LDN.
What you should know about LDN:
- Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) works with endorphin and immune systems to reduce overall oxidative stress
- LDN relates to doses of 10mg per day or less
- LDN is shown to reduce chronic inflammation, autoimmunity, obesity, fatigue, and chronic pain
- LDN is a safe and effective treatment for over 40 years
My Experience with LDN
I first learned about Low Dose Naltrexone (LDN) when I attended an integrative medicine conference as a medical student. I was naturally intrigued when I heard about the effects LDN has on autoimmunity and chronic inflammation and its benefits. Individuals diagnosed with a disease falling under these two broad conditions often do not receive much relief from conventional therapies. When they do, the conventional therapies typically come with detrimental side effects.
After much research, I decided that LDN would benefit many individuals who were seeking answers to their health issues. During my residency training, I was able to convince one of my supervising physicians to allow me to try LDN on a patient—and there began my obsession with it.
As time went on, I began prescribing LDN in my very own brick-and-mortar clinic. There was still more I felt I could do to help patients. So, I decided to create a nationwide service to provide access to patients wanting to experience the benefits of LDN. In 2016, I launched LDN Direct. Since then, I have prescribed LDN to over 1,000 patients. The vast majority of these patients experience symptom relief to some degree. Many of these patients have claimed life-changing benefits from LDN.
LDN & Lyme Disease
As the service became widespread and consultations quickly increased, I began to notice patterns in how individuals reacted to LDN. For example, individuals dealing with Lyme or related infections tended to need to start at a much lower dose—sometimes even a micro-dose of Naltrexone—to avoid uncomfortable side effects. I hypothesize that these patients’ immune systems have been devastated by these infections and need to be brought back in balance very gently and slowly.
Others in this category include those with chronic migraines and patients sensitive to multiple medications or foods. More recently, I have seen an uptick in MCAS (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome) consultations; these patients also tend to require a lower initial dose and slower titration schedule.
LDN & Thyroid Diseases
While there is some school of thought that individuals with a Hashimoto’s diagnosis need to start at a lower than normal dose of 0.5 mg, I have actually found that these particular patients tend to require a higher maintenance dose than others in order to keep symptoms at bay and regulate the immune response. If they begin at a low dose, it takes some time to find relief. Some may throw in the towel before they get the relief they seek. I prefer to start these individuals at a “regular” starting dose of 1.5mg daily. I will educate them on the potential to titrate back if they experience long-lasting side effects. Hashimoto’s—and thyroid disorders in general—seem to be particularly susceptible to the effects of Low Dose Naltrexone.
We ask any patients taking thyroid medication to have a full thyroid panel checked by their physician every 6-8 weeks while titrating up to their maintenance dose or sooner if they experience symptoms of hyperthyroid. I have seen many thyroid patients need to reduce their dose after starting LDN, and I even find that it lowers auto-antibodies.
LDN & Elher’s Danlos Syndrome (EDS)
A formerly uncommon diagnosis that I have started to see is Elher’s Danlos syndrome (EDS). This is a condition that conventional therapies have almost no treatment for—yet the increase in diagnosis is quite staggering. Over the last year, we have seen close to 50 patients with this diagnosis. LDN seems to be one of the few treatments that yields results for them. Several have actually emailed in excitement about the difference they feel after only a few weeks of taking LDN. The majority of these patients seem to have an “acquired” form of EDS, rather than the classic purely genetic variety we learn about in medical school. I suspect the acquired form of EDS has an immune dysfunction component that LDN is helping to resolve.
LDN & Fibromyalgia/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
There are many benefits of LDN. The most common success stories with LDN are Fibromyalgia (FMS) and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS). Again, these patients often fall through the cracks with conventional therapy, and many do not respond well to common medications. Fatigue and phantom pain are the most commonly reported symptoms in patients with FMS and CFS diagnoses, and, in fact, these two diagnoses commonly go hand-in-hand. While neither is technically considered an autoimmune disease, they have many commonalities with other autoimmune diagnoses. Even for those patients who do not have an actual diagnosis, but have similar symptoms that are clearly based on a dysfunctional immune system and chronic inflammation, LDN has shown to be successful to some degree, time and again—with some patients experiencing near-complete resolution of symptoms.
LDN & Longevity
Considering how LDN works in the body to balance the immune system and reduce inflammation, it poses the question: Does it also help to increase longevity?
My answer is Yes! The mechanism by which Low Dose Naltrexone works is by boosting the body’s natural production of endorphins (read more about that process here). Considering that endorphins are a key constituent in the production of SuperOxide Dismutase, and SuperOxide Dismutase is the body’s most prominent way of decreasing oxidative stress—the most common cause of aging—it bears considering that utilizing Naltrexone at a low dose could be a wonderful long-term preventative to early aging.
Until next time!
Dr. Z